NGATAPA LINE

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20137, 5 January 1940, Page 11

NGATAPA LINE

DISMANTLING JOB

NEW GISBORNE YARDS PREPARATORY WORK In preparation for the laying-out of the new station yards at Gisborne, material from the Ngatapa spur railway line is being recovered, and already much of the Patutahi yard lias been taken up. The work does not come within the scope of the Public Works Department, which last year had to secure the acquiescence of the Railways Department before it was able to remove steel girder-spans from small bridges on the Ngatapa line for use in the construction of the Waikokopu-Gisbornc section of the East Coast main trunk railway. The dismantling of the Ngatapa spur is being carried out by Railway Department engineers and labour, and a substantial economy should be effected in the re-designing of the Gisborne yards by the employment of salvaged lines, joints and sleepers.

Rails and sleepers now being recovered have been in situ on the old line since before the Great War. The line to Ngatapa was to have been the start of the East Coast main trunk line with Napier, but shortage of men and material between 1914 and 1918 caused a suspension of the work. When the job was resumed after the war, unstable country beyond Ngatapa held up construction for a long time, and eventually work in that locality was again suspended.

When the “battle of the routes” resulted in the adoption of the coastal line from Gisborne to Waikokopu, the investment already made in the Ngatapa line lost, almost its entire value. The line has been out of use for some years, though it was reopened briefly to assist in the transport of heavy machinery from Gisborne to Totangi for the New Zealand Petroleum Company, Limited, in 1938.