NZR Lines and Stations

Introduction

For convenience, the Lines and Stations data is presented in two section, one for the South Island and one for the North Island. The most visual way of over-viewing this data is to go to the Network Diagrams. The data is presented in the form of a table, and because each table is so large, it is best viewed on a desktop computer, however it does still work on a small screen, though it would be best to become familiar with how to use it best on a larger screen.

You can access the South Island Network Diagram here noting that nearly all the functionality for the South Island is complete, with only minor additions and corrections to do.

South Island

You can access the North Island Network Diagram here noting that no pages have been generated for the North Island yet, so it is just a visual guide in the meantime with some tidy-up work still need on the main diagram. There is probably six months of work required to get the North Island Station and Section pages all set up, and given what I have learned since starting, may decide on better methods once I get under way.

The Network Diagram can be seen a collection of lists, in this case of all the Main and Branch Lines stations the ever existed on each Island, but there has been a little lee-way taken in defining a branch line. Most are obvious to a rail enthusiast but there are a number of inclusions that were never an NZR branch line. I have drawn a line at only including those private lines with which there was some exchange of wagons, i.e. NZR wagons ran on the private line, or private wagons came off the line and journeyed some way on NZR tracks.

The lists that make up the lines show all the stations on that Line except the start station (and end station if it is a junction), those station are always shown in their correct place on their 'own' line.

A list making up a single Line on the Network Diagram is in the form of cells where alternate cells comprise a Station name, and the intermediate cells (displaying a link symbol ][ ), representing the section of track between stations. Because every Station that ever existed is shown in the list, some of the intermediate sections can be quite short, but in general, the lists do not attempt to indicate distance, just the sequence of stations between the Junction and the end. Where a single station name has been used for stations at distinctly different sites, the addition sites have numbers after the station name.

Every railway line has a direction, and Lines on the Network Diagram can have their direction running up the screen or down the screen depending where their start Station is relative to the end of Line. Wherever possible, the direction roughly matches the geographic direction of a Line.

In the South Island all lines form a network off the Main South Line, which has a start station at Lyttelton) and an end station at Invercargill. However, the Main North Line is also classified a Main Line but it branches off the Main South Line at Addington.

We then need to clarify 'what comprises a Station'. In simple terms that is every location the has or used to have an official station name, however, there are a few cases where a suitable name has been coined for the few locations that form(ed) a junction but did not have an official name.

The columns of Stations and track Sections on the Network Diagram are linked by horizontal lines, from the Start station on the 'main' line, to the first track section on the Branch line. Above or below the horizontal linking line are some larger cells completely outlined in bold. These show the name of the Branch Line. In some cases the branch was known by several names, in which case these are all listed. However only one is shaded blue, the others pink, the blue one is always the current name of the Line if it is still operating, and in the case of closed lines, the name when the Branch was at its longest. There are a few instances of Orange names and these indicate a junction at the end of a Branch, a good example is the Waimea Plains Branch, which ran from Gore on the Main South Line to Lumsden on the Kingston Line. At the Lumsden end, there is an orange Waimea Plains Line name. Where there have been large track realignment (usually spanning more than one station, the same principal has been used.

The cells of the columns of Lines are also shaded to indicates the status of the Line. Green signifies the line is still operating, now by KiwiRail, Pink indicates the Line is closed and lifted, Yellow indicates the line was privately owned, so not an NZR line, but is now closed and lifted, and Grey indicates a Heritage operation, either on an old NZR or private Line , or constructed away from the original Railway.

To head to the South Island Network Diagram, click the following link South Island Network Diagram

The Mainlines

Technically, there is only one Mainline in the South Island, namely the Main South Line, It was originally envisaged to be a single line from Nelson (or Picton) to Bluff, but never reached further north than Waiau. At that point in time it was referred to as the Hurunui - Bluff Railway, with a branch line to Lyttelton. As routes northward were explored more thoroughly it became less certain that the line would be extended beyond Waiau and as there was little through traffic from Waiau south of Christchurch, the main line was eventually defined as Lyttelton to Bluff. There was however, a very peculiar situation at Invercargill, in that in order to get to Bluff, you had to change direction. Yard alterations at Invercargill were always affecting the exact position of the point where the mileage reversed, such that when all the Lines were remeasure in 1974 in preparation of adopting the Metric system of measurements, the end of the Main South Line was formally defined as Invercargill and the Invercargill to Bluff portion became the Bluff Branch.

Heading North from Christchurch we have what is now known as the Main North Line