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Over time, the forest railway was extended northwards to bring tribes from the nearby
Anawhata Valley to Piha. Later, an approximately 8 km (5.0 mi) long narrow-gauge line was built in the south, following the route of another previously built forest railway. It led from Karekare along the
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Before the railway was built, the wood was dragged by oxen or horses on the beach at low tide to
Whatipu. Around 1906, Dr Raynor, a Canadian-born dentist working in Auckland, participated in William Stokes' timber extraction company, which had come into financial difficulties. Together they built a
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When the sawmill was built in the
Karekare Bush, the machines had also to be transported by the incline, which proved to be extremely difficult. All parts of the plant had to be transported with the forest tramway, which had a gradient of 1:1 (45°) in several places. Transporting a 10-tonne boiler
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was of primitive quality. It crossed soft sandy beaches just a few metres above sea level and made its way along rocky outcrops and often past steep cliffs. Along the cliffs, where there was no natural route for the line, holes were drilled in the rock, in which the railway sleepers were fastened.
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Both the construction and the operation were affected by the notorious west coast weather: storms, torrential rain, wind and sand blowing across the tracks. The crossing of
Karekare Beach itself proved difficult. The sand was hard in some areas and soft in others. Some up to 5 m (16 ft)
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In
December 1910, the incline was already one mile (1.6 km) long and supposedly the steepest railway line in the world at that time. On this part of the route, a rope had to be hung from the winch on the back of the wagon, before it went down the steep section, to reduce its downward speed.
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For the narrow-gauge railway with a gauge of 3 feet (0.91 metres), steel rails with a weight of 7 to 14 kg/m (14 to 28 lbs/yd) were laid on 125 mm × 50 mm (4.9 in × 2.0 in) wooden sleepers. Most of the railway line along the
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sawmill and a steam-powered forest railway. The wood was brought from the Piha Valley up to the steam-operated sawmill by a 1:4.5 (22%) steep incline and then to
Karekare Beach by a 1:2.5 (40%) steep incline over a total distance of about 8 kilometres (5.0 miles).
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along the line was no easy task, and it testifies to the persistence and ingenuity of the New
Zealand bushman that in December 1910, apart from a minor derailment, the boiler could be brought to the site without a major breakdown, a task that took several days.
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in 1873 (manufacturer No. 656/73) and put into service in
Christchurch and Timaru in January 1875. It was shipped to Wellington in 1897 and six years later awarded to the
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Another steam locomotive was delivered in 1914 in individual parts and assembled at the jetty for use on the Piha
Tramway. The A 62 locomotive was built by
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was used on the line from the lower end of the funicular near
Karekare to the quay near Whatipu, originally used by a flaxmill in the
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Tasman Sea to Whatipu, where a new jetty had been built at the entrance to Manukau Harbour on the side protected by Paratuate Island.
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high, primitive trestle bridges were built where the cliffs were interrupted at estuaries or bays. A tunnel was built, of which the
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was so narrow that the chimney of the steam locomotive had to be tilted into a horizontal position to allow it to pass.
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forests in the Piha region, the logs had to be taken over a distance of eight kilometres (5.0 miles) to the sawmill in
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In 1915 the forest enterprise and the forest railway were nationalized. The railway was then purchased by
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in 1921 and finally taken out of operation in 1926. It was then exhibited in the workshops of
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West Auckland Research Centre, Waitākere Central Library, JTD-04C-00019-2.
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A big undertaking: hauling a boiler up the inclined tramway at Piha.
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workshops to carry out shunting work. It was lent to a sawmill near
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Minor derailment during the transport of a steam boiler
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Sawmill boiler on incline between Karekare and Piha
639:The Iron-Bound Coast: Karekare in the Early Years.
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451:Route of former Piha Tramway and historic photos
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625:30 September 2016. Retrieved on 22 April 2018.
622:The Piha Tramway — Piha, Karekare and Whatipu.
548:Reassembly of the steam locomotive A62 in 1914
431:was from 1906 to 1921 a 3-foot (910 mm)
667:Piha Tramway engine at Otahuhu workshops.
656:Auckland Weekly News, 29. December 1910.
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703:3 ft gauge railways in New Zealand
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641:Oratia Media Ltd, 2009, p. 51-59.
575:for use in the Pencarrow quarry,
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708:Railway companies of New Zealand
455:During the deforestation of the
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723:History of the Auckland Region
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36:logs and a goods wagon on the
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619:Paul and Rebecca da Rezzo:
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56:3 ft (910 mm)
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32:Piha Tramway with two
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333:Windy Point
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21:Piha Tramway
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540:Locomotives
437:New Zealand
52:Track gauge
687:Categories
595:References
577:Wellington
481:Tasman Sea
387:(red) and
198:Piha Mill
581:Newmarket
496:Operation
66:Route map
46:Technical
671:Archived
552:A small
385:Inclines
229:Incline
138:Incline
693:Logging
589:Ōtāhuhu
585:Rotorua
558:Sandfly
554:Bagnall
465:Whatipu
354:Whatipu
291:Tunnel
391:(blue)
81:Legend
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457:kauri
443:Route
34:kauri
569:Dubs
427:The
435:in
689::
646:^
630:^
602:^
591:.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Additional terms may apply.
_at_Piha_Tramway.png)