Taonui Branch
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The Taonui Branch was a minor
, it opened in 1879 and operated until 1895.Construction
In the late 1870s,
Operation
Despite being officially designated a branch line, it was little more than an elongated
The line was not just used to provide the national railways with sleepers; some private timber companies also offered traffic. Henry Adsett had a mill along the line and became a farmer once the trees had been felled.[4] However, this traffic was not significant and closing the line was proposed by 1893. Closure came on 14 August 1895 and the rails were gone by February the next year.[3] Rails of 30, 40 and 52lb were recovered.[2] Closure was authorised by the Taonui Branch Railway Act 1894, which said the line opened in June 1879.[5]
Today
No earthworks at all were required for the line and no traces of the formation survive.[3] The only extant remnant is the station building from the junction in Taonui. It closed in the 1960s and was subsequently relocated to a farmer's paddock near its original location. A few decades later, the farmer donated it to the Feilding and District Steam Rail Society. It has now been restored and included as part of the society's depot in Feilding, and the restoration work earned the society a Certificate of Merit from the Rail Heritage Trust of New Zealand, awarded on 2 June 2002.[6]
See also
- Marton–New Plymouth line
- North Island Main Trunk
- Castlecliff Branch
- Foxton Branch
- Raetihi Branch
- Wanganui Branch
References
Citations
- ^ a b c Yonge 1985, p. 14.
- ^ a b c d "Stations" (PDF). NZR Rolling Stock Lists. Retrieved 10 August 2020.
- ^ a b c d Leitch & Scott 1995, p. 33.
- ^ "Adsett, Henry | NZETC". nzetc.victoria.ac.nz. Retrieved 8 April 2021.
- ^ "Taonui Branch Railway Act 1894 (58 VICT 1894 No 11)". www.nzlii.org. Retrieved 4 March 2021.
- ^ Feilding and District Steam Rail Society, "Taonui Railway Station", accessed 27 November 2007.
Bibliography
- Leitch, David; Scott, Brian (1995). Exploring New Zealand's Ghost Railways (1998 ed.). Wellington: Grantham House. ISBN 1-86934-048-5.
- Yonge, John (1985). New Zealand Railway and Tramway Atlas (Third ed.). Quail Map Company. ISBN 090060932X.