34-587: The Murupara Branch is a 57 kilometres (35 mi) long branch railway line from the East Coast Main Trunk (ECMT) at Kawerau to Murupara , built to serve a new pulp and paper mill harvesting the radiata pine trees of the Kaingaroa Forest on the Kaingaroa Plateau in the Bay of Plenty , New Zealand . The line was the last major extension of the New Zealand Railways Department (NZR) network, of 14 kilometres (8.7 mi) from Hawkens Junction, west of Edgecumbe , to Kawerau and 57 km from Kawerau to Murupara. The portion from Hawkens Junction to Kawerau
68-404: A footbridge from before the railway was opened, See also a newspaper report from 1893. A commission was appointed to investigate in 1906. With the widening and strengthening of the bridge, it was possible to build a footbridge in 1908, though there were complaints about the lack of lighting and cycling was banned. The footbridge was renewed in 1936. There was soon also pressure to remove
102-412: A 1959 contract law case and deregistered in 1967), is about 20 ft (6.1 m) lower than the road bridge, being 18 m (59 ft) above the normal river level. It was the first bridge in the country to be stressed with a 100-ton Freyssinet cable. The bridge was designed in 1880 and the £5,519 contract let on 3 November 1881 to W. Sims. Although Sir George Grey turned the first sod of
136-407: A large town. The branch was built via Kawerau to Murupara rather than directly from Hawkens Junction near Edgecumbe. The Kawerau to Murupara section required major earthworks to limit the ruling grade against loaded log trains to 1 in 60. The easy grades between Kawerau and the port of Mt Maunganui allow very long trains of over 2,000 tonnes. Work on the section to the mill started on 12 April 1953;
170-682: A line via Rotorua, with a Gisborne-Rotorua line from Makaraka to Mōtū of about 37 miles (60 km) being authorised by the Railways Authorisation Act, 1904. Gisborne was subsequently linked to the south with Wellington via Wairoa and Palmerston North by the Palmerston North - Gisborne Line in 1942. Work began on extending the line from the Taneatua Branch to Opotiki in March 1928 and on building
204-434: Is at 70% capacity and growing. By 2022 the average had increased slightly to 38 trains a day. To provide extra capacity crossing loops were added about 2012 at Ruakura , Eureka , Motumaoho , Tamihana and Apata. There are 11 passing loops between Hamilton and Tauranga, 7 of them 900 m (3,000 ft) long and 4 shorter. In 2020 a new container terminal at Kawerau was announced. Delays around land transfers means
238-674: Is built to narrow gauge of 1,067 mm ( 3 ft 6 in ), the uniform gauge in New Zealand. It was known as the East Coast Main Trunk Railway until 2011, when the word "Railway" was dropped. In 1880, the North Island Main Trunk railway had reached Frankton , Hamilton , from Auckland . From there, it was delayed by construction of the original Waikato River bridge (now carrying road traffic as part of Claudelands Road), before
272-534: Is now a pair of DL class locomotives. The annual tonnage of logs increased from 730,000 tons in 1960 to 1,126,000 tonnes in 1965. After the opening of the Kaimai Tunnel in 1978 the section to Kawerau from Hawkens Junction was formally incorporated into the East Coast Main Trunk designation, with the line to Taneatua downgraded to branch status. The section from Kawerau to Murupara became
306-609: Is the second busiest CBD route for cyclists, with 135 in peak hours in 2009 and a rising trend. To make the bridge safer for the 600 cyclists a day, sharrows were added to the lane markings in 2019. Buses to Rototuna and route 11 cross the bridge. A new railway bridge , opened on 19 September 1964, a few metres downstream, replaced the old with a 7-span, 143 m (469 ft) pre-stressed concrete box girder bridge . The spans are supported by reinforced concrete piers , resting on in-situ cast piles . The bridge, built by Wilkinson and Davies Construction Co Ltd (involved in
340-732: The Fonterra dairy factory at Waitoa. The rail bridge at Te Aroha is now a walkway over the Waihou River; the route from the tunnel to Waikino through the Karangahake Gorge is now a walkway; from Waikino to Waihi the Goldfields Railway heritage line preserves the old railway, and State Highway 2 runs through the Athrenee Gorge along part of the original rail alignment. Along parts of State Highway 2, parts of
374-797: The Murupara Branch , and then the Murupara Line from 2011. East Coast Main Trunk The East Coast Main Trunk ( ECMT ) is a railway line in the North Island of New Zealand , originally running between Hamilton and Taneatua via Tauranga, connecting the Waikato with the Bay of Plenty. The ECMT now runs between Hamilton and Kawerau, with a branch line to Taneatua from the junction at Hawkens. The line
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#1732787573956408-596: The Paeroa–Pokeno Line in 1938, when the Minister of Public Works Bob Semple on 28 January turned the first sod it was said that the proposed 29 mi (47 km) line would shorten the distance from Auckland to towns on the ECMT by nearly 50 mi (80 km). The Kaimai Tunnel later cut the distance by about 32 mi (51 km). Due to two world wars, an economic depression, and an influenza epidemic,
