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41-483: The Raetihi Branch was a branch line railway in the central North Island of New Zealand . It formed part of New Zealand's national rail network and operated from 1917 until 1968. A combination of political pressure and the economic potential of the forestry in the Raetihi area motivated the construction of this line. A start on a tramway from Raetihi to Rangataua seems to have been made in 1908, with some of

82-428: A spur line . Branch lines may serve one or more industries, or a city or town not located on a main line. Branch lines may also connect two or more main lines. An industrial spur is a type of secondary track used by railroads to allow customers at a location to load and unload railcars without interfering with other railroad operations. Industrial spurs can vary greatly in length and railcar capacity depending on

123-510: A common sight along railroads in industrial and rural cities alike. As automobile and roadway technology improved throughout the early and mid-20th century, most low volume industry spurs were abandoned in favor of the greater flexibility and economic savings of trucking. Today, railroads remain the most economical way to ship large quantities of material, a fact that is reflected in industrial spurs. Most modern day spurs serve very large industries that require hundreds, if not thousands, of carloads

164-464: A mainline, they tend to have lower maintenance and signaling (train control) standards. Before the rise of the long-distance trucking in the early 1930s, railroads were the primary means of transportation around the world. Industries of the era were commonly built along railroad lines specifically to allow for easy access to shipping. Short (under a mile, oftentimes only several hundred yards) industrial spurs with very small (under ten car) capacities were

205-519: A military point of view and were known as wartime classes ( Kriegsbauart ). After the war, in East Germany, some pre-war goods wagon classes were given a new lease of life as ‘reconstructed goods wagons’ ( Reko-Güterwagen ) and continued in service for several more decades. Since the Union of Private Goods Wagon Companies ( Vereinigung der Privatgüterwagen-Interessenten (VPI) ) was founded in 1921,

246-823: A section of the West Rail line . Discontinued services include the Sha Tau Kok Railway and the Wo Hop Shek Branch . A spur line to Siu Sai Wan has been proposed. Delhi On the Delhi Metro , the Blue Line has a Branch Line with 8 Stations, linking Yamuna Bank to Ghaziabad via Anand Vihar ISBT and terminating at Vaishali. The first section of the Branch opened on 8 January 2010 with Anand Vihar as its terminal with six stations. It

287-531: A subsidy for grain transport, and instead allowed railways to absorb branch line subsidies freely without making effort to improve the profitability of the lines. The term "grain-dependent branch lines" began being used as early as 1978 to refer to the special case of these branch lines in agricultural areas whose viability depended on the economics of grain transport. The Western Grain Transportation Act of 1983 addressed this case specifically, but

328-466: A year. There is an international branch line between Italy and Vatican: the 300-metre Vatican Railway , connecting from the Pisa-Rome railway mainline at Roma San Pietro railway station , to Vatican City station . Many British railway branch lines were closed as a result of the " Beeching cuts " in the 1960s, although some have been re-opened as heritage railways . The smallest branch line that

369-567: Is still in operation in the UK is the Stourbridge Town Branch Line from Stourbridge Junction going to Stourbridge Town . Operating on a single track, the journey is 0.8 miles (1.3 kilometres) long and the train takes around two and a half minutes to complete its journey. In North America, little-used branch lines are often sold by large railroads to become new common carrier short-line railroads of their own. Throughout

410-521: The American Railway Association , initially to coordinate time tables. The AAR has developed various standards for freight cars over the years, including couplers , loading gauges , reporting marks , interchange rules, and information systems, through its Manual of Standards and Recommended Practices publications. The numerous types of goods wagon are categorised here based on their main design features and in accordance with

451-532: The Bay of Plenty Region , lines were built inland to provide rail access to large logging operations. Today, many of the branch lines have been closed, including almost all of the general-purpose country lines. Those that remain serve ports or industries far from main lines such as coal mines, logging operations, large dairying factories, and steelworks . In Auckland and Wellington , two branch lines in each city exist solely for commuter passenger trains. For more, see

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492-568: The German State Railway Wagon Association on 1 April 1909. With the participation of all the German state railways, it created a common pool of goods wagons, which by the end of 1911 had no less than 560,000 wagons. In addition, they all had standardised inscriptions and red-brown livery. In order to standardise future procurements, a total of 11 wagon classes were defined ( Sheet nos. A1 to A11 ). These wagons of

533-753: The Gladstone Branch in New Jersey; as well as the New Canaan Branch , Danbury Branch , and Waterbury Branch in Connecticut . The Long Island Rail Road also refers to its services as "branches". In Chile, there are a lot of branch lines on its main line, of only a few remain operational. Most only operating in turistic services (like the Antilhue-Valdivia branch line), others have been taken over by other railways (like

574-1048: The Grand Trunk , Canadian National , or Canadian Pacific ) which would acquire formerly independent short line railways for use as branch lines, with the short line often continuing to exist as a subsidiary. For example, when the Canadian Pacific acquired the Algoma Eastern Railway (a short line) in 1930, it soon after abandoned much of the Algoma Eastern mainline, but retained sections close to Algoma Eastern–Canadian Pacific junctions as short branch lines or spurs. The National Transportation Act of 1967 provided government subsidies for branch lines. Western railway development in Canada worked in concert with land settlement and cultivation, as pioneers were settled near railway lines, often on land

