NZ Rail Maps Project Development Report [2020D]

So here is our latest update on the overall NZ Rail Maps project. As we made clear earlier this year, we are working on completing all 12 volumes in 2020. That is an aspirational goal and for various reasons it's quite possible that goal won't be met. However it is worthwhile making a serious attempt to achieve it, even if we only get 10 of the 12 volumes actually completed by Christmas.

At the moment the schedule has slipped by about 10-14 days, based on when Volume 5 was finally published, and our anticipated schedule for Volume 6 which is currently in development. Looking at our last project development report published two weeks ago, we anticipated strong progress at that time. The first set of mosaics completed was for Wellington Yard, which was finished around the time of that report, or a couple of days later. These then sat for 10 days whilst the mosaics for the rest of the corridor were pushed ahead. This turned out to take somewhat longer than anticipated, naturally, and then when we finally produced some tiles for Wellington, bugs were found and have had to be fixed.

Because of the scale of the mosaics being somewhat more ambitious than expected, we have taken a bit longer than planned to churn these out, but progress is starting to happen and depending on how many bugs are found and have to be resolved, we anticipate completion of them will push into the middle of next week. We then have to update the map content as quickly as possible. On the other hand, like Volume 5, the actual content that is presented will be much more extensive than what we have published at any level before. For example we now have the full coverage of Hutt Shops and the Seaview industrial area on the Gracefield Branch, plus historical views of every station in the Hutt Valley, including multiple eras of Upper Hutt. We also now have coverage of Summit and Cross Creek when they were open, plus extra material for Maymorn, Kaitoke, Rimutaka Loop, Speedys Crossing , Featherston, Carterton and Masterton - as well as the Woodville junction that has already been completed in Volume 5.

The next question of course is what will follow Volume 6 and this is being eagerly anticipated already. That will be probably Volume 1, North Auckland, followed by Volume 3, ECMT. And whilst Volume 1 is relatively straightforward to complete with many mosaics recently produced, Volume 3 has very little. Because the ECMT is a very extensive corridor with numerous branches, and a few small areas have already been completed, but there would be a lot more needed. So maybe these two volumes together are a month each but Volume 1 will take less than a month and Volume 3, more. Volume 1 does not have any mosaics for Auckland and this is essential so this will add some work.

This leaves us Volume 4 and 2 to complete the North Island and these have been left as long as possible because significant chunks of Horizons Regional Council's territory and Taranaki does not yet have full Retrolens coverage because it has only been added since the start of this year. Volume 2 would be the most affected but we do have extensive coverage completed now of parts of Wellington, and Hamilton, but none of Auckland, and probably for the NIMT we would expect to have some of the major deviated areas covered as well as stations like Taihape and Taumarunui. For Volume 4 we would look to update Whanganui, which is already improving, and add New Plymouth, Stratford, any significant SOL station, and Okahukura.

So the schedule for the next four volumes after this is pretty well thought out and the work is going to keep being pretty intensive up to the middle of the year and probably a bit beyond.

East Coast Main Trunk [2A]: Kinleith Branch 1

So last year I wrote some posts about Rotorua, specifically the old railway station in the middle of the city. I also wrote I didn't expect to do any more of the ECMT for a while. Well here I am nearly 8 weeks later writing about the ECMT again. This is because at the moment I am working on maps of the Kinleith Branch and Tokoroa.

Kinleith Branch is an interesting line with an interesting history. The first part from Morrinsville to Putaruru was originally the Rotorua Branch and opened in the 19th century. Then along came an outfit called the Taupo Totara Timber Co, and they built a bush tramway from Putaruru to Mokai, which is near Lake Taupo. This crossed the Waikato River on an interesting wooden suspension bridge, which was eventually replaced with a steel structure. The idea was that the government might later take over the tramway and convert it into a railway to Taupo. This never actually eventuated as such, but just after World War II, when the TTT was looking to close down its rail operation, the government did buy the full line and they reconstructed the first 30 km of it to become the Kinleith Branch from Putaruru to Kinleith, where a forestry mill was built that operates to this day. Tokoroa became the principal service town for the mill and has developed from a mere siding and industrial plant (not sure what for exactly) in the middle of bare land, into the sprawling metropolis that it is today. The other 52 km of TTT line was lifted and the bridge over the Waikato, which would have become submerged below the waters of hydro Lake Whakamaru was, we assume, dismantled.

Fast forward a little and with the opening of the East Coast Main Trunk itself to Taneatua in 1928, the inadequacis of the main line route via the Karangahake Gorge became apparent and pressure developed for an improved route to increase capacity. Thus the Kaimai Deviation was born and took shape in the 1970s. The new route, opened in 1978, joined the Rotorua Branch at Waharoa, resulting in the first part of the Branch becoming the main line, and at the same time, the Branch section from Waharoa to Putaruru was reincorporated into the Kinleith Branch, now 65 km in length. The Rotorua Branch origin was thus relocated to Putaruru and its length was reduced to 50 km.