442-792: The Southern Hemisphere . It was eclipsed by the 13,400 m No. 4 tunnel of the Hex River Tunnels system in 1989. After the opening of the Kaimai Tunnel, the route through the Karangahake Gorge to the eastern junction closed in 1978 and was dismantled from 1980 to 1983. The railway from Morrinsville to Paeroa stayed open and continued (via the Thames Branch ) to Thames until closure in 1991 and lifting between Waitoa and Thames in 1996/1997. The 11 km section from Morrinsville to Waitoa reopened in 2004 to serve
476-465: The Taneatua Branch were surveyed (20 routes by 1920), but the expense of a line descending to the Bay of Plenty could not be justified (see Moutohora Branch ). The Kaimai Tunnel runs for 8,896 m under the Kaimai Ranges . Construction started from both sides of the range in 1969: the headings met in 1976 and the tunnel opened on 12 September 1978, at which time it became the longest tunnel in
510-623: The Taneatua Express started in 1929. Originally in the 1910s and 1920s, the East Coast Main Trunk line was to run from Pokeno to Gisborne via Paeroa, Tauranga, Opotiki and through the Waioeka Gorge, connecting with the Moutohora Branch to Gisborne ; creating a link from the isolated Gisborne Section line to Auckland via the Bay of Plenty. This followed on from an original proposal to link Gisborne with Auckland with
544-487: The D class an unofficial status of the first mainline diesel-electric locomotive in NZR service. The D class were then replaced by D class locomotives in 1957. From October 1963 a pair of D class diesel locomotives were used, hauling 1,500-tonne log trains. From the 1980s to early 2000s the standard train was a trio of DC class locomotives hauling a gross load of 2,400 tonnes on 53 USL bogie log wagons. The primary motive power
578-600: The National Union of Railwaymen announced that its members had banned the lifting of the line, which proceeded anyway and was completed by 1983. A paper written in 2008 for the then railway infrastructure owner ONTRACK (now KiwiRail Network) investigated the possibility of electrifying the East Coast Main Trunk from Hamilton to Tauranga. In May 2021, KiwiRail, Beca and Systra published the North Island Electrification Study, which put
612-579: The area. The chamber of commerce described the reopening as an election bribe in the lead-up to the 1981 general election and it was opposed by the Labour Party. In the end, deregulation of land transport and the creation of the New Zealand Railways Corporation in 1982 led to the re-evaluation of the business proposal to reopen the line, resulting in the decision to lift the remaining section on 18 June 1982. On 30 July
646-468: The expected estimate for electrification of the ECMT from Hamilton to Mt Maunganui at $ 426m. When the line opened to its terminus at Taneatua, the Taneatua Express ran from Auckland. The service took 12 hours, later reduced to 10½ hours, and ran two or three times weekly. The last train ran on 7 February 1959, and was replaced by a railcar service as far as Te Puke, due to negligible traffic to Taneatua. The railway struggled to compete with private cars and
680-533: The four cast cylinders from A & G Price . However, work stopped in November 1882, when it was realised the foundations were inadequate, requiring bracing of the cylinders and deepening of the foundations from 3 to 24 ft (7.3 m). The bridge was completed on 21 September 1883 and used for construction trains, until the Hamilton- Morrinsville railway opened on 1 October 1884. It
714-476: The full railway was never completed. In June 1928, 250 men employed by the Public Works Department (many living in government houses or huts) were dismissed, to be replaced by NZR staff. As late as 1939 £45,000 was provided for extension from Taneatua to Opotiki and a route pegged out as far as a proposed Waimana railway station. Several routes for the link from the Moutohora Branch to
SECTION 20
#1732787573956748-559: The introduction of the Waikato Connection commuter service between Hamilton and Auckland. In 2001, it was announced that the service was too uneconomic to continue, and the last service was on 7 October 2001. The ECMT carries 52% of freight between Waikato and Bay of Plenty and is one of Kiwi Rail's most profitable lines. In 2018 163 trains a week passed under Hamilton, 90 of them on weekday nights, or evenings, 37 at weekends and 36 between 8am and 5pm, Monday to Friday. The line
782-672: The line made its way to Morrinsville in October 1884, Te Aroha in March 1886 and Paeroa in 1898. There were also minor delays, such as in the delivery of totara sleepers. The route to Waihi through the Karangahake Gorge was surveyed in the next few years with construction starting in 1900, with three bridges, including a road-rail bridge and a kilometre-long tunnel, which has a 1:50 grade and took three years to build, being completed in 1904. The line between Paeroa and Waihi opened in November 1905. Surveys were undertaken for