615-788: The North South Line between Jurong East and Choa Chu Kang stations was operated as a separate line, known as the Branch line . It was merged into the North–South Line with the opening of the Woodlands Extension in 1996. The future Jurong Region Line and Cross Island Line will also have branch lines. New Zealand once had a very extensive network of branch lines, especially in the South Island regions of Canterbury , Otago , and Southland . Many were built in

656-704: The South Tseung Kwan O Spur Line to LOHAS Park station , opened in 2009. Earlier, a spur line was built in 1985 on the East Rail line to serve Racecourse station , bypassing Fo Tan station . Also, the Tsim Sha Tsui Extension  [ yue ] was built in 2004 on the East Rail line to serve East Tsim Sha Tsui station . However, after the Kowloon Southern Link was completed in 2009, this spur line turns into

697-717: The list of New Zealand railway lines . Goods wagon At the beginning of the railway era, the vast majority of goods wagons were four- wheeled (two wheelset ) vehicles of simple construction. These were almost exclusively small covered wagons , open wagons with side-boards, and flat wagons with or without stakes. Over the course of time, an increasing number of specialised wagons were developed. Special wagons for specific purposes or wagons with special features were already being introduced around 1850 by private companies. Amongst these were tank wagons and numerous refrigerated vans . In countries like Germany, wagon hire firms procured large numbers of these wagons and hired them to

738-695: The San Rosendo-Talcahuano branch line, which has been taken over by Biotrén and the Laja-Talcahuano train service) however, there is one branch line that still remains as fully operative. The Talca-Constitución branch line, which uses trains with bus motors. Two extensions to the MTR rapid transit network were built as branches of existing lines: the Lok Ma Chau Spur Line to Lok Ma Chau station , which opened in 2007; and

779-623: The U.S. state of New Jersey . The line is a short branch of the Northeast Corridor Line , running from Princeton Junction northwest to Princeton with no intermediate stops. Also known as the "Dinky Line", at 2.9 mi (4.7 km) it is the shortest scheduled commuter rail line in the United States. The run takes 4 minutes, 47 seconds. Other than the Princeton Line, other surviving branch lines include

820-603: The UIC goods wagon classification system. Freight railroads in North America have always been almost entirely privately owned. The separate northern and southern U.S. track gauges were unified on June 1, 1886, allowing freight cars to be interchanged throughout the continent. The Safety Appliance Act of 1893 made air brakes and automatic couplers mandatory on all trains in the United States, effective 1900. The Association of American Railroads (AAR) had its origins in 1872 as

861-469: The United States and Canada, branch lines link smaller towns too distant from the main line to be served efficiently, or to serve a certain industrial site such as a power station either because of a location away from the main line or to reduce congestion. They were typically built to lower standards, using lighter rail and shallow roadbeds when compared to main lines. Much of Canada's branch line history relates to large rail transport conglomerates (such as

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902-1033: The agreement for the mutual use of goods wagons in international traffic ( RIV ) has regulated the exchange of goods wagons in Europe and the Middle East. In addition, international goods wagon fleets were created in 1953 in Western Europe with the Europ-Verband and in 1965 in Eastern Europe with the Common Goods Wagon Park (OPW). During the second half of the 20th century, national goods wagon classes in Europe were increasingly replaced by Union internationale des chemins de fer (UIC) standard wagons. Since 1964, all goods wagons in Germany, for example, have had to be classified using

943-449: The braking distance of fast goods trains is longer than the separation between distant and home signals (as are Express Passenger trains), they may only run at high speeds of 150 mph (240 km/h) with locomotives on routes with early signalling systems in the driver's cab ( LZB , FZB and ETCS ). In Europe, the first agreements were struck very early on between the national state railways ( Länderbahnen ) and private companies for

984-775: The end users. In the early days of the railway, goods trains still ran at top speeds of only about 20 mph (32 km/h). However, the introduction of through brakes using air pipes (such as the Kunze-Knorr brakes in Germany) from the 1920s enabled higher speeds to be safely achieved. Modern goods wagons are authorised for speeds up to around 75 mph (121 km/h) and in certain countries, wagons are increasingly equipped with GPS receivers and transponders which provide location monitoring as required. The Deutsche Bahn (DB) even has goods wagons cleared for high-speed rail travel at up to 100 mph (160 km/h). Because

1025-569: The first president of the Canadian National Railway , said that although most branch lines cannot pay for themselves, they are even essential to make main lines pay. In the United States, abandonment of unproductive branch lines was a byproduct of deregulation of the rail industry through the Staggers Act . The Princeton Branch is a commuter rail line and service owned and operated by New Jersey Transit (NJT) in

1066-446: The forests were removed, land became available for farming and agriculture became important to the line's economic fortunes. Livestock was of particular seasonal importance. Passenger trains did not operate, but passenger carriages were attached to goods services to create what were known as mixed trains . A 1930 Royal Commission into the state of New Zealand's railway network recommended the termination of passenger services, but this

