Thursday 10 May 2018

Otago Central Railway [63C]: Ranfurly-Alexandra 3 (Alexandra-Galloway)

So I am continuing drafting the maps and there will be a series of posts each taking in a major station and the track from it to the next station. This will be presented in reverse mileage order, the same as I did when I wrote the Observer articles. I am combining this with viewing the entire amount of Google Streetview data of the rail trail, and creating a layer of points that show where the Rail Trail Trust has placed their kilometre pegs. These pegs, assuming they don't get moved, provide further points of reference along the trail, but we cannot assume they are in the exact same places as the original pegs that were installed by NZR. Because the locations are obtained from Google Maps, these peg positions cannot be published in the maps, however a map or layer can be made available for separate download and this will be accomplished in some way when the maps are published.

There are few features of interest between Alexandra and Galloway. In fact the only significant one is the former combined bridge No.85 which is also known as Manuherikia No.3 Bridge because it was the third railway bridge across the Manuherikia River. The rail trail follows a walkway clipped onto the side of the bridge, but of course the railway shared the same space as the road when the line was open; hence the way the map is drawn in the image above.

So after 7 km from Alexandra we get to Galloway. This was only a small station with a platform, a shelter which doubled as a goods shed, and a stockyard. There was a men's toilet at the position indicated by the letter A.  
This is how Galloway looks today. The remaining part of the station building has been relocated back to nearly, but not quite exactly, its original site. None of the other facilities have any trace left of them. I have chosen to show the locations of the sidings on both maps even though there is no track left there today.