Waimate Branch - Operation

Operation

From the opening of the Waimate Branch, a shuttle service operated between Waimate and the main line at Studholme, while a daily mixed train ran between Waihao Downs and Waimate. Motive power on the Waimate Gorge Branch was provided by FA class tank locomotives for many years, primarily by FA 10, FA 41, and FA 251. Due to Waimate's status as the central town of the surrounding region, it attracted inbound freight from over 160 km away, and most outbound traffic went to Timaru or Oamaru and the wharves located in those two centres. Waimate is known for its berry gardens, and at the height of the season in 1898, an average of five wagons of strawberries were railed out of Waimate daily. Passenger traffic on the line ceased and was replaced by buses on 9 February 1931, and around this time, the locomotive depot in Waihao Downs was closed and the Waimate Gorge Branch's regular daily mixed train was replaced by a goods service when required. Passenger trains did not become wholly absent from the Waimate Branch, as picnic trains still ran on occasions.

Traffic surged during World War II, in part due to petrol restrictions, but it slipped again with the coming of peace in 1945. New freight handling techniques and changes in coastal shipping patterns served to further lower the traffic on the branch, and with running costs mounting and deferred maintenance becoming more and more necessary, the government took the step of closing the Waihao Downs section on 11 December 1953 and then the entire line on 31 March 1966. All previous branch closures had been of lines serving rural areas and small townships, so Waimate became New Zealand's first major town to lose its railway connection if one excludes the 1955 closure of the isolated Nelson Section (although it served only small settlements, it began in Nelson and was the only railway to serve the city).