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28-728: The Ohai Line , formerly known as the Ohai Industrial Line and previously the Wairio Branch and the Ohai Railway Board 's line, is a 54.5 km branch line railway in Southland , New Zealand. It opened in 1882 and is one of two remaining branch lines in Southland, and one of only a few in the country. A number of smaller privately owned railways fanned out from Wairio; one of these lines, to Ohai ,

56-674: A petition that the government acquire the WR&;CC line and extend it into Ohai. Unfortunately, the arguments in favour of this proposal were presented to a parliamentary committee in 1914 just as World War I broke out and further consideration of the proposal was postponed. However, later that year the Local Railways Act was passed and, despite objections from the Nightcaps Coal Company and others in Nightcaps,

84-723: A proposal was made to build another line to coal interests around Ohai. The construction of this line was fiercely opposed by the Nightcaps Coal Company, fearing a loss of business. The Ohai Railway Board (ORB) was formed under the District Railways Act 1877. Much like the Port Chalmers Railway Company Limited in Dunedin , the ORB was formed with the backing of local government, and because the central government declined to extend its line. In

112-521: Is a locality in the Southland region of New Zealand's South Island . It is situated west of Ohai and Nightcaps , and north of Tuatapere and Orawia , with the nearest state highway in Ohai. Birchwood was once the terminus of a private railway line run by the Ohai Railway Board , an extension of the Wairio Branch . The 19 km line from Wairio to Birchwood ran via Ohai and opened in 1934. The section from Ohai to Birchwood had been closed by

140-496: Is now called the Ohai Line, and it is one of the very few survivors of a formerly extensive rural branch line network. The 1932 Ohai Railway Board Act defined the membership of the ORB as: Only one industrial steam loco was built and operated for the ORB. All of these locos were originally built for the ORB, but were later either sold to other industrial users, or placed into preservation straight away. The Ohai Railway Board

168-757: The Southland District Council adopted as part of the Otago Regional Land Transport Strategy a provision to upgrade the Ohai line and maintain it as a viable alternative to a road for bulk freight. On 15 May 2008 Fonterra and Eastern Coal Holdings reached an agreement to continue to rail coal from Eastern Coal's Takitimu mining operations in the Ohai/Nightcaps district to Fonterra's Clandeboye dairy factory . Under this new contract, approximately 120,000 tonnes of coal will be carried annually by

196-560: The 1870s, coal was discovered in Ohai . Mines opened in the area, mostly with their own 2 ft gauge railways to carry coal. Coal production boomed in the area in 1882 when a private spur railway line was built by the Nightcaps Coal Company from the terminus of the New Zealand Government Railways Wairio Branch at Wairio to Nightcaps to provide more efficient transport of coal. In 1916

224-489: The Nightcaps Coal Company in nearby Nightcaps , and operated by the Railways Department. The roads in the Ohai area in 1909 were described as "unspeakably bad" in a publication of the Ohai Railway Board in 1925; although significant coal deposits were in the area, it was difficult and hardly viable to transport the coal the short distance to the railway in Nightcaps. For this reason, another line from Wairio

252-665: The ORB to amalgamate with NZR. Following the 1989 local government reforms the Wallace County Council was amalgamated into the Southland County Council, forming the Southland District Council . The District Council took over running of the ORB from 1989, and the ORB's operations were incorporated into the national rail network on 1 June 1990, and from then on the New Zealand Railways Corporation operated trains on

280-703: The Ohai Railway Board, was set up to preserve facilities in Wairio and restore a number of steam locomotives of the P and V classes, but has been dissolved. The engines were recovered from being dumped by a river in Branxholme, formerly on the Kingston Branch town and now on the Ohai Line. 45°59′58″S 168°01′50″E  /  45.9995°S 168.0306°E  / -45.9995; 168.0306 Birchwood, New Zealand Birchwood

308-505: The Ohai Railway District was declared on 4 May 1916. The declaration of this District included a condition that the Ohai Railway Board had to acquire the WR&CC line before constructing any new railway. The case for acquisition went to a compensation court, and, upon paying the sum of 19,862 pounds 6 shillings and 6 pence, the Ohai Railway Board took control of the WR&CC line on 22 June 1917. The trackage acquired from

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336-510: The Ohai line. After infrastructural upgrades such as a new rail load-out system were undertaken, the contract came into effect on 1 September 2008; to fulfil it, trainloads of up to 550 tonnes of coal leave the Branch daily. In 2011, KiwiRail undertook a refurbishment of the line with a large resleepering and bridge strengthening projects to allow larger, heavier, containerised coal trains to operate, while allowing for an increase in speed. This work

364-444: The WR&CC was built to the low standards of a bush tramway , unsatisfactory as a permanent line. It could not even be appropriately extended into Ohai, though in 1919 an extension of 1 5/8 miles was opened to serve mines in the locality of Mossbank. In 1918 a proposal to build a third line directly from Wairio to Ohai was made, and it included a small deviation through Morley Village, considered part of Nightcaps. The construction of

392-494: The case of the ORB, this was the railway line from Wairio to the new coalfields at Ohai. Local landowners, mainly farmers, funded the extension through mortgages against their own properties. After two Royal Commissions, construction was approved in July 1919 with a deviation through Morley Village, considered part of Nightcaps. The first section of the line, including the part serving Morley Village, opened on 1 September 1920. Ohai

