Bluff Branch

The Bluff Branch, officially the Bluff Line since 2011, is a railway line in Southland, New Zealand that links Invercargill with the port of Bluff. One of the first railways in New Zealand, it opened on 5 February 1867 and is still operating. Presently, it essentially functions as an elongated industrial siding.

Construction

In the early days of New Zealand's colonisation, transport between Bluff and Invercargill was through sometimes impassable swampy terrain. Construction of a road to Bluff was approved by the Otago Provincial Council in 1859, but the swamp defeated the builders. Southland Province split from Otago in 1861, partially over disputes over infrastructure spending. The new council under Superintendent James Menzies considered a railway as an alternative to the road. In November 1862 the provincial council decided on building the "Bluff Harbour & Invercargill Railway". On 8 August 1863 "Lady Barkly", the first locomotive to steam in New Zealand, ran on a small section of track on Invercargill Jetty, and a line from Invercargill to Makarewa opened on 18 October 1864, built with wooden rails, as an apparently cheaper alternative to iron rails. The same year construction of a line to Bluff began.
In 1866 the failure of the wooden rails used on the Invercargill-Makarewa section of what became the Kingston Branch became apparent, and the decision was made to use iron rails to Bluff and convert the Makarewa section to iron rails. Originally thought to be of reasonable cost to construct, the line soon proved otherwise.
The line was built to the international standard gauge of, the railway followed standard British method of keeping the line on a level grade as much as possible. Construction from the Invercargill Harbour and Wharf area soon became troublesome with the direct route across the New River estuary proving difficult due to the deep swampy mud needing to be piled up with rocks and hardwood poles.
The line made it to Clifton and easier ground as the raised formation skirted the banks of the east arm of the estuary passing over the Waimatua Creek. At the start of the Awarua plains, yet again swampy ground caused delays as large embankments and a sizeable bridge were needed to cross the tidal Mokotua Stream at Wards Crossing. Spoil taken from a large cutting at Woodend, to keep the line level, assisted in creating the embankments. After Awarua the line had it easy-going until the upper reaches of Bluff Harbour where costly large stone causeways were constructed to take the line around the Ocean Beach neck and onto the Bluff peninsula. A quarry nearby was used for material needed. Helping with the construction, a small branch line was laid to the Mokomoko inlet jetty with coastal shipping off-loading supplies.

Controversial opening

The line opened on 5 February 1867 after a delay caused by the Southland Provincial Council going bankrupt due to the high cost of building both this line and a wooden railway northwards to Makarewa. During the last phases of building, the line was blocked at Greenhills by angry contractors who were still to be paid for work done on the large causeways that carried the line down the upper Bluff harbour. The local Sheriff seized all assets on the line, a form of receivership enacted, allowing the finishing off work to continue. The situation was resolved when the Otago Provincial Council, as well as the Central Government, absorbed the debt incurred with the passage of the Southland Provincial Debt Act 1865. The province was re-absorbed into Otago on 6 October 1870.

Kew diversion

The formation and bridges that crossed the upper New River estuary continued to cause trouble with the line formation sinking and making the journey uncomfortable for travellers. It was decided to divert the line around the estuary foreshore from what is today the Crinan St level crossing, paralleling the Bluff Highway around past the Kew Bush area and meeting up with the line at Clifton. This was completed in 1872. This route would later be of benefit to the future Seaward Bush/Tokanui branch line that ran parallel to the Bluff line from Invercargill station to south of Clyde Street station where the two lines parted company. So the station at Clyde Street had two single-track railways running through it, giving a false impression of double track. When the Tokanui branch closed, the parallel line was taken out of use, and points were installed at Clyde Street for access to the branch by work trains during the lifting of the track.
Little remains of the harbour crossing and Invercargill Wharf due to draining and substantial land reclamation over 100 years, some bridge piles are still visible.

Regauged

In 1870, the central government took effective control of railway development from the provinces of New Zealand. To unify all rail systems operating in the colony, and to ease the cost of construction, the national rail gauge was set at a narrow gauge of. The Bluff Branch was converted to this gauge in a single day, 18 December 1875. The original standard gauge locomotives and rolling stock retreating to the Bluff wharf and then loaded onto the Cezarewitch and sent to New South Wales, although the locomotives and rolling stock never made it, being wrecked at Big Bay, West Coast.