1107-418: The interests of private transport organisations in Germany (including wagon hire firms, goods wagon builders and repair firms, and owners of private sidings) has been jointly represented. The Union has around 100 members who own 50,000 goods wagons. In 2007, they transported 361,000,000  t (355,298,556 long tons ; 397,934,383 short tons ) of goods. Other countries have similar organisations. Since 1922,

1148-446: The international UIC classification system: Goods wagons for special purposes include: The UIC's instructions were sometimes interpreted differently by the various railway administrations, so that it could happen that almost identical wagons were grouped into different classes. In addition wagons had occasionally to be reclassified after slight modifications. For example, an E Class wagon can become an F Class simply through welding on

1189-546: The late 19th century to open up inland regions for farming and other economic activities. The branches in the South Island regions were often general-purpose lines that carried predominantly agricultural traffic, but lines elsewhere were often built to serve a specific resource: on the West Coast , an extensive network of branch lines was built in rugged terrain to serve coal mines, while in the central North Island and

1230-475: The line was opened on 18 December 1917. Despite proclamations that it was the start of a new route to Whanganui , the line was never extended beyond Raetihi. The following stations were located on the Raetihi Branch (in brackets is the distance from Ohakune): The line fulfilled its intended purpose to carry timber to markets further afield, with large quantities railed in the branch's early years. As

1271-473: The line's future was put under review in 1967. Financial losses had been steadily increasing, and the review called for closure of the line. Accordingly, this took place on 1 January 1968. Two significant relics from the Raetihi Branch still exist. The Raetihi station building has been relocated from its old site to a new location in the town and has been restored as part of the Waimarino Museum . At

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1312-488: The line. However, a more recent book said construction did not commence until 1913, when the site of the junction was changed to Ohakune . The change required redesign of the 2 mi (3.2 km) closest to the North Island Main Trunk . The outbreak of World War I a year later caused delays in both supplies and finding available manpower; nonetheless, work progressed steadily through the war years, and

1353-620: The mutual use of each other's goods wagons. Around 1850, the Union of German Railway Administrations ( Verein Deutscher Eisenbahnverwaltungen ) drew up regulations for the standardisation of dimensions and fittings. The formation of the Prussian State Railway Union in 1881 encouraged the emergence of wagon classes built to standard norms . One further European milestone was the formation of

1394-451: The other end of the branch, near Ohakune's famous big carrot, an old truss bridge remains in place. For the rest of the line's length, notable remnants are absent, but the formation can be sighted at points, especially where embankments or cuttings were required. Branch line A branch line is a secondary railway line which branches off a more important through route, usually a main line . A very short branch line may be called

1435-572: The railways had owned. However, by the mid-20th century, railways began neglecting lines in western agricultural regions. This was historically driven by factors such as the Crow Rate , which regulated the price railways could charge for shipping grain. Railways had little incentive to invest in rural Prairie branch lines, but were legally unable to abandon them under the National Transportation Act , which also did not provide

1476-507: The requirements of the customer the spur is serving. In heavily industrialized areas, it is not uncommon for one industrial spur to have multiple sidings to several different customers. Typically, spurs are serviced by local trains responsible for collecting small numbers of railcars and delivering them to a larger yard, where these railcars are sorted and dispatched in larger trains with other cars destined to similar locations. Because industrial spurs generally have less capacity and traffic than

1517-523: The route cleared and rails put in place. In 1911, the government granted approval to construct the line, with the line intended to diverge from the North Island Main Trunk in Rangataua . A proposal to electrify the line was investigated by the government's electrical engineer in 1911. The Minister of Public Works ( R. McKenzie ) turned the first sod , beside the railway at Ohakune , on Monday, 19 February 1912, when 20 workers were about to start building

1558-639: The so-called standard class ( Verbandsbauart ) and subsequent developments from them (the Austauschbauart class with interchangeable parts) dominated goods traffic in Germany up to the Second World War and had a significant impact in many other countries which acquired these wagons either through war reparations or simply because they were left behind by the Germans after the two world wars. From 1939, wagons were developed primarily from

1599-504: Was further extended to Vaishali in 2011. The line is planned to be extended from Vaishali to Mohan Nagar via Sahibabad Station to link with the main line. The East West Line of the MRT system in Singapore has a two-station branch to Changi Airport . The first station, Expo , opened in 2001. It was extended to Changi Airport station the next year. From 1990 to 1996, the section of

1640-476: Was not actually done until 16 December 1951. Another Royal Commission had taken place in 1950, but the line had remarkably been excluded. By the late 1950s, timber traffic had declined sharply, and road transport was creating strong competition for the branch line. From 1965, speed was limited to 15 mph (24 km/h), because maintenance on the line had been deferred; it was not seen as a necessity or financially justifiable, but as repairs became more necessary,

1681-502: Was repealed in 1994 in the wake of the North American Free Trade Agreement and budget-balancing initiatives in favour of a one-time payout by the federal government directly to farmers, to arrange transport of grain themselves. From the mid-1970s to the late 2010s, more than 9,300 kilometres (5,800 mi) of Prairie branch lines were abandoned or had a discontinuance of service. David Blyth Hanna ,

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