The Story of the Cape Foulwind Railway

By Charles F Douthett...Westport 21st May 1964

The port of Westport was designed by Sir John Coode, an iminent English engineer and in his report to the Government in December 1880 he propounded a progressive scheme of harbour works, the guiding principle of which was the construction of breakwaters and training walls to keep the Buller River to a defined channel and so improve internal and entrance depth by scour.

For the west breakwater there were first class granite deposits at Cape Foulwind, about 6½ miles west of the river mouth and it was assumed that plenty of suitable stone would be found on the east side of the river for the east breakwater.

Accordingly, when the Harbour Board was formed in December 1884, its first work was the construction of a railway line for the west spit (near the proposed point for the commencement of breakwater construction) to the stone deposits at Cape Foulwind.

Four tenders were received for the construction of 6 miles 20 chains of single track railway. it being specified that the formation would be 11 feet wide at the formation level with ¼ to 1 side slopes. In reply to the invitation to tender for 27 March 1985, four tenders were received ranging between £8,936 and £10,634. The successful tenderers were Messrs. Price and Clarke at £8,936.

The initial contract was let in May 1885. Contracts were let for very large quantities of sleepers, the average price being 2/8d each. Some rails and sleepers were lifted from the unwanted Fairdown branch line for use in the Cape Foulwind line and branches.

The only access was by sea, and some of the boats arriving with railway material were unable to enter the west lagoon and approach the wharf and landing stage which had been constructed there for the purpose. This wharf and stage would be about the first work undertaken by the Westport Harbour Board. Commencing February 1885, Mears and Adamson built the jetty (£120) and H Lange built the landing stage (£25).

The boats which could not enter the west lagoon landed their cargoes on the east side of the river, whence the material was conveyed across on punts. Rails were ferried across at 4/- a ton, sleepers at 17/6d a hundred.

The branch line to the wharf in the west lagoon was not included in Price and Clarke's contract, but was laid by the Board's own day labour.
At this time, sea freight from Lyttleton to Westport was 9/9d a ton.

Good progress was made with the line. and transport of rock for the breakwater was commenced in 1886. Details of the land taken for this line are set out in the N.Z. Gazette of 8 January 1902, page 67.

During the early stages of construction, the Harbour Board Chairman recommended that the General Government, the Borough of Westport and the County of Buller be asked to join in the buildiing of a bridge across the river at Westport.

The Board duly applied to Governmment, who replied that the Borough and/or County Councils should apply for a loan and that the Harbour Board should confer with them, the idea being that the Harbour Board should also share in the cost.

In 1885, the Boards engineer reported against the necessity for a bridge as a harbour work as there was plenty of stone eastwards of the river to provide material for the east breakwater. The loan proposal lapsed.

Unfortunately, the engineer was wrong. Exhaustive searching and testing showed no suitable source of stone supply on the east side of the river and the Board was then faced with the urgent construction of a bridge, entirely at their own expense, as a necessary harbour work after all.

Initially, a watchman complete with a "security box" was employed to control traffic on the bridge, but when local bodies declined to contribute towards his wage, he was sacked in 1891, "to protect harbour funds".

Notes concerning the bridge are included because it was built (originally) solely as an integral part of the Board's railway system.

In 1898, when the east breakwater was only at half tide level and it was proposed to raise it to full height, the Board's engineer stated that if this was done the superstructure of the bridge would have to be raised 18 inches. In 1901, the engineer's report on file stated that the bridge would be raised 18 inches during the following April and a plan on file shows how this was to have beendone, whether it was done or not.

The Harbour Board made several requests of local bodies that they should contribute toward upkeep of the bridge as it was being freely used by all manner of road, as well as rail, traffic. The same applied to Martin's Bridge.

As repeated requests produced no tangible result, the Board threatened to close the bridge to road traffic. No payment was made and the Board gave up the ghost, (either literally or figuratively, or both) and renewed the decking in 1901. It was renewed again in 1916/17. After the record high flood of 5th November 1926, extensive repair was necessary.

In 1932 the bridge came under the control of the Main Highways Board.

While the bridge was being constructed a line was being laid from Carters (hence known to this day as Carter's Junction), tot he west abutment of the bridge. In all the Board's old records this is referred to as the Buller Bridge connecting line.

When all lines were completed the line from Westport Station across the bridge to Cape Foulwind was generally known as the Cape Foulwind Railway, yet in point of fact, the real main line was from West Spit to Cape Foulwind. The line from Carters through Westport, to the east breakwater was an incidental connecting line only.

