Gracefield Branch

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Gracefield Branch
The start of the Gracefield Branch, curving off to the left, just south of Woburn station. The double track curving right is the Wairarapa Line.
Info
Type	Industrial siding
Status	Open to Hutt Workshops (freight only), remainder mothballed
Locale	Wellington, New Zealand
Terminals	Woburn Gracefield Freight Terminal
No. of stations	1
Operation
Opened	1 April 1929
Owner	ONTRACK
Operator(s)	Toll New Zealand
Character	Industrial
Technical
Line length	1.6 km
No. of tracks	1
Gauge	3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm)
Electrification	Formerly 1500V DC 1953-09-14, 1964 to 1983
Line map Legend Wairarapa Line 0.00 Woburn Station Whites Line Wairarapa Line Hutt Workshops entrance (rail) York Street - Awamutu Grove foot bridge Elizabeth Street Hutt Workshops entrance (road) 1.62 Hutt Park Station Waiwhetu Stream Parkside Road Ministry of Works siding Hutt Park Road 2.57 Gracefield Freight Terminal Gibraltor Board siding Ford Motors siding Mobil Oil siding Caltex Oil siding Goods shed Europa Oil siding Seaview Road Oil siding Government Stores Barnes Street Pacific Scrap siding 3.23 Shell Oil siding Oil sidings Oil siding James Wattie siding

The Gracefield Branch is a 1.6 km long, 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm) gauge industrial line from its junction with the Hutt Valley Line (part of the Wairarapa Line) at Woburn in the Wellington Region of New Zealand’s North Island to its terminus near the Gracefield Freight Terminal. It used to serve industrial sidings in nearby Seaview, but now its only function is to provide access to the Hutt Workshops.

The line has over the course of its existence been known by several names, including Hutt Park Line (1937), Hutt Industrial Line (1937), Gracefield Branch (1986), Gracefield Industrial Line (2001) and Gracefield Industrial Siding (2006). Its 1937 name has led to some confusion with the earlier Hutt Park Railway.

[edit] History

The Hutt Workshops road enters the fenced workshops yard (left), while the branch line (right) runs along the perimeter of the workshops yard.

Planning for the Gracefield Branch was included in surveys done for the Hutt Valley Branch line in 1924 and 1925. The line was intended to serve an area of 80 acres (32 ha) that had been purchased for the establishment of new railway workshops to replace those located at Petone, and an area at Gracefield intended for industrial development.^[1]

The line opened on 1 April 1929^[2] and originally had only a single station, the then terminus at Hutt Park. Later, in 1943, the line was extended into Gracefield and a new terminus established there. Following land reclamation in the 1950s & 1960s, an extensive network of sidings were built at Seaview to serve industrial interests there, including: the Ford Motor Vehicle Assembly Plant; oil terminals for BP, Caltex, Europa and Shell; Pacific Scrap; and the Ministry of Works.

The line was electrified between Woburn and Hutt Park in 1953 coinciding with the electrification of the Wairarapa Line between Wellington and Taita, and extended to Gracefield in 1964. The electrification was removed in 1983, following the end of the last regular electric service on the line.

In 1972 a new depot was opened at Gracefield to relieve pressure on Lower Hutt Station (now called Western Hutt Station) to handle small consignments.

With the closure of the Gracefield yard on 30 April 2002, Woburn became the only station on the Gracefield Branch, with the only other station on the line – Hutt Park – having not been used since the cessation of race trains in 1965. The industrial sidings at Seaview were lifted around the time the Gracefield yard was closed. The line is effectively mothballed beyond the Hutt Workshops.

[edit] Operations

All Trains Stop. A sign marks the end of operations on the Gracefield Branch line, just before the Parkside Road level crossing.

It is this part of the branch line, just shy of the Elizabeth Street level crossing, that was used as a stopping place for the Hutt Workshops workers' trains.

For more details on race trains, see Hutt Park Railway Station, Gracefield.

From the time the line opened to the 1940s, steam hauled 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.

In the 1960s, race trains using DM/D class electric multiple units were used to convey patrons to meetings at the Hutt Park Raceway and were run for several years. These trains operated from Wellington to Woburn, then had to reverse on to the branch.

A twice daily workers train between Wellington and the Hutt Workshops used to be provided to convey railwaymen to and from work. This service ran from the 1930s to December 1982, and was the last regular passenger service run on the line. These trains were of the traditional locomotive-hauled carriage variety, latterly powered by electric locomotives usually of the EW class.

[edit] External links

• Graeme Bennett's Woburn Photos

[edit] References

• Bromby, Robin (2003). Rails That Built A Nation: An Encyclopedia of New Zealand Railways. Wellington: Grantham House Publishing. ISBN 1 86934 080 9. 
• Castle, David. Woburn & Gracefield. Retrieved on 2007-09-05.
• Castle, David. Worker's Trains. Retrieved on 2007-09-05.
• Castle, David. Hutt Park Railway Company. Retrieved on 2007-09-05.
• Castle, David. Hutt Park Race Trains. Retrieved on 2007-09-05.

[edit] Footnotes