Following on from last evening’s post here is the rest of the Summit to Otira route. We are assuming plans will exist for the climb up from Arthurs Pass Station to the summit as there are many plans in the Archives collection, but few of them have been scanned as yet which will make it…

Perhaps a lesser known feature of the original plans for the Midland Line was that the Midland Railway Company proposed a summit line over Arthurs Pass rather than the Otira Tunnel that we have today. The summit line would have run close to the current highway in a number of places and it incorporated gradients…

Today we are going to have another look at Avoca, this time with a full set of maps. An overview of the Avoca area, showing the full area of interest including the locations of the coal mining. Avoca railway station. This was still open as a crossing loop until the 1980s. This backshunt and the…

Description of the Mt Torlesse Colliery (currently this area is being mapped and we hope to have more details of it in a few weeks) “The first coal will be loaded into railway trucks at the company’s siding, Avoca, today… the construction of tramway and plant has been a big undertaking…the deep rock cuttings and…

Waimakariri Bridge is a location on the Midland Line. It is one of three crossings that the Kiwirail network has historically made of the river, all on different lines; the others being the Main North Line near Kaiapoi, and the Oxford Branch near Bexley (closed in 1930 but the bridge still stands today). Here is…