This is Ikamatua at 35.38 km. There is a loop and siding here. There used to be a sawmill here and this may still be the case for all I know but the photo leaves sufficient ambiguity as to whether the mill still operates these days.

This site near Ikamatua is where the Pike River Coal Company built its siding as part of its underground coal mine development nearby. For the sake of completion I have also included photos or maps of their two other sites. I don’t normally comment politically on this blog but have made an exception as you…

Totara Flat is the second operating station on the SWL after Redjacks and like that location it is a crossing loop. It is at the site of the former public station of Totara Flat that is just a bit south (east in railway terms) of Ikamatua and was open between 1890 and 1982. Passenger services…

Ngahere is at 8.86 km and it opened in 1886. It was closed in 1967 when the passenger services between Stillwater and Westport ceased, which was a railcar service at the time and was in the period that railcar services were being cut around the country because the Fiat railcars were costing too much in…

Redjacks is the first currently open station after Stillwater, the junction we looked at in my last post. Redjacks is not a traditional station site from anytime in the first 125 years of the national network. It is a relatively new crossing loop that doesn’t appear in any of the lists that I have. Therefore,…