The Nelson Railway…to Nowhere

Despite more than 80 years of drive and determination on the part of Nelsonians to work towards a railway that would end their isolation from the rest of the South Island, the resulting line was destined to be the railway to nowhere. 

Save our Railway

Nelsonians had dreamed of a railway that would link them to the rest of the South Island from as early as the 1860s.

Permission was finally given in 1871¹ to start work on a line intended to meet up with the main trunk line. Construction of the first 30.4 km stage, from the city to Foxhill, began in 1873 and it opened in 1876.² The line followed St Vincent Street, rather than the publicly favoured port route. It went over the relatively steep gradient of Bishopdale and through Stoke, Richmond, Brightwater and Wakefield, to Wai-iti, just short of Foxhill.³

Belgrove construction work by Midland Railway Company, The Nelson Provincial Museum, Tyree Studio collection,  179476/3
Click image to enlarge

An economic recession forced the suspension of construction until 1879-1880, when an extension to Belgrove was built.⁴

Meanwhile, in 1878, work had started on widening Haven Road to accommodate a line from the city to Government Wharf at Port Nelson.⁵ This followed the route of the closed Dun Mountain railway line and was opened in 1880.⁶

Work began on the Belgrove to Motupiko (Kōhatu) section in 1890. A work camp was established and a 1352m tunnel built through the Spooners Range.⁷ This section opened in 1897, and in 1901 a start was made on the 16 km stretch to Tadmor, via Tapawera. A rail and road bridge across the Motueka River was completed in 1906.⁸

Nelson Railway 1890's. Tyree Collection. Nelson Provincial Museum

Frustrations grew over the time taken to build the railway. It had taken 33 years to build just 66 km of track.⁹ The line had been extended from Tadmor, through Kiwi, Tui and Kākā to Glenhope¹⁰ by 1912. Construction was again suspended, however, and the outbreak of war in 1914 brought a further halt.¹¹

A 6km extension to Kawatiri began in 1920 and the Pikomanu railway camp was established the following year. A tunnel of 185 m was cut, two bridges built across the Hope River and the section opened in June 1926.¹²

Services were reduced in the 1920s, with passenger numbers and freight volumes having decreased due to the rapid development of road freight and passenger transport. The Nelson Progress League was established in 1924 to campaign for the line to be extended to join the main trunk. It launched a pamphlet in 1925 calling on the Government to “Fill the Gap”.¹³

Between 1924 and 1929 a 6 km section was built to Gowanbridge, but this was only ever used for freight. With the country reeling from the Depression, all work on the railway was suspended from January 1931, terminating the employment of 300 men.¹⁴

The gap between the completed section of line and Inangahua Junction, where it could connect with the main trunk line, was less than 70 km (42 miles).¹⁵

Toi Toi Valley train, The Nelson Provincial Museum, FN Jones Collection, 26713 
Click image to enlarge

The Nelson to Glenhope railway ran at a loss for most of its life, and was under constant threat of closure. Cost cutting resulted in services being run down and road transport became an increasingly attractive alternative. From 1931 the line was under constant threat of closure and people were urged to “use it or lose it”. It was announced in 1952 that the Nelson line would remain open only until major highways were completed. Rail services were suspended in 1954.¹⁶

A public meeting resulted in a 12,000-signature petition calling for a change of the decision. The Prime Minister, Sid Holland, issued a challenge to Nelson to save its railway by guaranteeing 25,000 tons of rail freight per year. On June 12, 1954, an excursion took 400 passengers on “the last train to Glenhope”. A few days later the Progress League accepted the Prime Minister’s challenge and the line re-opened. Despite its best efforts, the League fell short of the target and the line was set for closure on September 3, 1955.¹⁷

Kiwi Protest 1955, The Nelson Provincial Museum, Geoffrey C Wood Collection, 8830 fr38 
Click image to enlarge

The last timetabled train arrived in Nelson on Friday September 2, 1955 and there was a last-ditch public meeting on the Church Steps.¹⁸ Ruth Page called her own women’s protest meeting, on hearing that work would start on pulling up the railway lines at Kiwi on September 20th.¹⁹ A group of women, led by Ruth and Sonja Davies, held a week-long sit-in on the line at Kiwi, with nine of them being arrested and convicted when they refused to move. It was to no avail, and the railway line, so desperately wanted and so long under construction, was gradually dismantled.²⁰

The dream was over.

2008 (Updated 2022)

Working on the railway - a personal account

Amber Haley worked at the Railway Office in 1940. She came from a radical family – her mother Mary Ethel Hunter had been a prohibitionist and involved with the Suffrage movement, and her father had been taught by Frederick Alley, father of Rewi Alley – the Kiwi Communist of the period. Rewi Alley’s mother was Kate Sheppard’s secretary.

Amber Haley nee Hunter 1940s. Courtesy Margot Haley

This is an excerpt from Amber Elsie Hunter’s life story (contributed by daughter Margot Haley)

The NZ Railways in Gloucester St advertised for someone on July 18^th 1940 my father's 60th birthday and I was taken on as their office junior.

Mr Syd Jenks was the Stationmaster and Fred Potton the senior clerk at the Nelson station. My duties were mainly typing letters a bit of clerical work and taking padlocked leather bags which had come in on the train from the country stations at Glenhope, Wakefield and Richmond as well as the Nelson station to the Bank of NZ in Trafalgar St.

The railway office was a pleasantly warm place to work through the winters as they had a big open fireplace which were amply supplied with big buckets of coal. Some of the well known Railway identities form that era were Mr Abrahams the train driver, with the nickname of 'Windy' or 'Sousa' as he was also a stalwart in the Municipal Band. 'Spot' Westrupp and Don Lucas who were the firemen and later drivers. Mr Morrison, Bert Goldsmith and 'Doug' Garguilo were the guards. Doug's full Italian name was Dudley Wilkes Guiseppe Garguilo always stayed in my memory! There was Alan Godbaz, Evan Borlase the office-boy and Clarence Bull office clerk as well as many gangers and surface men living in the country areas who were responsible for the maintenance and good condition of the rail-way lines and surrounds".

2018

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