Waikaia Branch - Operation

Operation

The Waikaia Branch was essentially a line to nowhere. Roughly 1,700 people lived in the area served by the line when it opened, and Waikaia was home to a mere 250 people. Photos of the grand opening, attended by Prime Minister Joseph Ward, show that the Waikaia station was essentially in the middle of a field. Initially, there was some traffic generated by gold mining and dredging near Waikaia, but the line was much too late to serve the gold fields of the 19th century and it mainly carried agricultural traffic. Its role was essentially to open up the surrounding land to farming and to provide a convenient link to major centres before the development of modern road transportation.

In 1925, Ford Model T bus equipment was used as the basis for two railcars, the RM class Model T Ford railcars. They began operating on the Waikaia Branch as well as the Wyndham Branch in late May 1926 in an attempt to provide a more efficient passenger service at a lower operating cost. They proved to be economical by the Railways Department's fuel consumption standards of the time, able to run 100 km on 18.8 litres of fuel. However, as the railcars rode roughly and were prone to overheating, they were unpopular with passengers and thus unsuccessful. The line became freight only from 9 February 1931. By the 1950s, the region's population had dwindled to a meagre 200 and trains ran twice weekly. What traffic did exist - mainly livestock and agricultural lime - was being transferred to the expanding road network. With no reason to justify the line's continued existence, the Waikaia Branch closed on 16 May 1959.