Tapanui Branch
Encyclopedia
The Tapanui Branch was a railway line located near the border of the regions of Southland and Otago
, New Zealand
. Although the name suggests that it terminated in Tapanui
, its furthest terminus was actually in Edievale. Construction of the line began in 1878 with the first section opened in 1880, and it operated until 1978, when it was destroyed by flooding from the Pomahaka River
.
, who, in the days before the abolition of provinces
in 1876, feared a loss of trade to Invercargill
. In 1877, district engineer W. N. Blair proposed a route to Central Otago
via Tapanui, but this proved unpopular outside of Tapanui and its immediate surrounds. However, approval was granted for the construction of a branch line in the area and construction began in 1878, leaving the Main South Line
at Waipahi, located 50 kilometres west of Balclutha
. The first locomotive for the line was delivered on 8 July 1880 and the Public Works Department
began operating trains to Tapanui three days later. The official opening ceremony in Tapanui was held on 24 November 1880, though the actual line, at 25.13 kilometres in length, was opened to a settlement just beyond Tapanui named Kelso
on 1 December 1880. In this year, it was proposed to build a line westwards to the Waikaia
area from Kelso, but the proposals came to nothing and the Waikaia Branch
was built from Riversdale
on the Waimea Plains Railway
instead.
An extension of 7.11 kilometres from Kelso to Heriot
was opened on 1 April 1884. The local newspaper, the Tapanui Courier, believed that only a short tunnel and some clay cuttings in the Dunrobin Hills stood in the way of extending the railway line to the Clutha River
and then on to Roxburgh
. In 1900, the government chose to extend the railway from Heriot to Edievale pending a final decision on the route to Roxburgh, and this ten kilometre extension was opened on 18 February 1905, bringing the branch's total length to 42.3 kilometres. Edievale proved to be the final terminus when the line from Milton
via Lawrence
was extended to Roxburgh instead.
operated from Edievale daily. These mixed trains connected with mainline expresses and local Invercargill
-Clinton
services at the junction in Waipahi. The line was indispensable before the expansion of decent road networks, but as improvements came in road transport in the 20th century, traffic began to decline. The Great Depression
did not help the line's fortunes, with revenue dropping as fast as expenditure was rising in 1930. To save money, passenger services on the line were cancelled and replaced by buses, thus making the mixed trains goods-only, and the Edievale locomotive depot
closed on 1 January 1934. The freight service was run when required, operating regularly on weekdays for many years, but it continued to lose money. The under-utilised section from Heriot to Edievale was closed on 1 January 1968 as it only saw 4,000 tonnes of traffic a year, but enough traffic existed to justify the existence of the rest of the line for a few more years, with tonnages varying between 30,000 and 60,000 tonnes in the 1970s. The freight carried at this time was mainly from the State Forest's Conical Hill Sawmill located nine kilometres up the line, and phosphate from the Southland Co-op Phosphate Co.'s works near Bluff
to West Otago Transport in Heriot. In March 1969, trains were re-organised to operate from Gore
, and the aged A class
steam locomotives that typically ran trains on the branch were replaced by DJ class
diesel-electric engines (steam locomotive power fully disappeared from New Zealand's railway system by the end of 1971).
Catastrophe hit the line in mid-October 1978. Extremely severe flooding along the Pomahaka River demolished bridges and washed out the trackage in many places, and costly repairs would not have been economic. Formal closure was confirmed two months later in December.
Before its closure in 1962, the Waikaka Branch
ran in a valley parallel to that occupied by the Tapanui Branch, and trivia associated with operation of the lines is that locomotive crews in one valley claimed they were sometimes able to see smoke from a steam engine operating in the other valley.
. In Tapanui, the railway station is preserved, the goods shed
still stands, and rails remain embedded in Station Street where the railway crossing used to be. Flooding almost entirely destroyed Kelso and it is now abandoned, though the railway's goods shed still exists. On lower ground is the ruins of the town's former service station, with sombre viewing created by flood levels marked on the doors. Until recently, a goods shed also stood in Heriot, but it is understood that this structure was removed in the late 1990s.
