Eyreton Line - Ohoka (Canterbury) Traditional Geocache
Sallies: Probably time to archive this one! Rodney.
Eyreton Line - Ohoka (Canterbury)
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Size: 
(small)
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The first cache in the Eyreton Line series. Placed at this Bradleys Road site to cover the section from the start to Ohoka, including Wilson’s Siding. Existing caches prevented placement closer to the start.
This series of caches, based on the Eyreton Branch Line, is a parallel series to our Rangiora-Oxford one. There is again a puzzle to solve along the way, which leads to a final bonus cache. There are already several existing geocaches along this branch line and some of the best sites have already been used by speedier cache setters. Our caches are spread along the line to provide good coverage when combined with the others. We managed to resist the temptation to place a Last Train to Clarkeville cache, because the train never stopped there!
Small plastic screwtop jar. Watch out for the barbed wire and electric fence. Should not be a problem.
The History of the Eyreton Railway Line
When the railway network was beginning to spread throughout the country, rival groups of settlers at Eyreton and Oxford wanted railway lines to serve and develop the needs of their own particular area. A straight-line survey from Kaiapoi to Oxford was carried out in 1871, this being the road now known as Tram Road, even though it never saw a tramline. The government agreed to construct two lines, 10 km apart – the Eyreton Line and the Rangiora-Oxford Line. The Eyreton line originally ended at West Eyreton, but the West Eyreton-Oxford section opened in 1878, the lines joining at Bennetts Junction.. In August 1872 construction began and was completed in 1875, opening on 17 December. The first train left West Eyreton for Kaiapoi on 27 December 1875.
By 1927 the service had slowed to four mixed trains a week, and most of this was a diversion of traffic from the Oxford branch. The 1930 Royal Commission made the recommendation that the Eyreton branch close unless the settlers themselves raised the necessary funds to maintain it. This did not happen and on 9 February 1931 the branch was closed to passenger services and the connecting link between Bennetts Junction and Horrelville was also closed.
By 1950 the Kaiapoi to West Eyreton branch was losing money, with only two goods trains operating each way weekly, increasingly losing freight to road competition. The flourmill generated some traffic for the line, but wagons that were delivered on a Thursday had to wait until the following Tuesday to be loaded. The Horrelville-Wetherell section was closed on 26 May 1954. A 5 km spur off the main line carried on serving the flourmill at Wetheral (Evans Mill) until the early 1960s. The mill was closed in 1978 and demolished in 1980.
Little remains today of the line. The formations of it are obvious in many places but few artefacts of the line are still standing. The remains of a culvert are visible near the Woolfs Rd intersection with North Eyre Rd, Horrelville. The ramp from a platform of the original line is also visible across the paddock from the Ohoka cache and near the Tram Road/bradleys Road intersection. The railway formation (being well compacted gravel with very little soil) is used as a cycleway and footpath for a couple of kilometers along North Eyre Rd from West Eyreton School. A piece of railway iron is visible in a paddock adjacent to North Eyre Rd, near Browns Rd. The platform at Mandeville was at the corner of Bradleys Rd and Tram Rd. Some of the spoil from rebuilding this intersection in 2001 was used for landscaping purposes, and 2 railway spikes were recovered from the soil. The Swannanoa goods shed stood somewhere near the intersection of 2 Chain Rd and North Eyre Rd at Swannanoa and there was some evidence of this until recent times. On Mill Road, a siding to Isaac Wilson’s flourmill was built in 1876 (Wilson’s Siding), and is marked now by a Historic Places Trust plaque.
The Eyreton Line started at a branch off the Main North Line about halfway along what is now Lineside Road. There is still a white railway sign saying Eyreton right beside the track near this point. It crossed the paddocks in a Westerly direction and emerged at the intersection of Main Drain Road and Bradleys Road. The line then followed Bradleys Road, crossing Tram Road into McHughs Road.. Where McHughs Road bears left the line carried straight on, emerging on North Eyre Road where West Denbie Lane now exists. The line then followed North Eyre Road until it met with Tram Road, following Tram Road to Bennetts junction.
The stations along the line were as follows:
| Station |
Opened |
Closed |
| Horrelville |
1 February 1878 |
26 May 1954 |
| Mandeville North |
27 December 1875 |
26 May 1954 |
| Ohoka |
27 December 1875 |
26 May 1954 |
| School Road |
April 1884 |
26 May 1954 |
| Swannanoa |
27 December 1875 |
26 May 1954 |
| Waverley |
27 December 1875 |
31 March 1917 |
| West Eyreton |
27 December 1875 |
19 April 1959 |
| Wetheral |
27 December 1875 |
26 May 1954 |
| Wilson’s Siding |
18 October 1876 |
26 May 1954 |
Churchman, Geoffrey B - The railways of New Zealand : a journey through history. 2001. Hawkins, D N - Beyond the Waimakariri : a regional history. Christchurch : Whitcombe and Tombs, 1957. Leitch, David and Scott, Brian - Exploring New Zealand's ghost railways. Wellington : Grantham House, 1995.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Ebggra fghzc oruvaq gur ohvyqvat naq gnaxf. Whfg bire gur srapr.