Moutohora Branch

Moutohora Branch 1900 - 1959
Legend

Distances approximate, source: NZR Mileage Table 1957.

Port of Gisborne
0 km
Gisborne
 Palmerston North - Gisborne Line (1942)
Makaraka Branch
Park Racecourse
Makaraka
Ngatapa Branch
Kings Road (MB)
Makauri
Waihirere
17.3 km
 Ormond opened 26 Jun 1902
20.8 km
 Kaitaratahi opened 10 Nov 1902
Waipaoa
Tunnel No 1
185 m
29 km
 Te Karaka opened 13 Apr 1905
Tunnel No 2
258 m
32.2 km
 Puha opened 3 Jun 1907
37.5 km
 Waikohu opened 28 May 1908
Tunnel No 3
45 m
 Mahaki
Otoko viaduct
50.4 km
 Otoko opened 6 Apr 1912
Rakauroa viaduct
Rakauroa
60 km
 Summit; 566m above sea level
Tunnel No 4
90 m
70.8 km
 Matawai opened 2 Nov 1914
78.5 km
 Moutohora (NZR terminus) opened 26 Nov 1917
76 cm gauge private tramway
Moutohora quarry
Map
Map

The Moutohora Branch was a branch line railway that formed part of New Zealand's national rail network in Poverty Bay in the North Island of New Zealand. The branch ran for 78 km approximately North-West from Gisborne into the rugged and steep Raukumara Range to the terminus at Moutohora. Construction started in 1900, and the line was opened to Moutohora on 26 November 1917.[1]

Built to the New Zealand standard 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm) gauge the line was originally intended to become part of a railway to Auckland via Rotorua, and later as part of an East Coast Main Trunk Railway running from Gisborne to Pokeno by way of Ōpōtiki, Taneatua, Tauranga, and Paeroa. This comprehensive scheme never came to pass, and the branch line it subsequently became was closed in March 1959.[2]

The branch had four names during its lifetime. Initially, it was authorised as a Gisborne to Rotorua line and labelled as such in the Public Works Statement until 1910.[3] From then, while isolated from the rest of the NZR system, it was known as the Gisborne section (later the Palmerston North–Gisborne Line) of the NZR.[2] Once Gisborne was linked to the rest of the NZR network in 1942 the line became the Motohora Branch, to be renamed the Moutohora Branch on 16 November 1950,[4] when the New Zealand Geographic Board decided on this spelling for the line's terminal locality.[5]

  1. ^ Hermann, Bruce J. (2007). North Island Branch Lines. Wellington: New Zealand Railway and Locomotive Society. pp. 56–58. ISBN 978-0-908573-83-7.
  2. ^ a b Leitch & Scott 1995, p. 19.
  3. ^ Churchman & Hurst 2001, p. 150.
  4. ^ "Place name detail: Moutohora Railway Station". New Zealand Gazetteer. New Zealand Geographic Board. Retrieved 18 June 2023.
  5. ^ Wood 1996, p. 47.