According to the person who was the last station master at Tapanui, the building widely identified as the Tapanui station was not the station. The station was across the road and reasonably close to the goods shed. The roof of the goods shed, the last railway building at Tapanui, has recently collapsed.
Otago
Otago is a region of New Zealand in the south of the South Island. The region covers an area of approximately making it the country's second largest region. The population of Otago is...
, New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
. Although the name suggests that it terminated in Tapanui
Tapanui
Tapanui is a picturesque town in West Otago in New Zealand's South Island, close to the boundary with Southland region . A forestry town, it lies between the foot of the Blue Mountains and the Pomahaka River. Deer stalking and trout fishing are popular pastimes of the area...
, its furthest terminus was actually in Edievale. Construction of the line began in 1878 with the first section opened in 1880, and it operated until 1978, when it was destroyed by flooding from the Pomahaka River
Pomahaka River
The Pomahaka River is located in South Otago in New Zealand's South Island. It is a tributary of the Clutha River, flowing south for 80 kilometres from the Old Man Range of mountains to join the Clutha just north of Balclutha...
.
Construction
In the second half of the 19th century, farmers in the region desired a railway connection to enhance the value of their land and provide easier access to markets, and received support from interests in DunedinDunedin
Dunedin is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, and the principal city of the Otago Region. It is considered to be one of the four main urban centres of New Zealand for historic, cultural, and geographic reasons. Dunedin was the largest city by territorial land area until...
, who, in the days before the abolition of provinces
Provinces of New Zealand
The Provinces of New Zealand existed from 1841 until 1876 as a form of sub-national government. They were replaced by counties, which were themselves replaced by districts.Following abolition, the provinces became known as provincial districts...
in 1876, feared a loss of trade to Invercargill
Invercargill
Invercargill is the southernmost and westernmost city in New Zealand, and one of the southernmost cities in the world. It is the commercial centre of the Southland region. It lies in the heart of the wide expanse of the Southland Plains on the Oreti or New River some 18 km north of Bluff,...
. In 1877, district engineer W. N. Blair proposed a route to Central Otago
Central Otago
Central Otago is the inland part of the New Zealand region of Otago in the South Island. The area commonly known as Central Otago includes both the Central Otago District and the Queenstown-Lakes District to the west....
via Tapanui, but this proved unpopular outside of Tapanui and its immediate surrounds. However, approval was granted for the construction of a branch line in the area and construction began in 1878, leaving the Main South Line
Main South Line
The Main South Line, sometimes referred to as part of the South Island Main Trunk Railway, is a railroad line that runs north and south from Lyttelton in New Zealand through Christchurch and along the east coast of the South Island to Invercargill via Dunedin...
at Waipahi, located 50 kilometres west of Balclutha
Balclutha, New Zealand
Balclutha is a town in Otago, it lies towards the end of the Clutha River on the east coast of the South Island of New Zealand. It is about halfway between Dunedin and Invercargill on the Main South Line railway, State Highway 1 and the Southern Scenic Route...
. The first locomotive for the line was delivered on 8 July 1880 and the Public Works Department
New Zealand Ministry of Works
The New Zealand Ministry of Works, formerly the Department of Public Works and sometimes referred to as the Public Works Department or PWD, was founded in 1876 and disestablished and privatised in 1988...
began operating trains to Tapanui three days later. The official opening ceremony in Tapanui was held on 24 November 1880, though the actual line, at 25.13 kilometres in length, was opened to a settlement just beyond Tapanui named Kelso
Kelso, New Zealand
Kelso was a small settlement in Otago, New Zealand, located ten kilometres north of Tapanui on the Kelso River, close to its junction with the larger Pomahaka River...
on 1 December 1880. In this year, it was proposed to build a line westwards to the Waikaia
Waikaia
Waikaia, formerly known as Switzers, is a town in the Southland Region of New Zealand's South Island. From 1909 until 1959, it was the terminus of the Waikaia Branch railway....
