Lost Stations of the Hutt: Summit Traditional Cache

Before 1870 there were several proposals up and down the country for railways, as at the time cars and trucks did not exist and the only way to get around the country was by horse or by ship. But railways are horrendously expensive to install and beyond the resources of the provinces. However, in 1870, the availability of the Julius Vogel's £10M loan and the passing of the Public Works and Railway Acts allow the government to foot the bill. Things really started happening. Thirteen years earlier Robert Stokes (of whom Stokes Valley is named) first proposed for a railway to the excellent grazing lands of the Wairarapa. It was considered "harebrained in the extreme" and the source of much derision, not for the idea of the railway per se, but for the costs it would impose on the region. Every few years proposals would reappear and be shot down mostly on financial concerns. But in 1870 that all changed. Proposals got more serious, as did the surveys. Four routes to the Wairarapa were considered, three over the Remutaka Range and one along the South Coast, although that one was rejected pretty quickly due to the number of unstable fans that had to be crossed.

The problem was what amounted to competing requirements - no steeper than a 1:40 gradient and curves no tighter than 100m radius. Upper Hutt to Summit was not a problem, and the final route was easily worked with locomotives of the day. It was, of course, the Summit to Featherston side that was the problem. After a lot of to-and-froing, and fifteen years since the first proposal, two options settled out. One was 13 kilometres longer than the other but the shorter route had a 2.6 kilometre tunnel and thus a significantly longer construction time. Higher running costs or higher initial outlay? The route to Summit was finally decided in March of 1872, five months before construction commenced at Pipitea for the Wellington to Petone section.

The route down to Featherston was, of course, was where the problem lay. Curves as tight as 60m radius were proposed, which might need special cars to negotiate them (and required 19 tunnels!), and there were various proposals at steeper grades that kept to the 100 metre curve radius requirements, which early on were immediately rejected. However a successful implementation of the Fell system in Italy in 1867 brought the steep route proposals back. (A Fell locomotive uses two sets of horizontal drive wheels tightly clamped to a centre rail. Cogwheel-and-rack systems were only just being developed and had yet to prove themselves so where not considered.)

As we all know, the Fell system succeeded. The route allowed for the required minimum curve radius but needed the Fell engines to cope with the up to 1:15 gradient. But this cache is about the lost stations of the Hutt, so I will say little of the Fell system or it's route.

The route to Summit was relatively straightforward, but it did have some hurdles, most notably was the lack of labour. In March 1876 William Oakes, the contractor, tried to get some of the unemployed men from the Thames' goldfields but the government did not come through with the transport. In February 1877 Oakes put out another advertisement guaranteeing a year's work "at the highest wages". He must have found his men as the Wairarapa paper reported 300 men working between Upper Hutt and the summit. The contract was completed in February 1877, twenty months behind schedule. The mountain range was not composed of solid rock, and tunnels had cut with care and shored up until they could be lined. At the Pakuratahi Tunnel the rails had yet to reach the tunnel so bricks could not be brought in. Rather than wait for the line to arrive, Oakes built a plant on site to make the concrete and blocks required to line the tunnel. It took four months to cut and line the 90 metre long Pakuratahi Tunnel, which at the time was considered pretty darn quick.

The Summit contract was the shortest of the three contracts between Upper Hutt and Summit. It was only about 1.6 kilometres long, but involved the levelling, drainage and creation of the rail yard, wide enough for four lines of track and various buildings. It also included the Summit Tunnel, the longest tunnel on the route, and a tiny tunnel beside it to collect and divert a stream. There was also a requirement to cut a track in from the Remutaka Hill Road, two kilometres away, in order to get men and equipment in (this work started long before Oakes' contract was completed). The ride in from the road on horseback took an hour. and was even slower with a team of bullocks. It was a five hour walk to the nearest store. After the first few weeks the camp was built and work proper commenced. There was so much complaint in the papers about the speed of construction, especially of the Summit Tunnel, that a Wairarapa reporter was sent to investigate. He reported that boring at 20 metres per month progress was not fast, but it was not slow either and that 30 men working in three eight-hour shifts was the maximum number of men that could be put to use in the tunnel. As is often the case, this was worked from both ends, and the press reported with astonishment that the there was only a difference of a few centimetres in the levels when at last the two teams met. The lining of the tunnel was delayed until the rail arrived to make it easier to bring the bricks in. Alas a part of the lining collapsed, killing one worker and blinding another due to his head injuries. Earlier, two other tunnellers had also lost their lives during construction on the Mungaroa Tunnel due to a roof collapse while the tunnel was still being bored.

Summit Station was built primarily a train swap. A "normal" train would travel up from Upper Hutt, the locomotive would uncouple, and the required number of Fell locomotives would be inserted into the consist for the trip to Featherston. This required a little bit of shunting and passengers would often alight for a bit of fresh air. Despite that there were no services for passengers here, no platform or cafe.

Summit station was operated from October 1878 to 30 October 1955. The nine kilometre long Remutaka Tunnel was opened three days later. Now, of course, the line is a major cycle trail.

References:
Cameron, Walter Norman: "A Line of Railway", published by the New Zealand Railway and Locomotive Society, 1976
Scoble, J: "Names and Opening and Closing Dates of Railway Stations", published by the Rail Heritage Trust of New Zealand, 2010.