In the 1800s, the only way to get around the country was by horse or by ship. Cars did not exist then. As as a result there was a lot of discussion about railways after seeing the successes they had produced "back home" - when our first settlers arrived in 1840, there were already 1600 kilometres of rail in England.
But Wellington is ringed by hills and although there was a coach road to Porirua and a number of bridle tracks, there was no easy way to put a railroad in. Communication with the Hutt Valley was by boat. It was the 1855 earthquake that raised the land 3-4 metres and provided a level space around the hills from Wellington to Petone that made a road to Petone feasible. And of course, the Hutt Valley itself is flat...
In 1853 the newly formed Wellington Provincial Council prepared plans for a horse-drawn tramway between Mangaroa, near Kaitoke, and Petone. Nothing came of this, but proposals were raised again in 1857, 1861 and 1862. In 1863 the Provincial Council took its first serious look at a railway. One of the earlier presenters, Robert Stokes, presented a more detailed plan and a select committee was appointed to examine it. It did not progress far for a variety of reasons, one of the major reasons being the inability to finance such an expensive undertaking. None-the-less, in 1864 the Council agreed that a railway company should be formed. However Dr Featherston, the Provincial Superintendent, canned the project, saying that he could not commit the Government to such a cost. He favoured roads - roads are cheap and easy to build, despite the lower cartage capabilities of a dray or coach. And it should be noted that a line to Wairarapa was what was really wanted - the population there was 3000 people, with 300,000 sheep and 16,000 cattle, and the only shipping option killed when that same 1855 earthquake closed off Lake Wairarapa from the sea.
In 1866 another plan was released - this for a light rail, capable of carrying a train of 200 tonnes at 25km/hour. Again Dr Featherston canned the project, stating that the £300,000 projected would be grossly inadequate. Another plan was presented in 1867. And then that was it. While there was constant pressure, provincial politics was slowing down and it was expected that Government would take up the cause.
They didn't have to wait long. Julius Vogel, the Colonial Treasurer, also recognised the value of railways, especially when the major resources - ores and timber - were inland. He managed to secure a £10M loan for public works, mostly for railways. The new department of Public Works would fund and build the railways and a government company, New Zealand Railways, would run them. Running costs would be born by the provinces, and a potion of the ticket price would be returned to the Government.
The Railway Act of 1871 gave approval for a railway between Wellington and Lower Hutt and a purchase for rails, points, signals, two four-wheeled locomotives, three four-wheeled passenger coaches and a variety of goods wagons were ordered that same year. Construction started on 20 August 1872. Alas at first it was slow going. It took almost a year to reach Kaiwharawhara Stream, a distance of just two kilometres. The rock quarried ahead of the line was unsuitable for a sea wall, there was a shortage of labourers (solved by 175 railway workers and their families immigrating to New Zealand), and the rail stock arrived ten months late. The rails themselves arrived on time, but they had to carted out by dray.
The grand opening was on 14 April 1874, and was attended by very few people - it was not the grand gala day other provinces had when their first train rolled into town. Pipitea station, the Wellington terminus, and its engine yards and maintenance shops were built here on Pipitea Point, a bit of flat land raised in the 1855 earthquake, that jutted into Wellington Harbour The station building itself was 50m down the road to the south. Since then there has been a large amount of reclamation, and the old shoreline is not longer evident. The trip to Lower Hutt took 30 minutes, and cost 1s 6d for 2nd class. The train probably ran with a Class A steam engine, of just 20 horsepower (which is 15 kilowatts. For reference a typical car nowadays has an engine rated about 150kw, and rail engines currently in use are rated at around 900kw).
In 1876 Pipitea had outgrown its capacity and between 1877 and 1879 new workshops and yards were built near Korokoro Station. In January of 1878 a fire broke out in the Railway Hotel across the road from Pipitea Station. The hotel was completely destroyed. The fire also lept the road and destroyed the railway station and workshops. Although a temporary building was rebuilt here, a new station, Wellington, was built on reclaimed land to take over the southern terminus role. Pipitea was retained as a stop until September 1884 when the rail line was moved east (onto more reclaimed land).
Incidentally Thorndon Station, which opened in 1885 as the southern terminus of the Wellington to Manawatu Railway, was also here - it's station building was about 50m along the road to the north.
Thorndon Railway Station, with Thorndon Baths, 1905. You can easily see Hutt Road and Davis Street. Pipitea Station would have been just around the corner, however at the time this photo was taken it had already been destroyed by the 1878 fire.
The name Pipitea refers to the white (tea) shellfish (pipi) that could be found here before reclamation filled in the harbour.
References:
"Railway Directory", Hutt Valley Independent, 2 September 1911
Scoble, J: "Names and Opening and Closing Dates of Railway Stations", published by the Rail Heritage Trust of New Zealand, 2010.
Parsons, D: "Wellington's Railways Colonial Steam to Matangi", published by the New Zealand Railway & Locomotive Society, 2010
The Evening Post: "The new Railway Station", 15 November 1873