Murupara Branch

Murupara Branch Kawerau Branch
Overview
Status	Open
Termini	Hawkens Junction Kawerau Murupara
Operation
Opened	1955
Owner	New Zealand Railways Corporation
Operator(s)	KiwiRail
Character	Rural
Technical
Line length	14 km (8.7 mi) 57.65 km (35.82 mi)
Number of tracks	Single
Track gauge	1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in)

The Murupara Branch (incorporating the Kawerau Branch) was a branch railway line from the East Coast Main Trunk at Hawkens Junction near Edgecumbe via Kawerau to Murupara; built to serve a new pulp and paper mill harvesting the radiata pine trees of the Kaingaroa Forest on the Kaingaroa Plateau in the Bay of Plenty, New Zealand. The line was the last major extension of the NZR network; of 14 km from Hawkens Junction to Kawerau and 57 km from Kawerau to Murupara.

History

The line was started in 1951, but in March 1953 it was decided to build the mill at Kawerau not Murupara, because Kawerau had cheap geothermal steam for energy and also as the climate of Murupara had winter mist and fog so was less suitable for a large town. So the branch ran via Kawerau to Murupara rather than directly from Hawkens Junction near Edgecombe. The Kawerau to Murupara section required major earthworks to limit the ruling grade against loaded log trains to 1 in 60. However the easy grades between Kawerau and the port of Mt Maunganui allow very long trains of over 2,000 tonnes.

Work on the section to the mill started on 12 April 1953; the rails reached Kawerau in August and the first train arrived at Kawerau on 26 October, six months after work started. The major earthworks on the Kawerau to Murupara section were completed rapidly with heavy earthmoving machinery, then prefabricated track sections were laid at the rate of 3 km a week. The first logs were loaded at Galatea (48 km from Kawerau and 9 km from Murupara) on 4 April 1955. A regular service to Murupara operated from 15 January 1957, although the line to Kawerau and Murupara was operated by the Ministry of Works (the successor to the PWD or Public Works Department) until 1 July 1957.

As the line ran through forest areas, diesel engines only were used on the line. Initially the DE class were used for construction then for log trains on the still unsettled track bed; this has given the DE class an unofficial status of the first mainline diesel electric locomotive in NZR service. From October 1963 a pair of DA class diesel locomotives were used, hauling 1,500 tonne log trains. More recently, the standard train was a trio of DC class locomotives hauling a gross load of 2,400 tonnes on 53 USL bogie log wagons. The annual tonnage of logs increased from 730,000 tons in 1960 to 1,126,000 tonnes in 1965. With the closing of the Taneatua Branch in 1978, the Kawerau Branch became the eastern section of the East Coast Main Trunk. The section from Kawerau to Murupara was renamed the Murupara Line from Murupara Branch in 2011.^[1]

References

↑ "Murupara Line". Land Information New Zealand. Retrieved October 2014. Check date values in: |access-date= (help)

Churchman, Geoffrey B., and Hurst, Tony; The Railways of New Zealand: A Journey Through History p113-114 (1990, HarperCollins, Auckland) ISBN 1-86950-015-6
Hermann, Bruce J; North Island Branch Lines pp 42,43 (2007, New Zealand Railway & Locomotive Society, Wellington) ISBN 978-0-908573-83-7

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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