Raetihi line recalled - 80 years on

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 14, Issue 675, 25 February 1997, Page 6

Raetihi line recalled - 80 years on

by Bob Norling of Ohakune, president of Main Trunk Rail Ohakune (MTRO).

The year 1997 seems to be an appropriate year to commemorate two significant dates in the history of railway development and decline in the Waimarino. Exactly 80 years ago, in 1917, the branch-line between Ohakune Junction and Raetihi was officially opened by the then Prime Minister of New Zealand, the Right Honorable W F Massey. The first sod had been turned five years earlier on 19 February 1912 but progress on the project had been held up by a series of objections from local farmers andlandowners with the result that six alternative routes - each with its own construction and funding problems - had to be considered. At that time there were a number of timber mills in and around the Waimarino between Ohakune and Raetihi and it was mainly for the transportation of logs and their processed by-products that the line was built. Only a light train track served Makarunui-Ohk via Burns Street. There were mills at Makarunui, Pakihi and Raetihi and, to cope with both the outward and inward traffic (passengers and provisions were also carried) loading sidijigs and goods sheds were constructed at Rochfort Park (opposite the Ohakune swimming baths and next to the OhakuneKarioi rugby grounds), and Raetihi both of which were manned by New Zealand Railways staff. Makarunui station was only a "dog box" with an outside toilet and a log siding. The length of the line between Ohakune Junction and Raetihi was eight and a half miles (13.6km) and railway staff houses were built at both Rochfort and Raetihi stations. A unique feature of the old wooden truss bridge over the Mangawhero River at Makarunui was that trains had to give way to vehicular traffic! During the war years the line was going to be extended to Wanganui but this never happened. Outward-bound tonnage carried on its branch-line from Raetihi included timber, live-stock and market-garden produce. Records show that, for a railway line of that length, the Raetihi branch-line was rated as one of the top profit-making operations on New Zealand railways coming third behind those in major population centres. One of the memorable highlights of this line occurred in 1918 when Raetihi and a large area of the Waimarino was devastated by fire. Two trains carried up to 400 people from Raetihi to Ohakune and Taihape where they were provided with temporary emergency accommodation. Exactly 50 years after the Raetihi branch-line was first opened (in 1 9 1 7) the line was finally closed in 1 967 . . . that was exactly 30 years ago.

Regular passenger traffic between Raetihi and the North Island Main Trunk line at Ohakune Junction had stopped 16 years earlier in 195 1 though the line continued to be used both by trains and railcars from time to time for railway enthusiast excursions until 1966. During its heyday many different types of locomotives plied between Ohakune and Raetihi including X's, Ab's, Baldwin Aa's, J Class, JB Class and after 1965, a TR diesel-electric locomotive operated until the line was closed 30 years ago in 1-967. Originally passenger trains ran daily between Ohakune and Raetihi but with improvements to the roads and the decline in logging traffic as the mills closed, cars became the preferred method of travel and the goods service was reduced to one a week each way ... on a Friday aftemoon. This was not a popular run among railway staff who often had to be called out just as they were about to "knock off work" for the weekend to repair telephone lines and to attend to fires which had broken out in the dense ferncovered vegetation beside the track. These fires were started by embers from the steam locomotives. The Raetihi branch-line served the Waimarino area and its community well in the days when it was most needed and when local roads were primitive and unsealed. Some of the railway heritage of the Raetihi branch-line has been preserved in the former Raetihi railway station which was re-located to Seddon Street in 1968 to serve as a railway /timber museum. Another relic of this time still standing is the old wooden truss bridge over the Mangateitei stream beside SH49 opposite the Carrot. Partially concealed and overgrown with vegetation, MTRO is seeking to have a preservation order placed on it and to install an information board across the road next to the Carrot. This would tell visitors about the historic Raetihi branch-line.