Taonui Branch

Taonui Branch route map^[1]

Legend

0 km

TaonuiNorth Island Main Trunk Railway

3.5 km

Near Colyton

The Taonui Branch was a minor branch line railway in New Zealand's national network. Located in the Manawatu District of the North Island, it opened in 1879 and operated until 1895.

Construction

In the late 1870s, sleepers were required for the Foxton & Wanganui Railway (later the Wanganui Branch, the now-closed Foxton Branch, and parts of the North Island Main Trunk Railway and Marton - New Plymouth Line). Accordingly, a 3.5 km line was constructed from Taonui, near Feilding, in a northeasterly direction towards Colyton to reach a stand of tōtara trees.^[1] It was opened on 17 November 1879, and over the next three years it was overseen by three separate authorities: initially the Railways Commissioners; then the Public Works Department from 20 April 1881; and finally the New Zealand Railways Department from the start of July 1882.^[2]

Operation

Despite being officially designated a branch line, it was little more than an elongated siding. No stations were located on the line and it never carried passengers.^[1] Soon after opening, horses substituted for locomotive power as a means of saving money - the animals pulled the wagons up the line, and gravity took the wagons back down the moderate descent to Taonui.^[2]

The line was not just used to provide the national railways with sleepers; some private timber companies also offered traffic. However, this traffic was not significant and closing the line was proposed by 1893. Closure came on 14 August 1895 and the rails were gone by February the next year.^[2]

The branch today

No earthworks at all were required for the line and no traces of the formation survive.^[2] The only extant remnant is the station building from the junction in Taonui. It closed in the 1960s and was subsequently relocated to a farmer's paddock near its original location. A few decades later, the farmer donated it to the Feilding and District Steam Rail Society. It has now been restored and included as part of the society's depot in Feilding, and the restoration work earned the society a Certificate of Merit from the Rail Heritage Trust of New Zealand, awarded on 2 June 2002.^[3]

References

1 2 3 New Zealand Railway and Tramway Atlas, fourth edition, edited by John Yonge (Essex: Quail Map Company, 1993), 14.
1 2 3 4 David Leitch and Brian Scott, Exploring New Zealand's Ghost Railways, revised edition (Wellington: Grantham House, 1998 [1995]), 33.
↑ Feilding and District Steam Rail Society, "Taonui Railway Station", accessed 27 November 2007.

New Zealand railway lines

Main lines

North Island	East Coast Main Trunk North Island Main Trunk (inc. Kapiti Line)

South Island	Main North Line and Main South Line (inc. Lyttelton Line), known together as the South Island Main Trunk

Secondary lines

North Island	Marton–New Plymouth Line Newmarket Line North Auckland Line Palmerston North–Gisborne Line Stratford–Okahukura Line Wairarapa Line (inc. Hutt Valley Line)

South Island	Midland Line Nelson Section Otago Central Railway Stillwater–Westport Line Waimea Plains Railway

Branch lines

Upper North Island	Cambridge Dargaville Donnellys Crossing Glen Afton Kinleith Kumeu–Riverhead Manukau Mount Maunganui Murupara Okaihau Onehunga Onerahi Opua Rotorua Taneatua Thames Waiuku and Mission Bush

Lower North Island	Ahuriri Castlecliff Foxton Gracefield Greytown Johnsonville Melling Mount Egmont Moutohora Ngatapa Opunake Raetihi Taonui Te Aro Waitara Wanganui

Upper South Island	Blackball and Roa Cape Foulwind Conns Creek Eyreton Fairlie Ferrymead Little River Methven Mount Somers Oxford Rapahoe Rewanui Hokitika/Ross Seddonville Southbridge Waiau Waimate Whitecliffs

Lower South Island	Bluff Catlins River Dunback and Makareao Fernhill Hedgehope Kingston Kurow Moeraki Mossburn Ngapara and Tokarahi Outram Port Chalmers Roxburgh Shag Point Tapanui Tokanui Tuatapere Waikaia Waikaka Wairio Walton Park Wyndham

Private lines

Significant proposals

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