Hīhītahi railway station | |||||||||||
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![]() Hīhītahi station in 1911 | |||||||||||
General information | |||||||||||
Location | New Zealand | ||||||||||
Coordinates | 39°34′14″S 175°42′21″E / 39.570497°S 175.705783°E | ||||||||||
Elevation | 741 m (2,431 ft) | ||||||||||
Line(s) | North Island Main Trunk | ||||||||||
Distance | Wellington 270.79 km (168.26 mi) | ||||||||||
History | |||||||||||
Opened | 1 July 1908 | ||||||||||
Closed | 1982 | ||||||||||
Electrified | June 1988 | ||||||||||
Services | |||||||||||
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Hīhītahi was a station on the North Island Main Trunk line, [1] in the Rangitikei District of New Zealand, [2] in the Hautapu River valley. [3] The station served the settlement of Hīhītahi, which was big enough to have a store [4] and a school. [5] It was 12.55 km (7.80 mi) south of Waiouru and 3.05 km (1.90 mi) north of Turangarere. [6] Hīhītahi is at the top of a 1 in 70 gradient from Mataroa, [7] so that it is 39 m (128 ft) above Turangarere, but only 73 m (240 ft) below the much more distant Waiouru. [6] A crossing loop remains. [8]
Hīhītahi means the first rays of the sun. [9] When opened on 1 July 1908 the station was Tarangarere, [10] changed to Turangaarere on 15 April 1909 and to Hihitahi on 21 August 1910. [11]
Until 25 October 1928 the crossing sidings to the south were called Gardner & Sons Siding, or Gardners Siding but then took the former name of its northern neighbour, Turangaarere, later becoming Turangarere. [11]
A service road to help with building the railway was formed in 1887, [10] when the route was first surveyed. [12] The Public Works Department (PWD) had the rail and telegraph lines through Hīhītahi [11] built by 1906. [13] NZR took it over as a flag station on 1 July 1908, when the railhead from the south was extended from Mataroa to Waiouru. [14]
A plan for the proposed station was made in 1903. Tenders were invited on 4 March 1907. [15] On 7 June 1907 a contract was let to A S Johnston of Hunterville for £2,201.0s.7d and the station was built by January 1908. When opened it was 66 ft (20 m) by 14 ft (4.3 m), with rooms for stationmaster, luggage, a lobby, urinals and ladies, on a 240 ft (73 m) by 15 ft (4.6 m) platform. There was also a 40 ft (12 m) by 30 ft (9.1 m) goods shed with verandah, a loading bank, cattle yards, two 4,000 imp gal (18,000 L) water tanks and a cart approach. Cottages for railway staff were built from 1904 to 1955. A crossing loop could take 54 wagons and a snowplough was kept at the station.
The station lost its passenger trains before 1972 and closed to all traffic on 31 January 1982. [11]
Between Hīhītahi and Waiouru the railway has four bridges over the Hautapu River. [16] They are made up of spans of –
The 66 ft spans were latticed girders, and the others plate girders. [13]
There were at least three tramway networks in the area, which took timber to sawmills and the railway. Gibbs & Trevor had a tramway running west from the station and George Gardner had tramways to the north west. [6] They had a 1927 Type Cb 0-4-4-0 built by A & G Price. [17] In 1906 a tramway ran to the PWD siding and next year, W G Irvine applied to run one beside the railway. Quin Bros siding was noted in 1909 [11] and, in 1910, owners of the Hawera Sash & Door Co Ltd, [18] had a 4 mi (6.4 km) tramway linking their logging area to their mill and the railway. [19] They used a 1909 Type A 0-4-0 T built by J. Johnston's Vulcan Foundry at Invercargill and a 1914 0-4-4-0 by G & D Davidson Ltd. of Hokitika. The tramways were dismantled about 1934, when the bush had been cleared. [17] [20]
In 1940 a boulder, estimated to weigh 120 tons, [21] slipped onto the line just north of the station, derailing K-Class locomotive, [22] No.919. [23] KA-Class No.945 suffered a similar crash in 1961. [24]
Slips in 1935 [25] and 1945 closed the line [26] for several days. [27]
Photos –