Dunback and Makareao Branches
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The Dunback and Makareao Branches were two connected branch line railways that formed part of New Zealand's national rail network. Located in the Otago region of the South Island, both lines were 15km in length and shared the first 11km. The Dunback Branch was also known as the Waihemo Branch and the Makareao Branch was also known as the Inch Valley Railway or the Inch Valley Branch. The former opened in 1885 and closed in 1968; the latter opened in 1900 and operated for eighty-nine years.
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[edit] Construction
The first few kilometres of the Dunback Branch was constructed in 1880 to access a deposit of shingle for use on railway construction and maintenance elsewhere. It left the Main South Line just north of Palmerston with its points facing south towards Palmerston station. These initial kilometres were built with a further extension in mind, and by 1884, work on completing the line to Dunback was under way. The route of the branch followed the Shag River, and on 29 August 1885, it was formally opened. An extension of this line to Ranfurly and beyond was proposed as a possible route for a railway to Central Otago, but the route of the Otago Central Railway ultimately reached Ranfurly by passing through the Taieri and Maniototo regions.
The Makareao Branch followed approximately fifteen years later, with the four kilometres of trackage constructed by the Public Works Department and opened on 31 March 1900. Its ownership passed through a series of government departments before ultimately coming under the control of the Railways Department that managed the national network. This line was built through an extremely rural district, serving no towns or localities; it was built solely to access a limeworks and faced a steep climb from its junction with the Dunback Branch at Inch Valley to the terminus in Makareao.
[edit] Stations
The following stations were located on the Dunback and Makareao Branches (in brackets is the distance from Palmerston):
- Meadowbank (4.38km) - had a loop long enough for 14 wagons
- Glenpark (7.23km) - had a loop long enough for 31 wagons, a goods shed, a passenger platform, and a loading bank
- Inch Valley (11.35km) - had a loop long enough for 15 wagons, a passenger platform and shelter shed, and a loading bank.
The line then split and had two termini:
- Dunback (15.20km) - had multiple loops, goods shed, water tank for steam locomotives, passenger platform, loading bank.
- Makareao (15.06km) - had lime bins and a loop long enough for 26 wagons.
Dunback was the only manned station. 100m before Inch Valley, a short siding ran to a ballast pit and had a 39 wagon loop. The points faced towards Dunback.
[edit] Operation
The Dunback Branch was the nearest railhead for the Maniototo region at its opening in 1885 and initially catered for traffic from beyond just the local Dunback area. This included providing supplies for the construction of the Otago Central Railway, and when the Otago Central was opened to Ranfurly in 1898, the Dunback Branch was deprived of its wider importance and it was relegated to catering for solely local traffic.
The 1900 opening of the Makareao Branch significantly added to traffic on the line, with large quantities of limestone transported by rail. This industrial traffic sustained the line, allowing the branch to largely avoid the slow decline that plagued many rural branch lines in New Zealand in the 20th century. However, by the late 1920s, the short section from Inch Valley to Dunback was losing money and passenger services on the entire line ceased as of 10 August 1930. These services were not dedicated passenger trains anyway, but "mixed" trains where a passenger carriage (or more if necessary) was attached to a goods train.
In 1950, five trains operated a week, and with non-limestone traffic dwindling, it was inevitable that the Dunback section would be closed and services concentrated on Makareao. Closure of the four kilometres from Inch Valley to Dunback took place on 1 January 1968 and limestone became the line's sole traffic. Services operated thrice weekly to Dunedin's Burnside Cement Works, with the typically DJ class-hauled trains of four-wheeled wagons nicknamed "stone trains". From at least 1952, trains had been limited to a speed of just 30km/h for the entire line, and in 1988, this was dropped to 20km/h. During these late years, occasional passenger excursions were operated down the line by railway enthusiasts and organisations, notably the Otago Excursion Train Trust.
The end of the Makareao Branch was sudden. Declining demand led to the closure of the Burnside Cement Works in December 1988, removing the limestone traffic that was the line's livelihood. It was kept open for a few months due to hopes that the cement works would be reopened, but this did not come to pass and formal closure came on 1 June 1989, though stone trains had not run since the cement works' closure the previous December. Possibly the only use of the line in 1989 came when enthusiasts from the Otago Excursion Train Trust and the Pleasant Point Museum and Railway used a trolley to make a trip along the line.
[edit] The branch today
Although remnants of closed railways diminish and disappear over time due to natural and human activity, relics of both the Dunback and Makareao Branches can be found. Many remnants are still quite visible due to the line's late closure in comparison to the date of closure of many rural New Zealand branch lines. Bridges, abutments, culverts, and the line's formation are very visible for the entire length of the route, some railway gates and mile/kilometre pegs are still in place, and even a few rails (including a set of points at Inch Valley) remain. Meadowbanks still has its stockyard, while loading banks can be found at Inch Valley and Dunback. In Makareao, scaled-down operations still take place at the limeworks, producing goods for primarily local use, and substantial railway remnants exist. Unfortunately, one of the line's most notable features was destroyed in the mid-1990s; a 15-span testle bridge on the Makareao Branch was demolished as part of an army exercise.
[edit] External link
- Patrick Dunford's Railways of New Zealand - Dunback and Makareao Branches: includes pictures of the line both in its final days and after the closure.
[edit] References
- Churchman, Geoffrey B., and Hurst, Tony; The Railways Of New Zealand: A Journey Through History, HarperCollins Publishers (New Zealand), 1991 reprint
- Leitch, David, and Scott, Brian; Exploring New Zealand's Ghost Railways, Grantham House, 1998 revised edition
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