Land for this Buller Bridge Connecting Line was purchased from various settlers at a cost of £1,090.

Just past the village of Omau at Cape Foulwind a line was made into the linestone deposits and there the Board's first quarry was established. Before it had been in use very long the Board engineer reported that the stone was too friable with too much overburden and the quarry was abandoned in 1918.

The area taken for the railway to limestone Quarry was first shown on a Crown Subdivision as "Limestone Road" (1901) and has therefore remained a legal road ever since.

The railway to the limestone quarry saw very little use, only a small quantity of stone being taken.

The original granite quarries (and therefore the end of the line) were on the high level, but in 1887 these were abandoned in favour of low level (near sea level) quarries. This involved a big cutting, an 8 chain curve and a 1 in 40 gradient to reach the lower level.

The cutting leading down to the sea level quarry
Steam crane boiler at the quarry

When the Buller Bridge was completed the line was continued throught he Westport Station yard to the entrance to the East Lagoon (floating basin). It crossed the lagoon on a trestle bridge and thence through an "S" curve to the east beakwater site.

About 1906 it was decided to proceed with inner harbour construction in the floating basin and before a dredge could enter to commence deepening operations, the trestle railway bridge had to come down. Before this could be done, alternative railway access to the east breakwater had to be provided. This was provided by a very long railway deviation around the lagoon including seven piled culverts.

It is interesting to note that in spite of earlier resolutions by the Board concerning illegal occupation of the land, construction of this deviation was delayed considerably because some of the land had been leased. Where the land was retaken, further delay occurred in shifting buildings. The deviation was completed in October 1908 and the trestle bridge was then removed in December 1908.

As the works progressed and internal training wall construction was commenced, several temporary branch lines were necessary. The upper west training wall was built from two approaches - one near the Buller Bridge, the other across the head of Martin's Island. The lower west training wall was constructed from an approach on the south spit (section F - Quarantine reserve). Originally these were 13 x 20 ft. wooden piers in the approach to this wall but the piers were subsequently filled with stone.

The line to the east training wall was at first across the trestle bridge at the floating basin entrance, as mentioned earlier, but subsequently it was by means of the deviation around the floating basin, then back by the "S" curve mentioned above.

All of these access lines were lifted when the various works were completed.

There was also a short spur line running upstream at the west end of the Buller Bridge, which was used when the river bank in the locality was protected with stone.

In 1914, when it was decided to extend the west breakwater, it was considered that sufficient stone of good quality could not be obtained from Cape Foulwind, so the Board decided to extend the line to the granite deposits at the southern end of Tauranga Bay.

A good deal of contraversy then ensued as to which route should be followed by the extension, as a headland of extremely hard rock stood in the way. Engineer Sinclair decided to pass through the headland by means of a deep cutting rather than tunneling, as the stone thus excavated could be used in the breakwater and the waste could be used for ballasting and filling.

This was commenced but Engineer Boult took charge of the works and stopped it. He told the Board that the wrong route was being followed and that a much easier route of access to Tauranga Bay could be followed, but the Board was interested only in seeing the breakwater work proceed immediately. Boult was told to scrap his alternative proposal and get on with the job with the utmost despatch, by the route which had already been selected.

Boult did so, but abandoned the cutting in favour of a 600ft tunnel to shorten the route and to eliminate sharp curves. Sinclair had designed the line to run across the head of the beach on a seven foot embankment, but Boult eliminated a great deal of this cutting and filling by realining the route.

Work on the Tauranga Bay extension was commenced in September 1914, the tunnel contract being let to T.G.Hunter for £7,391, but after work had been in progress for some time, the contractor gave it up as a bad job. By the terms of his contract, Hunter was required to drive eighty feet in a heading each week, but the stone proved to be so hard that the engineer reduced this to fifty feet per week.

in the first nine weeks from the commencement the contractor had excavated only 640 cubic yards out of an estimated 5,600, he found it would be impossible to complete the contract on schedule and would thus become involved financially. He was released from the contract and the Board completed the tunnel with its own labour force.

When completed the tunnel was 562ft long. It was lined with reinforced concrete, 12 to 18 inches thick for a distance of 386½ feet from the eastern portal, the remaining 175½ feet being timbered. The tunnel had been estimated to cost about £7,000 and the whole extension £17,000, but the actual cost including land taken was £22,211.

One serious accident occurred during the construction of the tunnel resulting in the permanent disablement of two men.

In an old edition (1878)ot the 'New Zealand Pilot', Tauranga Bay is shown Tauranga Bay (Pidgeon Bay).