What we know today is that the Kinleigh Branch over its last 30 km can be mapped against the TT Co route because full aerial photos were taken in 1944 of this first part of the route. This means I can use this coverage to be able to draw in where the line was deviated when it was adapted into a railway, and publish maps showing the old route. Unfortunately there are considerable gaps in TTT coverage south of Kinleith but parts can still be seen on some older aerial photos, and this will be incorporated into these maps wherever possible.

East Coast Main Trunk [1B]: Rotorua Branch 2 (Rotorua Station 2) : Five Generations Of Rotorua

This will be the last posting about the ECMT for a while. I have no plans to map any other parts of the ECMT or its various branches for the present time (even though I did spend some time recently downloading coverage for some other ECMT parts).

Rotorua is a well known city in the Bay of Plenty based around Lake Rotorua and is the terminus of the mothballed Rotorua Branch. Like other parts of the ECMT it had various incarnations due to repurposing of different connecting sections as other lines opened or closed. The first part was privately built from Morrinsville to Tirau (a total of 78.5 km) and opened in 1886. It was taken over by the Government soon after and reached Putaruru in the same year. The section from Putaruru to Rotorua was opened in stages between 1893-1894. The total length of the route was then 111 km made up of Morrinsville-Waharoa (24.55 km), Waharoa-Putaruru (36.02 km) and Putaruru-Rotorua (c.50.50 km). The Rotorua route was one of several proposed to link the ECMT through to Gisborne, which was later considered for a linkup with what became the Taneatua Branch instead, but was never built. Extensions from Rotorua to Taupo were also considered, along with a freight connection to the Waipa State Mill just south of the city. Again, none of these ideas amounted to anything. The most recent idea has been from the New Zealand First political party which in 2014 suggested that Rotorua could be reached via a new line from Kinleith (one presumes this would bypass the notoriously steep Mamaku incline of the original route) which would continue on to Taupo.

Rotorua had passenger services via Auckland from the outset, originally the prestigious Rotorua Limited, which became the Rotorua Express. In 1959 this steam train was replaced by 88 seat twinset railcars, which only lasted until 1968 when the service ceased entirely. Passenger operations were resumed in 1991 with a Silver Fern railcar as the Geyserland Express, also from Auckland. This ceased when the line was shut down in 2001. 

From 1978 the section of the Rotorua Branch from Morrinsville-Waharoa became part of the ECMT main line as the original main line via Paeroa was reincorporated into the Thames Branch and the Kaimai Tunnel, accessed via Waharoa, opened. At the same time, the section frm Waharoa to Putaruru became part of the Kinleith Branch that had opened from Putaruru to Kinleith in the early 1950s. Consequently at that time the Rotorua line was reduced to the 50 km section from Putaruru to Rotorua. The line gradually wound down after the deregulation of long distance freight (which drastically reduced the traffic on the entire NZ national network) from 1982 to 2001 when the passenger services ceased, freight services having been withdrawn the previous year. Prior to that, in 1989, the central city Rotorua station was closed with the terminus being shifted 2 km nearer to Putaruru, at Koutu. In 1995 the passenger terminal at Koutu moved from the south side to the north side of Lake Road. In 2014 the Lake Road overbridge was demolished, cutting off access to the former freight terminal on the south side of the road.

The line is currently partly used by Rail Riders operating self propelled adapted golf buggies ("rail cruisers") for tourists from Mamaku. Some other parts of the line are impassible due to theft of track. Other tourism or heritage railway proposals such as the Second Chance Train Trust (1990s) and Geyserland Express Trust, later Rotorua Ngongotaha Rail Trust have collapsed. The latter group proposed the re-opening of the line for full freight and passenger operations but this never had a chance of getting off the ground. 

So the five generations of Rotorua begin in 1951 which is our first aerial image as seen below.

Note the freight yard was relatively small in this era but did have the goods shed (opposite the station) and the stockyard at the eastern end.. The station is the original straight building. The engine depot with turntable is visible at the west end of the yard. Housing is located all along the southern boundary but a lot of the station land has not been developed yet.

Next image is from 1966.

We can see very major differences in the 15 year interval between the taking of these aerials. Without doing additional research I can't narrow down the period when these works were carried out. However we can see that there was a major expansion of the freight yards, a new station building set closer to the road, which also had a bus terminal in front of it, and a road services depot building upper left. Some housing at the top right corner has been removed.

Next image is from 1972.

The only  obvious change in this instance is the removal of the stockyards at the eastern end of the line, as this was an era when stock carriage by rail was being phased out around the country. Formerly the Rotorua station had carried significant volumes of stock to the freezing works in Auckland.

