Operations
For more details on race trains, see Hutt Park Railway Station, Gracefield.From the time the line opened to the 1940s, steam trains were used to convey patrons to race meetings and picnics at the Hutt Park Raceway via Woburn. The race trains that had previously run to Hutt Park on the Hutt Park Railway had ceased operation in 1905. Race trains briefly resumed in the 1960s using DM/D class electric multiple units. These trains initially operated from both Upper Hutt and Wellington to Hutt Park, with the Wellington trains needing to reverse on to the branch at Woburn. Declining patronage led to the service being later reduced to Wellington – Hutt Park only, being withdrawn completely in 1965.
A twice-daily workers' train between Wellington and the Hutt Workshops conveyed railwaymen to and from work from the 1930s to December 1982, and was the last regular passenger service run on the line. These trains were locomotive-hauled, latterly usually by EW class electrics. The withdrawal of this service marked the end of electric train operations on the branch.
Though the motivation for extending the catenary in 1966 to the freight terminal was to allow for electric-hauled freight trains, such services seem to have been infrequent and even quite rare. Prior to the closure of the Gracefield yard, there was a regular shunting service (Q2) from the Gracefield Freight Terminal. The only regular traffic that currently uses the line is the Hutt Workshops shunt (Q4) which normally operates thrice weekly, with occasional special services.
Read more about this topic: Gracefield Branch
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