The Moutohora Branch was a branch line railway that formed part of New Zealand's national rail network in Poverty Bay in the North Island of New Zealand. The branch ran for 78 km approximately North-West from Gisborne into the rugged and steep Raukumara Range to the terminus at Moutohora. Construction started in 1900, and the line was opened to Moutohora on 26 November 1917.[1]
Built to the New Zealand standard 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm) gauge the line was originally intended to become part of a railway to Auckland via Rotorua, and later as part of an East Coast Main Trunk Railway running from Gisborne to Pokeno by way of Ōpōtiki, Taneatua, Tauranga, and Paeroa. This comprehensive scheme never came to pass, and the branch line it subsequently became was closed in March 1959.[2]
The branch had four names during its lifetime. Initially, it was authorised as a Gisborne to Rotorua line and labelled as such in the Public Works Statement until 1910.[3] From then, while isolated from the rest of the NZR system, it was known as the Gisborne section (later the Palmerston North–Gisborne Line) of the NZR.[2] Once Gisborne was linked to the rest of the NZR network in 1942 the line became the Motohora Branch, to be renamed the Moutohora Branch on 16 November 1950,[4] when the New Zealand Geographic Board decided on this spelling for the line's terminal locality.[5]
^Hermann, Bruce J. (2007). North Island Branch Lines. Wellington: New Zealand Railway and Locomotive Society. pp. 56–58. ISBN 978-0-908573-83-7.
^ abLeitch & Scott 1995, p. 19.
^Churchman & Hurst 2001, p. 150.
^"Place name detail: Moutohora Railway Station". New Zealand Gazetteer. New Zealand Geographic Board. Retrieved 18 June 2023.
The MoutohoraBranch was a branch line railway that formed part of New Zealand's national rail network in Poverty Bay in the North Island of New Zealand...
the MoutohoraBranch. So would link the Bay of Plenty to Gisborne and Palmerston North via the Palmerston North – Gisborne Line. Fairlie Branch – extension...
railway station. Several routes for the link from the MoutohoraBranch to the Taneatua Branch were surveyed (20 routes by 1920), but the expense of a...
Poverty Bay in the North Island of New Zealand. The Ngatapa branch diverged from the Moutohorabranch line about 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) from Gisborne and ran...
all equipment was sold to Moutohora Stone Quarries, which had a short tramway from a nearby quarry to the MoutohoraBranch terminus. The tramway operated...
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of this proposed line was started, which later became known as the MoutohoraBranch and the proposal to connect it with Auckland was later changed to be...
the league out to five teams. The MoutohoraBranch of the New Zealand national rail network opened between Moutohora and Gisborne, New Zealand. The Western...
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Manawatāwhi / Three Kings; Aotea / Great Barrier; Taranga / Hen and Chickens; Moutohora / Whale; and Chatham Islands. M. spatulata is found on rocky, base-rich...
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