Puketutu_railway_station
Puketutu railway station
Railway station in New Zealand
Puketutu was a flag station on the North Island Main Trunk line,[2] in the Waitomo District of New Zealand.
Initial doubt about the route of the line to the south was resolved by a survey in 1884. It was then said that the bush might provide timber traffic for the railway for 50 years, until it was all converted to farm land.[3] Works were advanced enough for a ministerial party to ride the route to the south on horseback by 1890.[4] Most of the construction was done by cooperatives.[5]
The Public Works Department contracted the Te Kuiti to Mokau Station section on 9 March 1887 and it opened just over 2 years later. Construction began on the section south to Poro-O-Tarao tunnel in September 1892.[6] However, for 12 years, from 1889 until the line to Poro-O-Tarao opened on 1 April 1901, Puketutu was the terminus of the line,[7] though, from 18 January 1897, a weekly goods train ran to Poro-O-Tarao.[8] The delay was partly due to poor access and rugged country, but 2 years of the delay were due to economic recession, little work being done from 1890 to 1892.[6]
The name was changed from Mokau to Puketutu on 11 May 1903.[9]
Lack of fencing to the south was an issue when the line opened, with many cattle killed and trains delayed.[10] Although plans for fencing were made in 1885, before the land was bought, it wasn't until 1907 that fencing started and 1909 before it was finished.[7]
By 1911 there was a shelter shed, platform, loading bank, fixed signals and passing loop for 55 wagons, extended to 75 wagons by 1980. In 1915 a Post Office started, run by station staff from 1941 to 1955 and then by a ganger until it closed on 10 December 1966. In 1926 a 22 ft (6.7 m) x 14 ft (4.3 m) lean-to goods shed (22 feet by 14 feet) was approved.[11] A cattle yard was added in 1924.[12] A railway house was added in 1938.[13]
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A 21 mi (34 km) branch line[14] down the Mokau valley to Piopio and Aria was surveyed, but rejected in a ballot (under the 1914 Local Railways Act) in 1922.[15] A 10 mi (16 km) extension south to a coal seam at Waitewhena was also considered.[16] From 1933 that mine was served via Ohura on the Stratford–Okahukura Line.[17]
The line approaching the station was eased when it was electrified.[7]
