Hokitika & Kanieri Tramway

Hokitika & Kanieri Tramway
Hokitika & Kanieri Tram Station
Route of the horse-drawn tram
Route length:	3.5 km
Gauge :	1067 mm ( cape track )
Legend Hokitika ( NZR ) 0 former transition to the NZR network Gibson Quay in Hokitika Westland Milk Products Stuart & Chapman sawmill 3.5 Hotel Terminus in Kaniere

The Hokitika & Kanieri Tramway was an approximately 3.5-kilometer horse-drawn tram from 1866 to 1914 and a forest railway along the Hokitika River between Hokitika and Kaniere in the Westland District of the West Coast region on the South Island of New Zealand from the 1920s to 1950s .

history

construction

In 1866, the Hokitika & Kanieri Tramway Company built a wooden rail tram from the Hokitika jetty to the Hotel Terminus in Kanieri. In November 1866 the tenders for the construction of the line were published, and these were then relocated in sections.

Tram operation

Horse tram at the Hokitika & Kanieri Tram Station

The first advertisement for streetcar operations appeared in May 1867 in the West Coast Times, with five round trips on each weekday and six on Sundays. The tram company leased the operation to Smith and Co. soon after it was completed. They terminated the lease in April 1874, whereupon the tram company had difficulty finding a new tenant, as no one showed interest until February 1875. In late 1876, the company decided to cease operations and put the tram line, all rail vehicles, and the 17-acre property between the tram and Kaniere Road up for sale. John Mc Fadyen bought the whole package and operated the tram until 1885 when he was declared bankrupt.

Change of ownership

John Maher, a contractor from Hokitika, then bought the tram line and leased it to Richard Heyward. In 1886 Heyward published a tender for route maintenance work. Heyward only operated the line for a year. In 1887, Mr. O'Malley took over the lease. He appears to have operated the tram until 1896 when Michael Meyer, probably a relative of John Maher, took it over as owner.

Michael Meyer left New Zealand in 1897 and sold the tram line and buildings. At that time there were two tram halls, one at Gibson Quay and one in Kaniere, a train station building at the terminus Hokitika as well as horses, harness and other material and plants.

The tram was acquired by Owen McGuigan, later joined by his son Thomas. McGuigan built a more spacious station at the Hokitika terminus above the bridge over the Hokitika River, but it was demolished in 1909. The McGuigans continued to operate the tram until 1914 when passenger services were finally ceased.

Forest railway operation

Steam locomotive D 144 in Hokitika, 1955

Forest railway locomotive from Stuart & Chapman with a log train

The line remained unused until the 1920s when the Kaniere – Hokitika sawmill was built on the site of the present-day Christian church on Kaniere Road. The sawmill was later owned by Stuart & Chapman. The sawmill owners renovated the tracks to transport wood to Hokitika and built branches of forest railways that connected their sawmill with the forestry operations from Kaniere to Mackay's Creek. The Kanieri-Hokitika Sawmilling Company used a NZR class D steam locomotive that had been acquired from 1928–1951 . A light petrol locomotive was running on the Waldbahn around 1962.

The forest railroad was used to transport logs to the Stuart & Chapman sawmill until it was replaced by road transport in this regard in the 1950s. It continued to transport sawn timber by rail to the Hokitika train station until the sawmill was destroyed by fire on May 8, 1966, 100 years after the first tram was built.

Todays use

Part of the line is still in operation and is used as a branch line along Gibson Quay by Westland Milk Products. A cycle path was laid out on the rest of the right-of-way .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Rob Daniel (Chairman of the Heritage Hokitika Inc.): Archaeological Report prepared by Underground Overground Services for construction of cycleway / walkway along the Hokitika-Kaniere Tramway route. 2016 Annual General Meeting.
2. ^ Lloyd's Register.
3. ↑ Glenn Johnston: Kanieri Hokitika Sawmill's lokey. 1962.

Coordinates: 42 ° 43 ′ 39 ″  S , 170 ° 59 ′ 5 ″  E