420-544: The continuation line to Invercargill section was also incorporated into the branch. This latter section of line is one of the oldest in New Zealand; built with wooden rails, it opened in 1864. The development of private railway lines beyond Wairio was somewhat complex. The first was established not long after the Wairio Branch was opened and was a privately owned extension of a little over 2 miles (3.2 km) to

448-448: The line was opposed by the Nightcaps Coal Company, but after two commissions were held, approval was granted and construction commenced in July 1919. The first section was opened for traffic to Tinkers on 1 September 1920, but due to difficulties with the terrain it was not completed to Ohai until December 1924 and opened to traffic in the new year. In 1934 the line reached its ultimate terminus of Birchwood , 19 kilometres from Wairio. As

476-696: The line. In 1992 the Southland District Council sold the ORB to New Zealand Rail Limited , (the rail and ferry operations of the Railways Corporation, which was split off from the corporation in 1991) who paid $ 1.2 million for the line and other assets of the ORB. The proceeds of this sale were used to form the Ohai Railway Board Trust, which grants money to local projects. The line still serves coal trains between Invercargill and Nightcaps. The line

504-425: The old WR&CC line, the Railways Department stated that it would not permit its wagons to be used on the line after 31 December 1924, and thus the timing of the opening of the line to Ohai at the start of January 1925 proved to be fortuitous as it could carry traffic from the mines that had previously utilised the WR&CC route. Later in 1925 the Nightcaps Coal Company shut down operations and its railway extension

532-406: The railway was built to national standards, the Ohai Railway Board suggested that the government could acquire it as the start of a route northwards to Lakes Te Anau and Manapouri , but nothing came of this. Freight trains off the Wairio Branch were largely industrial, and passengers were carried from Wairio to Invercargill from the line's opening until well into the 20th century. Due to decay of

560-577: The terminus was reverted to Reeds in 1956, with a brief reopening of the line from Reeds to Morely in 1960, before the terminus again reverted to Ohai. Economic reform in the 1980s ultimately led to the demise of the ORB. One of the ORB's members, the State Mines Department, became Coal Corporation on 1 April 1987. According to one source, the Coal Corporation and the New Zealand Railways Corporation (NZR) "put pressure" on

588-415: Was acquired by the Railways Department, which dismantled it in 1926. The Ohai Railway Board used locomotives bought from the Railways Department as motive power - initially one C and two F class locomotives, later replaced by an X class tender engine and a W class tank locomotive . Upon dieselisation in the 1960s, small diesel shunters such as a DSA class were used, and then a DJ class locomotive

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616-776: Was closely associated with the railway preservation movement. It donated its steam locomotives X 442 and W 794 to the New Zealand Railway and Locomotive Society in 1968 and they are leased to the Feilding and District Steam Rail Society for restoration. W 794 is currently in mainline operating condition and hauls heritage passenger trains in the North Island from its Feilding depot, and has been hauling Tranz Scenic's Overlander express on "Steam Engine Saturdays" and "Steam Engine Sundays". The Ohai Railway Board Heritage Trust, an organisation with no connection with

644-454: Was completed in late 2012. On 11 January 2021 a freight train of eight wagons each carrying two empty coal containers derailed at Wright's Bush between Thornbury and Makarewa; the track was expected by KiwiRail to take about a week to repair. Following the derailment it was announced that KiwiRail and Bathurst Resources had agreed $ 5.2 million would be spent on maintenance of the line, as well as track upgrades. Ohai Railway Board In

672-484: Was employed. In the early 1990s, the Ohai line was incorporated into the national network and the line beyond Wairio became known as the Ohai Industrial Line. The motive power used on the line from this stage was the same as that employed to haul the train from Invercargill. Presently, one train runs every weekday from Invercargill and return, arriving at Ohai at 9.30 am and leaving two hours later. This service operates on Saturdays and Sundays when required. In June 2007,

700-616: Was going to be the region's major port. The line was built to open up new land to settlement and agricultural use and to access coal deposits. In 1879 it was opened to Otautau , and to Wairio on 3 March 1882, where it connected with private railways. When the Tuatapere Branch closed in 1978 the Thornbury to Makarewa section became part of the Wairio Branch, and the closure of the Kingston Branch in 1982 meant that

728-556: Was originally built by the Ohai Railway Board and was worked by New Zealand Railways from 1990 and incorporated into the national network in 1992. Built at about the same time as the Riverton section of the Tuatapere Branch , what became the Wairio Branch left the Tuatapere Branch at Thornbury , where the junction originally faced Riverton rather than Invercargill , implying that the developers might have thought Riverton

756-575: Was proposed, but delays and negotiations meant that it did not open until June 1914. This line was operated by the Wairio Railway & Coal Company (WR&CC) and it served two additional mines in Moretown, a locality south of Ohai, but like the Nightcaps railway line, it did not provide reasonable access to Ohai's mines. Thus a third line was required. While the WR&CC's line was under construction, mining interests in Ohai united to present

784-484: Was reached four years later. The Nightcaps Coal Company ceased to operate, and they handed over their railway line to the Railways Department, who dismantled it in 1926 as the Ohai branch line was capable of catering for traffic from Nightcaps. In 1932, Parliament passed a local enactment for the ORB, the Ohai Railway Board Act 1932. In 1934, this line was further extended beyond Ohai to Birchwood, but

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