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The Blackball Branch was a branch line railway of New Zealand's national rail network on the West Coast of the South Island and worked from the 1900s to 1966. It included the Roa Branch, also known as the Roa Incline. Roa was sometimes known as Paparoa. A branch line is a relatively minor railway line which branches off a more important through route. ...
// National Rail Network The national rail network (currently owned by a State-Owned Enterprise, the New Zealand Railways Corporation) was constructed largely by government entities from 1863 onwards. ...
The West Coast is one of the administrative regions of New Zealand, located on the west coast of the South Island, and is one of the more remote and most sparsely populated areas of the country. ...
The South Island The South Island is the larger of the two major islands of New Zealand, the other being the more populous North Island. ...
// Public flight demonstration of an airplane by Alberto Santos-Dumont in Paris, November 12, 1906. ...
Construction
The Blackball Coal Company's mine near Blackball was on the opposite side of the Grey River to the Stillwater - Westport Line, and in the late 19th century an aerial cableway was used to transport coal from the mine across the river to a railway station in Ngahere. This did not prove to be as efficient or desirable as a railway, so in 1901 a branch line across the Grey River from Ngahere to Blackball was approved. Blackball is a small town located on the West Coast of the New Zealand. ...
The Grey River is located in the northwest of the South Island of New Zealand. ...
The Stillwater - Westport Line (SWL) is a secondary main line that forms part of New Zealands national rail network. ...
Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) (18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar. ...
Ngahere is a small village in the Grey District of the West Coast of New Zealands South Island. ...
The Public Works Department began building the 5.5-km line in 1902, but it was plagued with difficulties. Construction of the Grey River bridge suffered from delays, a contractor for a trestle bridge further along the line went bankrupt, and torrential rain made working conditions hard and problematic. As construction slowly progressed, work on an incline from Blackball into the Paparoa Ranges was commenced by the Paparoa Coal Company. This line was ultimately taken over by the State Mines Department and involved a Fell centre rail for braking due to grades as steep as 1 in 25. This was not a full incline like its North Island counterpart, the Rimutaka Incline. The New Zealand Ministry of Works, formerly the Department of Public Works and sometimes referred to as the Public Works Department or PWD, was founded in 1876 and disestablished and privatised in 1988. ...
The Paparoa Ranges are a range of mountains in the West Coast region of New Zealands South Island. ...
Fell system as used on the Snaefell Mountain Railway. ...
North Island The North Island is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, the other being the South Island. ...
The Rimutaka Incline was a 3-mile (5-km) stretch of steeply-graded line between Summit and Cross Creek on the original Wairarapa railway line between Wellington and Masterton in New Zealand. ...
During 1909, the Public Works Department began carrying coal along the Blackball Branch, and in September that year, the State Mines Department began operating the Roa Incline. The Blackball Branch was not handed over to the New Zealand Railways Department and officially opened until 1 August 1910. The Roa Incline was owned by the State Mines Department for its entire life. The New Zealand Railways Department, or NZGR (New Zealand Government Railways), often known as the Railways, was a government department charged with owning and maintaining New Zealands rail infrastructure. ...
is the 213th day of the year (214th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
Year 1910 (MCMX) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Friday [1] of the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ...
Operation Coal production from the mines increased greatly when the railway opened, as it permitted much larger quantities of coal to be carried. Workings on the Roa Incline were spectacular; sometimes up to eight trains a day would run down the Incline, relying only on handbrakes to avoid a runaway. Passenger services were operated to Blackball for a number of years, primarily for the mine workers, and these ceased in 1940.
Before 1955 the engine depot in Blackball closed and trains operated from Greymouth, and in 1955 Blackball station burned down. Trains to Blackball were typically operated by B and WF class steam locomotives, with W and WA locomotives on the Roa Incline. Diesel locomotives were never used on the Blackball Branch. Motive Power Depot, usually abbreviated to mpd is the name given, in Britain to places where locomotives are stored when out of use. ...
The B class of 1899 was a class of steam locomotives that operated on New Zealands national rail network. ...
The NZR WF class were steam locomotives designed, built and used by New Zealand Railways Department. ...
Union Pacific Big Boy #4012 at work on a cold November 29, 1941 A steam locomotive is a locomotive powered by steam. ...
The NZR W Class locomotive was built at the Addington Railway Workshops in Christchurch. ...
A modern Diesel locomotive. ...
Falling production and a decrease in orders meant that the State Mines Department closed the Roa Incline on 25 July 1960. From July 1963, only one train was permitted to operate on the Blackball Branch at a time, though due to the low quantity of traffic it is doubtful this policy ever had to be seriously enforced. By 1964, the line served just one active mine, operating on a limited basis. The Railways Department began to consider closure of the line, and when a flood on 21 February 1966 destroyed two spans of the Grey River bridge it was decided that repairs would not be economic and the line was closed. is the 206th day of the year (207th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
1960 (MCMLX) was a leap year starting on Friday (the link is to a full 1960 calendar). ...
is the 52nd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ...
1966 (MCMLXVI) was a common year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1966 calendar). ...
The branch today Four spans of the old railway bridge over in the Grey River stood until 2002 when they were dismantled. Nearby, two towers of the cableway that preceded the railway can be seen amidst swampland near Ngahere. Another bridge remains in place across Ford Creek on the Roa Incline, still complete with pedestals for the centre rail. In the rugged terrain, some of the formation of the Blackball and Roa lines can be seen, though it is often not near roads and nature is steadily reclaiming the line. Few other remnants of the line exist. A track bed is the term used to describe the groundwork onto which a railway track is laid. ...
References - Churchman, Geoffrey B., and Hurst, Tony; The Railways Of New Zealand: A Journey Through History, HarperCollins Publishers (New Zealand), 1991 reprint
- Leitch, David, and Scott, Brian; Exploring New Zealand's Ghost Railways, Grantham House, 1998 revised edition
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