Okaihau branch line

Okaihau branch line
Route length:	40 km
Gauge :	1067 mm ( cape track )
Legend Opua branch line 0 Otiria North Auckland Line 5 Kawiti 7th Cameron's Crossing 10 Ngapipito 17th Rakautao 22nd Ngāpuhi 26th Kaikohe 35 Lake Omapere 40 Okaihau ?? Rangiahua

The Okaihau Branch Line (English: Okaihau Branch , sometimes referred to as Kaikohe Branch and more rarely as Rangiahua Branch ) was a branch line that branched off from the North Auckland Line of the New Zealand railway network in Otiria . It was the northernmost line of New Zealand and was originally supposed to lead to Kaitaia . The section to Okaihau opened in 1923 and closed in 1987.

construction

Proposals to build a railway line to Kaitaia and the Far North District existed as early as the 1870s, but it wasn't until 1909 that preliminary explorations for a line began. After the North Auckland Line was connected to the Opua branch line in 1911 and passed over it, the first construction work began in 1910 from Otiria towards Kaikohe . This section opened on May 1, 1914. For the next 2 years, little work was done on the next section, then the First World War stopped the work from 1916 to 1919. After the resumption of work, the line was completed on October 29, 1923 to Okaihau.

There was a controversy about the further route to Kaitaia. The proposal was to run the route from Okaihau to Rangiahua , near Hokianga Harbor . Then you should either take a 30 km long route with two tunnels through the Maungataniwha Range , or be led around the mountains on a 10 km longer route without a tunnel. A commission set up in 1921 spoke out against a continuation of the route beyond Okaihau. In 1923 a compromise was reached and Rangiahua was set as the northern end point. The Public Works Department resumed work, but progress was slow.

Work progressed slowly in the 1920s and stopped altogether during the Great Depression in the early 1930s, although the route was nearly complete. New Zealand's northernmost rail tunnel was finished and the marshalling yard and the station area including the platform in Rangiahua were built. The only thing missing was the station building itself.

In 1936 a change of government led to a reassessment of the route from Okaihau to Rangiahau and it was decided to end it in Kaitaia. The steep stretch down to Rangiahua was not considered particularly useful and has suffered from landslides in the past. The route was therefore ended in Okaihau on State Highway 1 . During the Second World War , the rails that had already been laid were dismantled for other use.

business

Although Kaikohe had established itself as a service hub for the Far North , it did not create a lot of traffic during the first few years of the route. In the first 10 months only about 1,500 tons of freight were transported in the direction of Kaikohe and about half in the opposite direction. A further decline led to the abolition of the station master in Kaikohe in 1918. Minimal connections were offered and while losses continued to increase until 1930, things improved in 1940. In 1950 there was enough traffic for 6 trains in each direction per week. Two were freight trains, four were mixed trains and also carried passengers. The Kaikohe and Okaihau stations, where a locomotive depot was located, were fully staffed.

Folk singer Peter Cape wrote the song The Okaihau Express in the 1950s about the train on the route, which consisted only of a steam locomotive, a single passenger car and a freight car for the guards.

When railcars were introduced for passenger transport north of Auckland in November 1956 , they drove to Okaihau. Previously, a passenger train known as the Northland Express had served the route from Auckland to Opua with a connection via mixed trains to Okaihau. With the change of the northern end point to Okaihau, the branch line began to lose importance. Therefore, the well-used railcar traffic was discontinued in July 1967 due to technical problems with the railcars. Combined trains with considerably older equipment and longer journey times were used again, and demand fell significantly. Passenger traffic ended on June 21, 1976.

In 1977, road transport in New Zealand was liberalized and the shifting of freight onto the road no longer made the route economically viable. The line trains were abolished on August 12, 1983. For a little less than 4 years, the route was served when required. It closed completely on November 1, 1987.

The route today

After the closure, New Zealand Railways Corporation retained ownership of the route in the hope that forest development projects would restore demand in the area. Some of the rails were still in place in the 1990s. Most of the rails and bridges have now been dismantled, although some of the bridges' pillars and counter bearings are still there. A loading ramp and rails under a bunker are still available in Kaikohe. In Okaihau the level station area, the platform and the tunnel to Rangiahua have been preserved. In Rangiahua, State Highway 1 runs between a loading dock and the platform instead of the rails through the station area. Most of the route is clearly recognizable through embankments and cuttings.

There is a project of the Kaikohe Rau Marama Community Trust to use the route between Okaihau and Kaikohe as a hiking and biking route, as was the case with the Otago Central Rail Trail and the Little River Rail Trail on the South Island. This would be a first step on a rail trail to the Bay of Islands Vintage Railway in Kawakawa .

literature

• Churchman, Geoffrey B., and Hurst, Tony; The Railways Of New Zealand: A Journey Through History , HarperCollins Publishers (New Zealand), 1991 reprint
• Leitch, David, and Scott, Brian; Exploring New Zealand's Ghost Railways , Grantham House, 1998 revised edition

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Cape, Peter. " The Okaihau Express " (lyrics).