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…

Today’s focus is the Springfield Deviation and Springfield Colliery. Both were referred to in my first article about Springfield. Here is the map again from that article: Since my visit to Archives New Zealand this week I have been taking a look at both of these matters and have enough information to furnish this post…

Contrary to my original proposition that no research would be done into any part of the Midland Line, I had a session this morning at Archives Christchurch and looked at 55 files and copied around 200-250 documents from these files. Quite a few different stations were covered and some very useful material about parts of…

Today we have a set of maps of the stations on the Whitecliffs Branch, including the junction station, Darfield. Darfield 2015/1970 Hawkins, 2.94 miles along the branch, and it seems one of the few with a regular size goods shed. 2015/1958. Homebush 2015/1943. The two largest bridges still have superstructure in place, with the one…

Today we are having a look at the minor stations between Rolleston and Springfield.  First up, Sandy Knolls, the first station out of Rolleston. The current images from 2015 compared with the historical view from 1961.  Aylesbury, with the comparison 2015/1965. Kirwee 2015/1965. Racecourse Hill 2015/1965. Sheffield 2015/1965. Sheffield was a junction until 1930 when…

Progress this week has been a bit stop-start because of other things happening. This includes a lot of Christchurch stuff with the last of the rail passenger workshops occurring this week and activities being focused around that. Nevertheless we pushed ahead with all the stations on the Midland Line starting from Sandy Knolls and got…

Today we’re having a closer look at Springfield. This is the part of the Midland Line where the route changes dramatically from leaving the Canterbury Plains and entering the mountainous section of the route, starting with the Waimakariri Gorge. The railway to Springfield first opened in 1880 and although the route appears relatively flat, in…