Black bison tube just above ground level. BYOP.
School Road stops here but the rail line continued across the farm land to the Taieri River, discernible as the floodbank to the south-west. Standing at the farm gate you can clearly see the railbed running away on an angle to the right.
Messrs Henderson and Co., the rail line construction contractors, had considerable problems in the Riverside/Gladfield area. Stable ground in the boggy marsh could not be found and the contract had to be altered to allow for increased drainage. Apparently, layer upon layer of flax was also laid to form a solid railbed. An unmanned shelter shed stood here as Riverside station.
Flooding throughout the period of construction of the railway would interfere with work at several places and necessitate various amendments to the contracts as it became increasingly clear what the line was going to have to cope with. The construction completion date was pushed back because of flooding. Flooding would interfere with the line’s operation throughout its life and the high cost of repairing flood damage was one of the reasons given for the line’s eventual closure.
A bridge took the line across the Taieri River. It consisted of seven 40 foot (21.1 metre) wooden truss sections and six beam spans of between 10 to 16 foot 3 inch (3 to 5 metre) at each end. I am told that some pile remnants still exist in the riverbed but access across private property to see them is obviously not possible. A photograph of the bridge accompanies Reid’s article.
The cache will be found on an obvious old railway relic.
Sources:
Exploring New Zealand’s Ghost Railways, David Leitch & Brian Scott, 1995
“Rails to West Taieri”, New Zealand Railfan, September 2006 issue.