The Waimea Plains Railway was a secondary railway line (not a branch line) that linked the towns of Lumsden and Gore in northern Southland, New Zealand. It skirted the Hokonui Hills, and operated as a through route between 31 July 1880 and 1 April 1971, with Balfour to Lumsden continuing, as the Balfour Branch, until 15 January 1978. A branch line is a relatively minor railway line which branches off a more important through route. ... Lumsden is a town in Southland, New Zealand. ... Gore is a town and surrounding borough in the South Island of New Zealand. ...   Categories: New Zealand-related stubs | Southland, New Zealand | Territorial Authorities of New Zealand ... The Hokonui Hills, also known as The Hokonui Mountains or simply The Hokonui, are a range of hills in northern Southland, New Zealand. ... July 31 is the 212th day (213th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 153 days remaining. ... 1880 (MDCCCLXXX) was a leap year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... April 1 is the 91st day of the year (92nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 274 days remaining. ... 1971 (MCMLXXI) was a common year starting on Friday (the link is to a full 1971 calendar). ... January 15 is the 15th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1978 (MCMLXXVIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (the link is to a full 1978 calendar). ...

Construction

The Waimea Plains Railway was built in order to improve communication between Dunedin and the Lake Wakatipu district. At the time, construction of the Otago Central Railway had barely begun and the only other way to reach the region by rail - the most efficient form of transport in the days before modern road transport - involved a detour south via Invercargill. The Waimea Plains Railway Company was formed in 1878 under the District Railways Act of 1877 and began construction on 11 January 1879. The easy terrain meant construction was swift, with the last rail laid on 24 May 1880 and the official opening a couple of months later on July 21. After some disputes with the government over ownership and distribution of profits, the government acquired the line under the District Railways Act in 1886 and integrated it in the New Zealand Railways Department, on [13 November]], according to New Zealand Railways Geographical Mileage Table 1957 and the Encyclopaedia Of New Zealand 1966. (David Leitch and Brian Scott give the date as March 31 in Exploring New Zealand's Ghost Railways, while Geoffrey B. Churchman and Tony Hurst state July 30 in The Railways Of New Zealand: A Journey Through History.) Dunedin is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, located in coastal Otago. ... Northern end Near Walter Peak Lake Wakatipu Lake Wakatipu Lake Wakatipu is an inland lake on the South Island of New Zealand. ... Invercargill is the southernmost and westernmost city in New Zealand, and one of the southernmost settlements in the world. ... 1878 (MDCCCLXXVIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... 1877 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... January 11 is the 11th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1879 (MDCCCLXXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... May 24 is the 144th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (145th in leap years). ... 1880 (MDCCCLXXX) was a leap year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... July 21 is the 202nd day (203rd in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 163 days remaining. ... 1886 (MDCCCLXXXVI) is a common year starting on Friday (click on link to calendar) // Events January 18 - Modern field hockey is born with the formation of The Hockey Association in England. ... 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. ... March 31 is the 90th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (91st in Leap years), with 275 days remaining. ... July 30 is the 211th day (212th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 154 days remaining. ...

Stations

The following stations were on the Waimea Plains Railway, with in brackets the distance from the junction with the Main South Line at Gore: The Main South Line is half of the South Island Main Trunk Railway in New Zealand and runs south from Lyttelton through Christchurch and down the east coast of the South Island to Invercargill via Dunedin. ...

• Gore (0 km)
• Croydon (7 km)
• Otamita (12 km)
• Mandeville (17 km)
• Pyramid (24 km)
• Riversdale (29 km), junction with the Waikaia (Switzers) Branch
• Waimea (34 km)
• Kingston Crossing (38 km)
• Balfour (43 km)
• St Patricks (50 km)
• Lintley (55 km)
• Lumsden (59 km), junction with the Kingston and Mossburn Branches

The Waikaia Branch, also known as the Switzers Branch, was a branch line railway in Southland, New Zealand. ... The Kingston Branch was a major branch line railway in Southland, New Zealand. ... The Mossburn Branch was a branch line railway in New Zealand from Lumsden on the Kingston Branch to the town of Mossburn in western Southland. ...

