Construction
Proposals for railed transportation out of Wellington were made as early as the start of the 1850s, barely a decade after European settlement of the area began. In 1853 and 1857, investigation of horse-hauled tramways was undertaken, but no action was taken. Robert Stokes, a member of the provincial government, proposed a railway over the Rimutakas in 1858 and finally succeeded in gaining government interest in 1863. The government established a committee to investigate proposals, and on 2 July 1866, the Wellington, Hutt Valley, And Wairarapa Railway Ordinance was passed. It authorised a railway employing either 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm) Cape gauge or 1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in) standard gauge to carry 200 tonnes at speeds of 24 kilometres per hour (15 mph), but construction did not commence as sufficient funds were not available in the fledging New Zealand colony, nor were they successfully raised in England.
In 1870 Julius Vogel included a Wellington-Wairarapa railway in his Great Public Works policy and visited London to arrange a loan to finance the policy. On this trip he was approached by several contracting firms and a contract that included the first section of the Wairarapa Line was awarded to Brogden & Sons. The construction of the line can be considered in three stages: the Hutt Valley section, the route over the Rimutakas, and the line through the Wairarapa via Masterton to Woodville.
Read more about this topic: Wairarapa Line
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—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)
“Striving toward a goal puts a more pleasing construction on our advance toward death.”
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An absolute trust.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)