Ohakune Junction, the Hub of the North Island Main Trunk

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 11, Issue 534, 3 May 1994, Page 7

Ohakune Junction, the Hub of the North Island Main Trunk

This Sunday's reopening of the Ohakune rail turntable prompts local rail history

Lontinuedfrom last week's Bulletin

By

Graham

Parker

With Ohakune township some 2 miles (3 kms) away the Junction began to develop an independent air to it. Shops began to develop on a properly formed Thames Street (formerly Urunga Street). There was a fruiterer, grocer, drapers shop, fish shop, stables, general carriers, hairdresser, dining rooms, and an engineering and foundry works. Canvas and corrugated iron gave way to more permanent materials and private hotels and boarding houses were homes for itinerant railway workers, mill workers and teachers. In the Railway yard itself

development was fast and furious. The Station building was completed in time for the first trains around 1908. Thebuildingcurrently standing and operated and maintained by Main Trunk Rail Ohakune is almost original. A huge locomotive shed with a saw-tooth roof and corrugated iron construction was erected at the south-eastern end of the yard. Locomotive servicing pits were dug and extensive levelling, drainage and ballasting took place. A feature in the work of constructing the yards had been the use of a steam navvy, a large steam shovel for cutting and filling, and digging scoria from the nearby pit for ballast. Turntable moved A turntable was sited in the centre of the yard, later moved to a location near the locomotive shed. On the hill at the south eastern end of Railway Row a huge water tower was constructed to ensure storage and pressure to feed the locomotives. Coal bunkers were built along with a wood store for firingup engines. Sheep and cattle yards were constructed along with workshops for carpenters, plumbers, bridge builders and permanent way gangers. A goods shed was

erected, built to a standard plan for stations of Ohakune Junction' ssize. Signalboxes were erected at each end of the yard as were water storage vats with the mandatory leather hose. Locals report the water icing over and icicles hanging down from the vats, and the leather hose as "stiff as a board" during heavy winter frosts. Recreation activities were not ignored at the Junction. There were two Tennis Courts - one near the Mangawhero river end of Railway Row and the other between the Way and Works Building and the Railway Social Hall on the Southem side of the yard. There was fuH sizeRugby field with its own grandstand on the Mountain side of Railway Row (behind the houses) adjacenttothemgby ground was the Junction Outdoor Bowling green. Social activities were also well catered for in these times before TV and videos. The Railway Social Hall was located next to the Way and Works Building on the southern side of the yard. Regular dances and social functions were held there. The building is now a hayshed at Raurimu. It is easily discernible from State Highway 4 above Raurimu. On Thames Street the Majestic Hall was constructed. This also hosted regular social events. From the 1920s films were screened in a building at the rear of where the Junction Ski shop now stands. Later films - those were the days of silent movies, and music was provided by either piano or accordion, were held inthe Majestic Hall. In 1935 Harry Thompson build the Plaza Theatre. Picture trains would run from Taumarunui in the north picking up patrons from Erua, Pokaka and Horopito, and from Taihape in the south picking up people from Tangiwai, Karioi and Rangataua. With acknowledgements to Marrilyn George and Bill Pierre Continued next week.