area from Kelso, but the proposals came to nothing and the Waikaia Branch
Waikaia Branch
The Waikaia Branch, also known as the Switzers Branch, was a branch line railway in Southland, New Zealand. Proposed as early as the 1870s, it was not opened until 1909 and was operated by the New Zealand Railways Department for half a century until its closure in 1959.-Construction:In the late...
was built from Riversdale
Riversdale, New Zealand
Riversdale is a small town in the Southland region of New Zealand. The population of Riversdale in the 2006 Census was 393, an increase of 30 people, or 8.3%, since the 2001 Census.- Geography :...
on the Waimea Plains Railway
Waimea Plains Railway
The Waimea Plains Railway was a secondary railway line that linked the towns of Lumsden and Gore in northern Southland, New Zealand...
instead.
An extension of 7.11 kilometres from Kelso to Heriot
Heriot, New Zealand
Heriot is a small settlement in West Otago, in the South Island of New Zealand. It is located 20 kilometres southwest of Raes Junction and 15 kilometres north of Tapanui....
was opened on 1 April 1884. The local newspaper, the Tapanui Courier, believed that only a short tunnel and some clay cuttings in the Dunrobin Hills stood in the way of extending the railway line to the Clutha River
Clutha River
The Clutha River / Mata-Au is the second longest river in New Zealand flowing south-southeast through Central and South Otago from Lake Wanaka in the Southern Alps to the Pacific Ocean, south west of Dunedin. It is the highest volume river in New Zealand, and the swiftest, with a catchment of ,...
and then on to Roxburgh
Roxburgh, New Zealand
Roxburgh is a small New Zealand town of about 600 people in Central Otago. It is in Teviot Valley on the banks of the Clutha River, 40 km south of Alexandra in the South Island. State Highway 8, which links Central Otago with Dunedin city, passes through the town...
. In 1900, the government chose to extend the railway from Heriot to Edievale pending a final decision on the route to Roxburgh, and this ten kilometre extension was opened on 18 February 1905, bringing the branch's total length to 42.3 kilometres. Edievale proved to be the final terminus when the line from Milton
Milton, New Zealand
Milton is a town of 2,000 people, located on State Highway 1, 50 kilometres to the south of Dunedin in Otago, New Zealand. It lies on the floodplain of the Tokomairiro River, one branch of which loops past the north and south ends of the town...
via Lawrence
Lawrence, New Zealand
Lawrence is a small town of 474 inhabitants in Otago, in New Zealand's South Island. It is located on State Highway 8, the main route from Dunedin to the inland towns of Queenstown and Alexandra...
was extended to Roxburgh instead.
Stations
The following stations were located on the Tapanui Branch (in brackets is the distance in kilometres from the junction in Waipahi):- Conical Hill (7 km)
- Pomahaka (13 km)
- Glenkenich (17 km)
- Tapanui (21 km)
- Kelso (25 km)
- Heriot (32 km)
- Edievale (42 km)
Operation
In the early days, a mixed trainMixed train
A mixed train is a train that hauls both passenger and freight cars or wagons. In the early days of railways they were quite common, but by the 20th century they were largely confined to branch lines with little traffic. As the trains provided passengers with very slow service, mixed trains have...
operated from Edievale daily. These mixed trains connected with mainline expresses and local Invercargill
Invercargill
Invercargill is the southernmost and westernmost city in New Zealand, and one of the southernmost cities in the world. It is the commercial centre of the Southland region. It lies in the heart of the wide expanse of the Southland Plains on the Oreti or New River some 18 km north of Bluff,...