816-518: The line to Kawerau and Murupara was operated by the Ministry of Works (the successor to the PWD or Public Works Department) until 1 July 1957. As the line ran through forest areas, steam locomotives were not used on the line, and motive power has only ever been provided by diesel engines. Initially, the D class were used for construction then for log trains on the still unsettled track bed; this has given
850-549: The old railbed, bridge piers and abutments are still visible. Old bridges are also extant at Waitoa, Te Aroha, Karangahake, Waikino and Aongatete. Near Apata, the old and newer bridges of both routes can be seen from the highway spanning the Wainui Stream. There were proposals to keep the 14.3km Apata - Katikati section of the railway open as a branch line to carry kiwifruit exports to the Port of Tauranga. The proposal gained
884-513: The project as of late 2023 has yet to start construction. Photos - Claudelands Bridge Claudelands Bridge is a dual-lane truss road bridge over the Waikato River , joining Claudelands with Hamilton Central . In 1968 it was converted from the old railway bridge, which had been completed about the end of July 1883. The road bridge was given a Category 2 listing in 1985. Vehicle use has declined in recent years, but it
918-597: The rails reached Kawerau in August and the first train arrived at Kawerau on 26 October, six months after work started. The major earthworks on the Kawerau to Murupara section were completed rapidly with heavy earthmoving machinery, then prefabricated track sections were laid at the rate of 3 km a week. The first logs were loaded at Galatea (48 km from Kawerau and 9 km from Murupara) on 4 April 1955. A regular service to Murupara operated from 15 January 1957, although
952-401: The railway extension at Claudelands in 1879, there seems to have been little publicity for that or the bridge, with only minimal mention in 1883. Ironwork for the bridge was reported as shipped in 1881. Progress was very slow, so the contract was re-let to J. R. Stone on 18 September 1882 for £4,312 13s 6d, plus the £1,376 cost (the £5,688 total would now be equivalent to just under $ 1m) of
986-650: The railway from the centre of the CBD. In 1912 the Borough Council suggested the line could be lowered. A 1938 plan was stopped by war in 1939. The National Roads Board then promoted it and, in September 1959, the Ministry of Works started the scheme to put the railway in a tunnel and replace the old bridge with one at the tunnel level. From 1970 to 1974 33kV cables were laid across the bridge. Further wiring
1020-516: The route beyond Waihi in 1907 and construction started in March 1912, but was suspended in November of the same year. The work started again in 1914, but was suspended again in March 1917 because of a shortage of staff due to World War I . The works started again in 1918, and the railway through the Athenree Gorge opened to Tahawai in 1927 and Tauranga in March 1927. The remaining length of line to Te Puke and Taneatua opened in 1928, and
1054-771: The service was withdrawn on 11 September 1967. Other than special excursions, there were no passenger services until 1991. In 1991, the Kaimai Express started and ran to Tauranga. Along with the Geyserland Express it used the Silver Fern railcars that had been used on the North Island Main Trunk line. The first train ran on 9 December 1991, running a morning service from Tauranga to Auckland and afternoon service from Auckland to Tauranga, taking 3½ hours. The times changed in 2000 to enable
Murupara Branch - Misplaced Pages Continue
1088-455: The support of Associated Minister of Railways, Aussie Malcolm , who announced on 26 June 1981 that the section would be retained. In July 1981 New Zealand Railways began legal work to re-open the line as an industrial line. There was strong opposition to reopening the line though. The local county council and the chamber of commerce opposed re-opening as that would mean keeping two road overbridges they were seeking to eliminate to improve roads in
1122-464: Was known as the Kawerau Branch until 1978, when it became part of the ECMT, and the former ECMT from Hawkens Junction to Taneatua became the Taneatua Branch . Construction of the line began in 1951, but in March 1953 it was decided to build the mill at Kawerau not Murupara, because Kawerau had geothermal steam for energy, and the climate of Murupara in winter is misty, so was less suitable for
1156-411: Was originally tested with a 117-ton load . To cope with greater loads, an extra cylinder was added to the original two on each side of the main channel, the 2 new cylinders being ordered from S Luke & Co for £2,354 in 1906, and the new deck from A & T Burt Ltd for £5,872 in 1907. Further strengthening was designed in 1934 to cope with the 135-ton K-Class locomotives. There was pressure for
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