Mokomoko Harbour Branch

During the construction phase of the Bluff Branch, contractors found that landing urgent supplies at the Invercargill wharf could prove difficult due to the worsening danger of the New River estuary silting up dangerous sand bars. Contractors were having a difficult time building over and around the upper reaches of the estuary and getting equipment into the area proved troublesome. At the mouth of the estuary was the moderately deep and weather-sheltered entry to the Mokomoko inlet. A Jetty already existed at the eastern side of the inlet entrance for the local settlers and at one point was promoted as an alternative to both Campbelltown and Invercargill's port ambitions. It was decided to lay a spur line off the still incomplete Bluff mainline to the jetty which consisted of a large curve that required deep drains on each side. The junction points faced Awarua with a small flag station controlling the points.
The branch was only ever useful as a supply line and few passengers were carried, mainly from the small coastal steamers that would land at the jetty instead of risking the voyage up to Invercargill. When the new wharf at Bluff Harbour opened, the Mokomoko jetty fell into disuse. The railway remained until a change of gauge day on 18 December 1875 when it was decided to close the line instead of re-gauging it. The rails were taken up and used elsewhere.

Operation

Bluff established itself as the port of Southland and the line has always been busy with both inbound and outbound freight. Major railway facilities were built around the original town wharf site with most servicing equipment moving to the new and substantial Island Harbour port, built from 1956 and opening in December 1960. When containerisation was introduced and freight transportation trends changed, Bluff was not selected to be developed as a container port, but it and the railway have remained busy with traffic such as frozen meat, wool, and wood chips. In more recent years a degree of containerisation has taken place with the port investing in mobile crane and straddler facilities, rail playing a predominant role in moving containers from the large private container distribution centre located at Clifton. In 2016 a new port owned multimodal distribution centre was completed on an unused area of the Invercargill railway yards next to the Bluff Line entrance. The port company favouring rail as its wharf to centre transportation solution.

Station

As with all colonial transport facilities over time, Bluff station started with a rudimentary class 5 station until growing into an impressive two-story George Troup designed edifice befitting of the southernmost railway station in the British Empire.
For many years, passenger traffic on the line was heavy, with 12,000 fares travelling in a single day to a regatta in Bluff on 1 January 1900. Development of modern road networks and private cars caused passenger numbers to decline from the 1930s. In 1929 the Clayton steam railcar was used on the line to provide passenger services, but it was withdrawn in 1930 due to the Great Depression. The 1950 public timetable showed seven-weekday services each way, with an eighth on Fridays; five on Saturdays; and one on Sundays. This declined starkly over the following years, and by 1964, only one passenger train ran each way on weekdays and none at weekends. The remaining service was operated for school children, running from Bluff to Invercargill in the morning and returning in the late afternoon. In 1967, all passenger services were cancelled. The station was run down and used as surplus storage until a fire damaged it in 1970, promptly demolished after. Passenger trains briefly returned when the Kingston Flyer operated some services to Bluff between 1979 and 1982.

Locomotives

Steam locomotives used on the line were mainly restricted to the lightweight U and Q class along with smaller tank locomotives such as W^A, W^F, F and D classes. The reason being the only turning facilities at Bluff was the "Wye" layout that was part of the wharf's lighter rail access bridges. Only the tank locomotives could use the wharf trackage and they were assisted by a capstan winch system that could pull wagons into position under ship's cranes, Bluff town wharf never having cranes. The small shunters would also assist with handling rakes of wagons to and from the Ocean Beach freezing works.
Locomotives were serviced at a modest two road depot located at the northern end of the station yard although, apart from the wharf shunters, only one mainline locomotive remained overnight to head the first early 5:00am mixed train to Invercargill.
By the 1960s, most trains between Invercargill and Bluff were in charge of A^B and J^A class locomotives, the latter were regular performers on the school trains until their demise.