Operation

When the Waimea Plains Railway opened, New Zealand was slipping into the Long Depression and traffic justified only trains three days a week. As the Kingston Branch ran on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, the Waimea Plains Railway ran on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. When the national economy improved in the 1890s, so did services on the line, and a passenger express ran from Kingston to Gore three days a week; this became known as the "Kingston Flyer" and a tourist service now replicates this on 14 kilometres of track between Kingston and Fairlight on the Kingston Branch. Although the preserved Kingston Flyer uses two AB class locomotives, the initial Flyers used K and V class engines. The Long Depression was a economic depression that affected much of the world from the early 1870s until the mid-1890s. ... The 1890s were sometimes referred to as the Mauve Decade, because William Henry Perkins aniline dye allowed the widespread use of that colour in fashion, and also as the Gay Nineties, under the then-current usage of the word gay which referred simply to merriment and frivolity, with no... The Kingston Flyer is a vintage steam train operating in the South Island of New Zealand. ... Preserved No. ... The members of the Rogers K class were some of the first steam locomotives of American design to be used on New Zealands railways. ...

Passenger numbers declined in 1937 when regular services were withdrawn on the Kingston Branch north of Lumsden, and although the possibility of railcars was considered, the line's passenger services ceased on 17 September 1945. Like the Kingston Branch, the Waimea Plains Railway had regularly seen a significant number of passenger excursions on top of normal services throughout its history, and these continued for over a decade after 1945. 1956 was the last year passenger trains ran each way on the same day over the Waimea Plains, and the last excursions came during the next year's Easter holiday period. 1937 (MCMXXXVII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ... Not to be confused with railroad car. ... September 17 is the 260th day of the year (261st in leap years). ... 1945 (MCMXLV) was a common year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1945 calendar). ... 1956 (MCMLVI) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... This article is about the Christian festival. ...

Freight trains initially operated out of Lumsden and ran five days a week until 1956. Services were re-organised to operate from Gore in 1959 and operated thrice-weekly. In 1930 and 1952, the line was not considered to be a branch and thus was not assessed in the branch line commissions of those two years, but in 1967, it was announced that its future was under review. The district negotiated a reprieve for three years, promising extra traffic, but less than 24,000 tonnes were carried annually and closure of most of the line came on 1 April 1971. The 16 kilometres from Lumsden to a silo at Balfour remained open for the transport of wheat, but the quantity was not enough to justify the continued existence even of the truncated portion of the line, and it closed on 15 January 1978. 1956 (MCMLVI) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1959 (MCMLIX) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1930 (MCMXXX) is a common year starting on Wednesday. ... 1952 (MCMLII) was a Leap year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1967 (MCMLXVII) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar (the link is to a full 1967 calendar). ... April 1 is the 91st day of the year (92nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 274 days remaining. ... 1971 (MCMLXXI) was a common year starting on Friday (the link is to a full 1971 calendar). ... Balfour is a small town located in the Southland Region of New Zealand. ... January 15 is the 15th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1978 (MCMLXXVIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (the link is to a full 1978 calendar). ...

The branch today

Although both nature and human development have taken their toll on what remains of the railway, some remnants survive. Some of the formation has been destroyed by farming, but much of it can still be traced. Both goods shed and passenger shelter still stand at Kingston Crossing, while at the site of Waimea station two points levers are positioned by the old loading bank. Another loading bank exists at St Patricks, complete with a mounted nameboard. In Balfour, the sealed station platform is now a part of a children's playground, and in the former junction town of Lumsden, the station building is used as a tourist centre. The other junction station in Gore is of course still busy as a stop on the Main South Line between Dunedin and Invercargill, though its passenger service ceased in 2002. For album titles with the same name, see 2002 (album). ...

External link

• 1966 Encyclopaedia of New Zealand's page on the town of Gore, which gives 13 November 1886 as the date the government purchased the Waimea Plains Railway

November 13 is the 317th day of the year (318th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 48 days remaining. ... 1886 (MDCCCLXXXVI) is a common year starting on Friday (click on link to calendar) // Events January 18 - Modern field hockey is born with the formation of The Hockey Association in England. ...

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