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The Stanleyville Railway

*The following story is completely fictional.*

Stanleyville is a town in the North Island of New Zealand. It lies on the Pacific side of the Coromandel, around 20 kilometres south of the town of Whitianga. The town was first established in 1887, and it was originally intended to serve as a back-up port for Thames. However, this idea never made it to fruition, as the developers had completely underestimated the depth of the water in Stanleyville Bay. This meant that it wasn't safe to run ships right up to the shore.

The first part of what we know today as the Stanleyville Railway opened between the town and the pier in 1902. At this time it wasn't really a railway, but rather a long pier served by a horse-drawn tramway. The pier ran 150 metres out to sea, where the water was deep enough for ships to dock safely. Just five years after the tramway opened, the traffic over the pier was beyond the limits of the horses' capabilities. As such, they were sent to Trentham Racecourse in the Hutt Valley. A small 0-6-0 saddle tank engine was built in 1908 to run a rake of five wagons up and down the pier. This required a major upgrade of the support beams, otherwise the tank engine would fall into the water. Interestingly this engine was built to the same design as the New Zealand Railways F class. But because the Stanleyville line was owned by a private company, the engine was never officially classified as an F.

Over the next 10 years, the success of the pier system caught the attention of Stanleyville's residents. They asked the local council to build a railway to link up with the New Zealand Railways yard at Thames. After a series of feasibility studies, the plans were approved. Construction of the Stanleyville Town to Thames line began in 1913. Unfortunately the project was delayed by six years because of World War 1. It wasn't until 1919 that work finally resumed on the line. This involved cutting a tunnel under the mountainous terrain south of the Coromandel, and building a 2nd platform at Thames station.

Thanks to some very clever persuasion, NZR was able to take ownership of the line from Thames to Stanleyville. The first train over this new line ran on the 23rd of December 1919, just in time for Christmas. All this time the pier railway remained in private ownership. Due to the mountainous terrain through which the line ran, NZR decided to use it as a testing ground for the engines that were being built at the A&G Price works in Thames. In August 1920, the BB class 4-8-0's started running on the line. Just in time too, as an enormous amount of cargo was arriving daily at Stanleyville Port. This resulted in trains averaging 20 wagons long. The BB class proved great performers on the line, as their small driving wheels were well suited to the slow speeds of freight work.

Unfortunately the BB's reign over the line didn't last long, as they were soon transferred to other parts of the NZR system in late 1927. From then on, the line began to be worked by a mix of AB class 4-6-2's and WW class 4-6-4T's. The BB's were transferred away because NZR found the AB's to be much better at both freight and passenger duties. In fact, the BB's were the last purely-goods engines built for New Zealand.

In mid-1929, plans were being made to extend the railway south of Stanleyville to the newly-established village of Pendletown. The plans were later modified to include a bush tramway which would run into the forest west of the town. Sadly the Great Depression put the plans on hold for a further 6 years. 1936 saw the resumption of the project, with the completion of the extension coming in 1939. Around this time the line to Thames was still being worked by the veteran AB class. As you may already know, World War 2 began in September 1939. As such, the area around Thames and Stanleyville was kept extremely busy supplying the war effort. Trees from the forests of Pendletown were taken by rail to Thames for use in rifle making. A lot of these rifles were later shipped to England for use by the Home Guard. Meanwhile munitions and armaments were being shipped from Hamilton to all the major ports down the eastern side of the North Island. This included Stanleyville, Tauranga and Napier.

After the war, traffic on the line gradually declined. By 1952, the AB class steam locomotives were being supplemented by the new DE class diesel locomotives. These were the first mainline diesels ordered by NZR. The introduction of diesels resulted in a major reshuffle of the Stanleyville line's schedule. No trains were allowed to run on the line between 21:00 hours (9:00 pm) and 06:50 hours (6:50 am). This was due to the excessive noise produced by the DE's engines, which were the English Electric 6SRKT Mk1 type.

All this time the Stanleyville Pier line was still running as normal. Except the F class clone was retired in 1947, being replaced by a 4-wheel diesel shunter from Thames. Sadly the steamer did not survive into preservation, and she was scrapped at Otahuhu Workshops in 1949. In 1955, the Stanleyville Pier Company was facing serious financial trouble, owing to the rising costs of operating the railway combined with the decline in ships coming to the town. NZR saw this as an opportunity to try something new. They bought the pier company in July 1957, and set about converting the pier into a tourist venture. The work involved further strengthening of the pier supports as well as heavy marketing to promote the area as a great place for tourists.

Meanwhile the line to Pendletown Forests wasn't doing so well. The rifle making in Thames ended in 1944, and there had been numerous attempts to set up furniture plants in the town. Sadly none of these were successful, and now - devoid of any reason to run anymore - the tramway from Pendletown station to Pendletown forests was closed in October 1958.

Without the tramway to supply logs, freight traffic on the Thames to Pendletown railway had almost been obliterated. General food supplies were still being shipped by rail from Auckland, but even these succumbed to road competition in 1962. Sadly NZR's attempts at marketing the Stanleyville area as a tourist destination failed spectacularly, as people had an overwhelming preference to go to Tauranga instead. The managers were kicking themselves over how much they had underestimated everything. Passenger numbers were also in decline. By 1963 all train movements over the Thames to Pendletown consisted entirely of passenger services operated by Fiat Railcars. These 2-car sets could carry up to 88-passengers. Sadly the poor reliability of these railcars resulted in the cancellation of the Paeroa to Pendletown and Auckland to Te Puke services in 1967. With no traffic left, the Thames to Pendletown Railway was forced to close on the 27th of June, 1967.

After the closure, the 2nd platform at Thames station was removed, as was the pier in Stanleyville. The rest of the track on the line - apart from the bush tramway remnants in Pendletown - were removed. The latter section was later converted into a small walking trail by 1975. Trains continued to serve Thames, as New Zealand Rail had an arrangement to serve the Toyota car factory in Thames. Many of the cars assembled there ended up being sold at car yards in Stanleyville.

*The history of the line continues on the 'Stanleyville Pier Coach' page.*