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The Waitara Branch is a branch line railway in the Taranaki region of New Zealand's North Island. It was built as part of the regions first railway, linking New Plymouth with the closest suitable port, being the river port in Waitara. For many years the line served the Borthwicks freezing works in town, until this closed in 1995. The branch was closed in 1999 and has since been purchased by the Waitara Railway Preservation Society, who now operate tourist trains on the line.
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In 1872 surveys began for the best route and two routes were considered; a coastal route which was more direct, or an inland route which was longer, but more convenient for future extensions to the south. The inland route was the one finally chosen. The contract to build the railway was let in 1873 and the line was completed and opened in October 1875.
In 1874, while the land was being cleared at Sentry Hill for the new railway, the daughter of William Perrett (a labourer working on the line) was abducted after he had ignored requests not to dig through a Māori burial ground from the land wars 10 years earlier. Caroline Perrett (known to all as Queenie) was not seen by her parents again and not rediscovered by her original family until 1926, 52 years after the incident occurred.[1] The line of railway where this occurred was closed in 1908 during alterations at Sentry Hill.
Shortly after the railway was complete, extensions began due south from Sentry Hill alongside Mountain Road towards Inglewood, which was opened in 1877. Trains were operated initially by 2 A class locomotives named "Fox" and "Ferret" which ran mixed trains services over the line.[2] The first trip over the line took just 46 minutes to complete the trip.[3]
When first constructed, the junction at Sentry Hill was built facing Waitara. This ment that trains heading from Inglewood and points further south would have to stop at Sentry Hill and the locomotive would have to change ends of the train before it could continue on to New Plymouth. This was not rectified until 1908 when a diversion was constructed allowing trains to operate from the south directly towards New Plymouth. At the same time, the Waitara Line was extended to Lepperton Station where a new junction was built, and the direct link between Waitara and New Plymouth was removed.
Waitara's role as the main port for New Plymouth did not last long. Shortly after the line was completed a breakwater was built at what is now Port Taranaki and Waitara became a local port only. The establishemnt of a freezing works in 1887 however provided steady traffic over the line, and prevented the line from closure. Other notable traffic included plants from the Duncan & Davies nurseries in Brixton for a number of years.
Passenger services were usually run as mixed services, and a service was run early in the morning to take school children to high school in New Plymouth, returning in the late afternoon. Passenger accommodation was removed after World War Two, to be replaced with Railways Road Service buses. These continued operating until 1991 when private enterprise took over the services.
By the 1950s the line was operated by AB Class locomotives, which were replaced with the DB class in the 1970s and DC and DSC class in the 1980s and 90's. In the final years it was not uncommon for trains to be replaced with trucks as tonnages declined.
In 1999, Tranz Rail announced that the Waitara Branch, along with the Hautapu - Cambridge section of the Cambridge Branch railway were to close. After the then AFFCO freezing works had closed there was little prospect of much new freight traffic being on offer. On May 25, 1999 the Waitara Railway Preservation Society was formed with the aim to save the line. This goal was finally achieved in 2001[4] when the line was purchased with the help of grants from the Taranaki Electricity Trust and the TSB Community Trust.
Since that time passenger services have resumed and work is being done to rehabilitate the line. The former Tahora railway station[5] has been relocated to the site of the former Waitara Road station and work is underway to restoring Fa class locomotive 250 back into operation.
Waitara Railway Preservation Society
Sentry Hill station c. 1880
Couple of pics of Lepperton Junction in 2009