-Clinton
Clinton, New Zealand
Clinton is a small town in South Otago, in New Zealand's South Island. It is located on State Highway 1 approximately half way between Balclutha and Gore , and the Main South Line railway passes through the town.Clinton was named for Henry Pelham-Clinton, 5th...
services at the junction in Waipahi. The line was indispensable before the expansion of decent road networks, but as improvements came in road transport in the 20th century, traffic began to decline. The Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
did not help the line's fortunes, with revenue dropping as fast as expenditure was rising in 1930. To save money, passenger services on the line were cancelled and replaced by buses, thus making the mixed trains goods-only, and the Edievale locomotive depot
Motive power depot
Motive power depot, usually abbreviated to MPD, is a name given to places where locomotives are stored when not being used, and also repaired and maintained. They were originally known as "running sheds", "engine sheds", or, for short, just sheds. Facilities are provided for refuelling and...
closed on 1 January 1934. The freight service was run when required, operating regularly on weekdays for many years, but it continued to lose money. The under-utilised section from Heriot to Edievale was closed on 1 January 1968 as it only saw 4,000 tonnes of traffic a year, but enough traffic existed to justify the existence of the rest of the line for a few more years, with tonnages varying between 30,000 and 60,000 tonnes in the 1970s. The freight carried at this time was mainly from the State Forest's Conical Hill Sawmill located nine kilometres up the line, and phosphate from the Southland Co-op Phosphate Co.'s works near Bluff
Bluff, New Zealand
Bluff is a town and seaport in the Southland region, on the southern coast of the South Island of New Zealand. It is the southern-most town in New Zealand and, despite Slope Point being further to the south, is colloquially used to refer to the southern extremity of the country...
to West Otago Transport in Heriot. In March 1969, trains were re-organised to operate from Gore
Gore, New Zealand
Gore is a town, surrounding borough, and district in the Southland region of the South Island of New Zealand.-Geography:The Gore District has a land area of 1,251.62 km² and a resident population of...
, and the aged A class
NZR A class (1906)
The A class were steam locomotives built in 1906 with a 4-6-2 wheel arrangement for New Zealand's national railway network, and described by some as the most handsome engines to run on New Zealand rails. The class should not be confused with the older and more obscure A class of 1873. They were...
steam locomotives that typically ran trains on the branch were replaced by DJ class
NZR DJ class
The NZR DJ class locomotive is a class of diesel-electric locomotive used in New Zealand. The class were purchased from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries with a modernisation loan from the World Bank to replace steam locomotives in the South Island, where most of the class members worked most of their...
diesel-electric engines (steam locomotive power fully disappeared from New Zealand's railway system by the end of 1971).
Catastrophe hit the line in mid-October 1978. Extremely severe flooding along the Pomahaka River demolished bridges and washed out the trackage in many places, and costly repairs would not have been economic. Formal closure was confirmed two months later in December.
Before its closure in 1962, the Waikaka Branch
Waikaka Branch
The Waikaka Branch was a branch line railway of the Main South Line that ran through agricultural and gold-mining country in Southland, New Zealand...
ran in a valley parallel to that occupied by the Tapanui Branch, and trivia associated with operation of the lines is that locomotive crews in one valley claimed they were sometimes able to see smoke from a steam engine operating in the other valley.
The branch today
Relics of this branch survive today, though it should be emphasised that as time progresses, remnants of old railways deteriorate and in some cases disappear entirely, so what was previously evident may no longer exist. Bridges sans rails are believed to still exist in the early stages of the line, notably including a truss bridge across the Pomahaka RiverPomahaka River
The Pomahaka River is located in South Otago in New Zealand's South Island. It is a tributary of the Clutha River, flowing south for 80 kilometres from the Old Man Range of mountains to join the Clutha just north of Balclutha...
. In Tapanui, the railway station is preserved, the goods shed
Goods shed
A goods shed is a railway building designed for storing goods before or after carriage in a train.A typical goods shed will have a track running through it to allow goods wagons to be unloaded under cover, although sometimes they were built alongside a track with possibly just a canopy over the door...
still stands, and rails remain embedded in Station Street where the railway crossing used to be. Flooding almost entirely destroyed Kelso and it is now abandoned, though the railway's goods shed still exists. On lower ground is the ruins of the town's former service station, with sombre viewing created by flood levels marked on the doors. Until recently, a goods shed also stood in Heriot, but it is understood that this structure was removed in the late 1990s.
According to the person who was the last station master at Tapanui, the building widely identified as the Tapanui station was not the station. The station was across the road and reasonably close to the goods shed. The roof of the goods shed, the last railway building at Tapanui, has recently collapsed.