Next image is 1983

At the western end of the yard there is a new single road diesel era engine shed (replacing the two road steam shed) and the turntable has been replaced at a site closer to Ranolf Street. Up at the eastern end next to Fenton Street the building next to the former stockyards (function unknown at this stage) has gone. Some track in the yard has been altered but otherwise it still looks much the same. A few of the houses have gone. However the station precinct did not have a long life from this point; it was closed down in 1989. This was an era when wholesale slashing and burning of the national railway system was being carried out, resulting in a great deal of valuable central city railway properties around NZ being cleared and sold for redevelopment. So the central city terminus was closed and the freight yard was relocated 2 km up the line to Koutu. The impact of this decision on the reinstated passenger service that began in 1991 has been hotly debated.

Finally we have the current aerial view of the site.

There is practically no continuity between the NZR era and the present day. That is one of the reasons for drawing maps like these, to help people visit on the ground and get a sense of what once was. There are just two buildings in the present day site that can be seen on the 1983 aerial photo. These are the L-shaped building (currently ASB Bank) at the corner of Amohau Street and Tutanekai Street (a smaller square version of this can be seen in some of the earlier aerials as well) and the McDonalds premises on the corner of Amohau Street and Fenton Street.

East Coast Main Trunk [1A]: Rotorua Branch 1 (Rotorua Station 1)

Rotorua Station based on a 1966 aerial photo.

Remnants of the old East Coast Main Trunk Railway

As Google Earth coverage keeps getting better, we keep discovering more about the geography of New Zealand, with one of my interests being former railway lines. There are still some areas of the North Island that use old Landsat low res coverage, I hope they will get some Cnes/Spot coverage soon. In a former life I was an avid railfan and drew maps of nearly every railway line in NZ, which are now to be found on Google Maps. Today I just happened to load up the map of the old East Coast Main Trunk line, and have had a look at some of this former route. I have got absolutely no intention of keeping these maps up to date in a major form as this requires many hours of work and I am disinclined to do any research, one of the great attractions of drawing the maps in the first place was that I did all the work at home on my computer and didn’t have to go anywhere else. However I have just chosen to pull up the old ECMT map because of the improvements and it has got a small makeover today, because some of the old bridges can now be seen in medium-high resolution coverage recently added. It is equally as clear that some locations that I thought would be bridges are culverts.

According to a file from the Western Bay of Plenty District Council the following remnants of the line are known to exist between Athenree and Apata. Their source is a 2002 report for the Historic Places Trust by Phillip Moore. Rather than embedding the maps into this blog post I have linked to maps of all the locations that I know of by converting the NZMS260 map references where these are given. There is one photo in that document of a concrete culvert where the road appears to go over the railway line. It isn’t identified but I assume it is Athenree Station.

1. Athenree Station (see below)
2. Athenree Station site – concrete foundations, rail formation, culvert near SH2,
plate layers cottages and Arden Cottage. [T13 E6903 N1177]
3. Railway Formation south of Athenree Road (800m) [T13 E6990 N 1153]
4. Prominent Cutting through hill (100m) [U13 E70021 N10383]
5. Concrete Culvert [T13 E69940 N10181]
6. Small Concrete Bridge Piles (Bridge No. 28) [T13 E69768 N09677]
7. Tuapiro Stream Bridge Abutment [T13 E6915 N0765]
8. Railway Formation south of Kauri Point Rd (800m) [T13 E691 N054]
9. Tahawai Stream Bridge (No. 35) Concrete Piers [T13 E6794 N0331]
10. McKinney (Tawherowhero) Bridge timber abutments (No. 37) [T13 E67833 N02574]
11. Uretara Stream Bridge (No. 40) timber abutments [T13 E67654 N00894]
12. Henry Road cutting and railway formation (200m)
13. Rereatukahia Stream concrete bridge (no.44) [T14 E67621 N98416]
14. Te Manaia Stream Timber Trestle bridge (no. 46)
15. Waitokohe Sream Timber Trestle Bridge (No. 48) and embankment (300m)
16. Aongatete River Bridge (No. 51) concrete and timber piers
17. Whatakao Stream Timber Trestle Bridge (No. 52)
19. Wainui River Timber Trestle Bridge (No. 56)
20. Apata Station Site – small station building
The Athenree Station is located at a new site at 360 Athrenree Road (Stewart Homestead). This site is encircled by a well known large horseshoe curve of the old railway route. I believe this is Street View’s view at the time of writing of the old station building. The photo is a bit dark but the building which looks just like a typical railway station is on the little rise about the centre of this view.
This post is not going to be a series of posts, nor is there going to be any more maps updated this year (if ever) because all this stuff takes forever to do. But if I had kept all the blog posts of the two former blogs that I used to write on this subject, I would gladly repost them herewith.