Work has been slow the past couple of weeks (June 3016) due to some work needed on my PC which took all of last weekend which included reinstalling Linux. Also there was a lack of satisfactory progress because of all the work needed to fix up maps of stations in Christchurch. Because of this I pushed out to Templeton and restarted detailing the line from there, leaving the Christchurch area to be finished another time. Once I got out to the Selwyn River I came to the section from Selwyn through to Bankside that I had previously detailed as part of the documenting of the Bankside WW2 military installations.
The site of former Selwyn station at 47 km.
Former Dunsandel station at 50 km. The level crossing which used to be at the north end of the yard was relocated to go through the middle of the station site after the station closed, hence no remains are to be found of the platform.
Apart from the original Bankside station at 60 km, there is also the current Bankside Loop at 53.97 km which came later. Also developed in recent years nearby is the Synlait dairy factory at 57 km whereby the railway line was realigned at the adjacent level crossing of Heslerton Road, probably in order to increase stacking distance for the intersection with SH1.
Bankside loop.
Synlait site.
Bankside station which had ballast pits alongside the main line. The realignment of SH1 which used to go around the station site is a reason why there are few remnants at the site. The WW2 siding goes off through the former plantation site that was used as camouflage.
The fuel depot codenamed AR16. It was to be used to transport fuel by rail to the siding for pumping into the storage tank, then tanker trucks would have carried it inland to the secret Te Pirita airfield site inland. The airfield was never fully commissioned and the depot site was not completed. The brick lined bunker which contained the tank still exists today.
The detailing was done as far as Rakaia (68 km) where I will pick up the process again and continue heading south as Dunedin is another 310 km further south on the map.