As there were no further extentions to breakwaters after 1919, this would be the sum total of operative lines laid by the Board, except for tempory access lines laid during the construction of training walls etc., which were taken up again when those works were completed.

There were 7 station buildings (5 listed above) plus one at Packington Street and one near Fonblanque Street. The Packinton Street Station building still remains in use as a store shed. There were engine sheds adjoining the Boards maintenance workshop at Henley Street also at Bentham Street and at Cape Foulwind. The Bentham Street sheds are at present used as a flax mill.

The line was closed in 1931 when all works were closed down due to the nationwide trade depression. An occasional picnic train was operated by the Railways Department in 1932. The line was not used again untill 1937 when work was required for river protection. on completion of this work in 1940 the line was again closed and never operated again.

The Tauranga Bay extension fell into disuse much earlier, All plant and gear was removed from there in the early 1920's. When quarrying was resumed in 1928/29, the line was used as far as Cape Foulwind only.

In 1944 the cost of reopening the line for normal traffic was estimated at £37,000.

In 1953 the line from West Breakwater to Carters was lifted. In 1956 the remainder of the line was sold for scrap. In 1961 the track from the north end of Peel Street to the East Breakwater was sold for scrap. The only remaining section now is a short length from the Harbour workshop to the north end of Peel Street, used for the transport of workshop waste to a dump.

The 'Cape Foulwind Railway Reserve' referred to earlier was an attempt to make Cape Foulwind "The Scarborough of New Zealand" and popularise and boost passenger traffic. An area of land purchased at Cape Foulwind and a substancial amount spent on beautifying it, but although it proved popular enough for a few years, it was allowed to deteriorate. it was made a Public Domain in 1925 and is still used for occasional picnics.

In earlier years, Sunday trains were a regular feature on the line during summer months. In 1911 there was a petition from local churches asking the Board to refrain from running Sunday trains. The convenience of this Sunday service (train service) or the revenue there from must have been a major consideration as the reply to the petitioners was to the effect that Sunday train services would continue as usual.

A proposal to extend the line beyond Tauranga Bay to Charlestown (1918) was investigated but not persued.

One 'C' locomotive (presumably C1 of the above) was used on the Westport - Ngakawau railway when it opened in for traffic in 1876 . Between 1887 and 1902 it was handed over to the Westport Harbour Board and used on the works untill 1921 when it was sold to Bowater & Bryan, local sawmillers. Another 'C' No.236 was sold to the Public Works in 1925. It had not been used for many years.

Revenue from the line was never high and in the later years of Board control (e.g. 1918-21)nearly twice as much was spent on maintenance as there was received in revenue. Figures for all the years are available, but the following will be illustrative.

Although the line was built primarily for the conveyance of rock for breakwater construction, the passenger and goods traffic was reasonably extensivefor the small area served. Timber mills took advantage of the opportunity to shift large consignments more quickly than was possible with horse-drawn vehicles and other types of freight followed. Many hundreds of thousands of tons of rock were hauled over this line, many of the individual rocks being 25tons or over.

Today, little sign of the old Cape Foulwind Railway remains. A first class sealed highway now runs over a great deal of the former railway, some of the formation has been taken by adjoining landowners, some has simply become overgrown with gorse, while some has been formed into a private road for the use of the Cement Company.

Cement truck near the Tavern at Omau

Visible reminders are there for those who care to see them, on the sea front at Tauranga Bay odds and ends of ironwork and sleepers lie about, foundations of repair shops are to be seen, the road around the Bay is the former railway formation, the controversial tunnel of course remains. At Cape Foulwind there is still the big cutting, the incline and the quarry excavations at high and low level. At Martins Creek the road/rail combined bridge still stands, although this is used only by a farmer for the use of driving cattle, a new bridge having been built beside the old.

Every so often, the very heavily laden stone trucks would break an axle or become derailed, or perhaps even a stone would roll. (I am informed that this invariably occurred on certain curves, today in farmers' paddocks along the old railway route, only where a curve existed, you will find huge granite rocks. There was no ready means of reloading them once they had been tipped in order to remove the damaged truck, there they still remain.

and still they remain November 2000..the middle embankment runs into the picture right cutting

So there it is. You are probably bored stiff - if you have read this far. This effusion is probably full of gaps. If so blame a failing memory. Paradoxically enough, the only time to write history is while it is happening - i.e. the present, otherwise much invaluable detail becomes either distorted or forever lost in the mists of time.

© 1964 Charles F. Douthett
Westport
New Zealand continuing.......