Ngahere is at 8.86 km and it opened in 1886. It was closed in 1967 when the passenger services between Stillwater and Westport ceased, which was a railcar service at the time and was in the period that railcar services were being cut around the country because the Fiat railcars were costing too much in maintenance. So even though this was probably a Vulcan railcar service, Vulcans were needed elsewhere. There have been no scheduled passenger services west of Stillwater since that time although many people have called for them, the only times a passenger service gets run is with an excursion. And even in the time of Tranz Rail and later ONTRACK the line was closed to all passenger services including excursions.
Ngahere was also the junction of the branch line to Blackball. This route served a number of coal mines including the mine at Roa, to which it was connected by a Mines Department line which was a steep incline of 1 in 25. For safety in those days before the continuous Westinghouse air brake (and even after it became widespread, the Q class coal wagons were often not fitted with it) there was a Fell centre rail installed. Unlike the Rimutaka Incline, the centre rail was used only for braking with the special Fell brake vans. The other incline at Rewanui which had similar grades was converted to adhesion only braking in 1968. The Roa Incline was closed in 1960 and the Fell rail was never removed while it was open.
The route of the Blackball Branch is hard to follow because dredging activities in the Grey River have eliminated many traces of it. The long combined bridge over the Grey River was susceptible to the many floods because the piles were not driven deep enough in the bed and NZR was unwilling to properly underpin the bridge with steel cylinders as the other Grey bridges used. The result was the line closed in 1966 after a flood and the bridge was used for a few more years only for road and foot traffic and eventually was abandoned until a few years ago when the last remaining spans were dismantled as they were in the way of a dredge. West of Blackball the Roa Incline route can still be followed through the bush and one bridge is in place just above Blackball. A second bridge at Roa deteriorated until it was a safety hazard and was dismantled. Ferrymead Railway had a section of centre rail track from Roa which they obtained after the closure. Some rail may have been lifted by the Ferrymead Tramway to lay on their street line at Ferrymead. The centre rail trackset was not any kind of hazard yet it was dismantled instead of being maintained as a display and the centre rail is still lying around somewhere at Ferrymead.
There is some evidence that the main line and branch followed a different route at Ngahere originally compared to now and this has been marked on the maps.
