Nelson Section
The Nelson Section as its name implies, remained an isolated section its whole life. With construction starting in April 1873 on the Nelson Foxhill Railway as the first easy section was promoted as, it envisaged a great future with the prospect of linking up with Greymouth and Christchurch via a promised Midland Railway. Construction progress was slow with ultimately 64 miles (just over 100km) constructed over some 50 years. When all construction ceased in 1930, a gap of only a 42 mile (67km) existed in order to connect with Inangahua, the railhead from Christchurch at the time.
The following table lists all the stations with their distances from the start (Port) in both Miles and chains, and in kilometres, It also lists the station's elevation in feet and metres, plus opening an closing dates. Each Station name forms a link to a separate page about that Station.
| Station | Mileage M.ch | Metrage km | Elevation ft | Elevation m | Opened | Closed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Port | 0.00 | 0.00 | 10 | 3 | 17/05/1880 | 3/09/1955 |
| Nelson | 1.00 | 1.60 | 10 | 3 | 31/01/1876 | 3/09/1955 |
| Bishopdale | 2.72 | 4.67 | 213 | 65 | 31/01/1876 | 3/09/1955 |
| Stoke | 5.32 | 8.67 | 74 | 23 | 26/02/1876 | 3/09/1955 |
| Freezing_Works | 6.72 | 11.10 | (22) | (6) | 17/06/1915 | 3/09/1955 |
| Richmond | 8.32 | 13.52 | 28 | 13 | 31/01/1876 | 3/09/1955 |
| Appleby | 9.32 | 15.13 | 51 | 16 | c.23/04/1895 | 3/09/1955 |
| Hope | 10.32 | 16.74 | 72 | 22 | 31/01/1876 | 3/09/1955 |
| Brightwater | 13.16 | 21.24 | 93 | 28 | 31/01/1876 | 3/09/1955 |
| Spring_Grove | 14.48 | 23.50 | 123 | 36 | 31/01/1876 | 3/09/1955 |
| Wakefield | 17.24 | 27.84 | 204 | 62 | 31/01/1876 | 3/09/1955 |
| Wai-iti | 20.22 | 32.19 | 328 | 100 | 31/01/1876 | 3/09/1955 |
| Foxhill | 21.16 | 34.12 | 367 | 112 | 25/07/1881 | 3/09/1955 |
| Belgrove | 22.56 | 35.63 | 438 | 134 | 25/07/1881 | 3/09/1955 |
| Motupiko | 31.72 | 51.34 | 621 | 189 | 16/02/1899 | 3/09/1955 |
| Mararewa | 35.08 | 56.49 | 529 | 161 | 22/10/1906 | 13/06/1954 |
| Tapawera | 36.64 | 59.22 | 479 | 146 | 6/08/1906 | 3/09/1955 |
| Rakau | 39.48 | 63.73 | 555 | 169 | 6/08/1906 | 3/09/1955 |
| Tadmor | 42.24 | 68.08 | 671 | 205 | 6/08/1906 | 3/09/1955 |
| Kiwi | 47.32 | 76.28 | 896 | 274 | 18/12/1908 | 3/09/1929 |
| Tui | 50.48 | 81.43 | 1064 | 325 | 2/09/1912 | 3/09/1955 |
| Kaka | 55.32 | 85.94 | 1208 | 369 | 2/09/1912 | 3/09/1955 |
| Glenhope | 60.19 | 96.64 | 1272 | 388 | 24/04/1912 | 3/09/1955 |
| Kawatiri | 64.10 | 103.20 | 1160 | 354 | 21/06/1926 | 21/06/1931 |
| Gowan_Bridge | 67.03 | 109.5 | 1050 | 320 | 13/05/1929 | 24/06/1933 |
CONSTRUCTION
Like any Railway, getting construction underway was never easy and inevitably carried out in stages as funding could be made available. With very low populations in any given area, funding such projects was beyond their means and often involved employing creative alternative. Petitioning to Government played a significant role in which some areas got funding ahead of others, but at the end of the day, the total that could be committed in any one year was spread out in a way that suited Central Government, rather than the wishes of any particular locals.
Preliminaries
Nelsons railway dreams started in 1862 already, when a feasibility study was requested from the Provincial Council for 19km of railway to the Wairoa River. Before long, news of gold discoveries on the West Coast and coal deposits in the mountains to the south-west saw that dream expand to a railway to the Western Ranges. However, the huge burden of debt that the community would be lumbered with shattered those dreams for a number of years until a real gold-rush developed, moving rapidly up the west Coast.
The dreams were now now formulated into a define plan with a land grant partly funding the construction of a line from Nelson to Cobden on the north side of the Grey River opposite Greymouth. This plan was duly approved by Central Government with the passing of the Nelson, Cobden and Westport Railway Land Act. Nelson however, could still not fund such a grand project and sought support from England which they did eventually find, only to have first the Franco-Prussian war interfere, and then Julius Vogel's Immigration and Public Works Policy, as Central Governments answer to a flagging local economy. The Nelson Provincial Council could not compete against that, so all local efforts came to nothing.
From this on point though, the Nelson Cobden Railway was being promoted in a more piecemeal fashion, given the whole scheme was beyond anyone's means. The Provincial Council was still keen to improve the lot of their constituents and approved the construction of 11km of railway from Cobden to Brunner, and 35km of line from Nelson to Foxhill. Meanwhile, and ardent group were still making efforts to look at alternative ways of funding the total scheme, but after moths of effort these all eventually failed. The only consolation was that Julius Vogel (now Premier) agreed to make the proposed route part of the South Island Trunk Line and get surveys and construction underway as soon as practical.