Spring Grove Railway

Spring Grove was a busy little station, handling as much freight traffic as Wakefield. It was an unmanned flag station to begin, with a blind siding meaning that trucks had to be pushed in and out of it by hand. A through siding was eventually added, followed by a goods shed with a veranda in 1898. The original Spring Grove Railway Crossing sign, which was rescued during demolition of the line and reinstated in situ by passionate locals, is the location for viewing the Augmented Reality story of the station, featuring an animated, 3D model train based on Wf 62, the Wf class locomotive being one of the last trains on the line as deconstruction work continued.

Black and white photo of driver Ces Gledhill and fireman Mr Westrupp with Wf 62 and mixed train, ready for 4.30pm departure, 1944.

Driver Ces Gledhill and fireman Mr Westrupp with Wf 62 and mixed train, ready for 4.30pm departure, 1944. (O’Donnell, 2005, p. 282).

The Railway's Lifetime - 1876 to 1955

Much has been written about the successes and failures of the Nelson Railway which officially opened on Jan 31st, 1876, initially running 18 miles, 73 chains between Nelson – Foxhill. The trains consisted of two small D class 2-4-0T locomotives, D 143 Trout, and D 144 Kingfisher, (also recorded as Kingfish) plus four carriages and two wagons. The locomotives have been described as ‘typical colonial locomotives – small, not very powerful, and with limited coal and water capacities.’1

With funding and red tape an ongoing challenge for the railway, it was no surprise that at a meeting held in Wakefield, June 1893, the topic of Spring Grove’s need for their long awaited through siding arose. At that time Spring Grove was an unmanned flag station with only a blind siding, meaning that the engine driver, fireman and guard had to push trucks in and out of it by hand.2

With the arrival of the England-trained mechanical engineer Henry St John Christophers as District manager in November 1893, a long overdue programme of repairs and improvements was put into action, and Spring Grove got its new siding. Although St John Christophers left in February 1897 to take up another promotion, the improvements programme continued and a goods shed with a veranda was erected at Spring Grove in 1898.

Black and white photo of D144 ‘Kingfisher’ (left) at work in the Tadmor Valley, near the Kiwi depot, c. 1908.

D144 ‘Kingfisher’ (left) at work in the Tadmor Valley, near the Kiwi depot, c. 1908. (O’Donnell, 2005, p. 107).

Accidents on the Line

“As a child in the early 1930s I distinctly recall my father Huggie Higgins expressing grave concern when the engine of the Glenhope-Nelson afternoon train started repeating three short blasts on its whistle from somewhere south of Spring Grove station. It could indicate only one thing; the driver desperately needed brakes on in the guard’s van and rear carriages and these could only be applied manually by the guard. We ran onto the road just in time to witness a derailed wagon hit the points at the Spring Grove siding. Seven other stock wagons followed it off the track and fell on their sides; one was caught in the cattle stop at the State Highway 6 crossing. Many sheep and cattle were injured and some escaped. It wasn’t a pretty sight.

I’ve retained two memories of that occasion. First: the speed of the effort to clear the line and reopen it for traffic. Every railway employee attached to the Nelson Section seemed to appear and had a task to perform. Second: Ed Shuttleworth from the Wakefield garage brought down the first gas-cutting equipment I’d ever seen, carried in a trailer behind his impressive Straight 8 De Soto. The equipment was used to cut all the twisted couplings and chains. Engine Wf 404 was attached by a heavy wire rope to the stock wagon stuck in the cattle stop. Silently it took the strain, then with one revolution of its driving wheels and a rather pathetic 'ha-woff-woff' it pulled the wagon upright, but only after it had ploughed a deep gouge the entire width of the highway. Now the wagon was ready to be picked up by the crane attached to the other end of 404’s breakdown train. During my years of experience with mechanical power, nothing ever impressed me more than that display of steam power, something we have now almost lost any understanding of.

My cousin Reg Higgins, the fireman on the engine that day, revealed years later that the train, which was running late, had been speeding. A wheel jumped the track at Bird’s Lane crossing, chewing the sleepers until it struck the points at Spring Grove siding, one and a half miles further on, when all hell let loose!” Ross Higgins, Wakefield, 2004.3

A black and white photo of Spring Grove Railway crossing, 1987.

Spring Grove Railway crossing, 1987. (Voller, 1991, p. 321).

Nelson Section Locomotive Timeline

Over the lifetime of the Nelson Section thirteen locomotives came and went. Spring Grove station would have seen 12 of them, the thirteenth being a little shunter at the Port. In their first year of service on the line, the two little 14.7-ton D class locomotives, Trout and Kingfish, hauled 4673 tons of goods traffic, and 49,797 passengers.

1879: December 1879 saw the addition of another D engine, D145.

1885: In March, a 0-6-0 ‘saddle tank’ engine joined the Nelson Section, F 1, renamed F 146 in 1890.

1894: F 163 arrived. Although these two 19.2 tonnes F class engines had a greater tractive effort than Trout and Kingfish, nevertheless, they remained significantly undersized for the tasks they were anticipated to perform. The little D class 145 was retired.

1902: Two 0-6-2 tank locomotives, Fb 373 and Fb 374 were delivered from Addington Workshops in Christchurch. This saw D 143 leave, and after many more years’ service at various places it now sits at Silverstream Railway waiting for restoration.

1903: F 163 left the Nelson Section (and is still used at events after being restored in the 1980s).

1912: The Fb locomotives were reclassified as Fa, and Fa 315 arrived, making a total of three Fa engines.

1915: A Wf 2-6-4 tank locomotive was added to the section, Wf 404. At this time the last of the little D class engines, D 144 left.

1919: Wf 62 joined the Section

1925: Wf 395 arrived.

1930s: The Great Depression saw the end of the line for F 146 and the three Fa engines.

1937: Another Wf engine, 397, arrived from Auckland and joined Wf 404, Wf 395 and Wf 62. These four engines remained until the railway closed in 1955.

Black and white photo of Wf 62 at Motupiko, 1956.

Wf 62 at Motupiko, 1956. (O’Donnell, 2005, p. 259).

Where is the story located?

The Spring Grove Railway post is located on the site of the old railway, next to the Spring Grove Railway Crossing sign.

Agumented Reality Experience

Our Augmented Reality (AR) app is currently under development, with a prototype available for public testing. The app will allow posts to be scanned, bring the stories into life!

A black and white photo of a mixed train at Spring Grove Station.

Mixed train at Spring Grove Station. (Courtesy Chris Arnold).

References

  1. O'Donnell, B. (2005). The Locomotives. In When Nelson had a railway: The life and death of New Zealand's last isolated railway 1879-1955 (p. 8). Schematics Limited.
  2. O'Donnell, B. (2005). The Guardian of Spring Grove. In When Nelson had a railway: The life and death of New Zealand's last isolated railway 1879-1955 (pp. 56-57). Schematics Limited.
  3. Voller, L. (1991). "Shuffling, Dodging and Humbugging": 1877 to 1899. In Rails to nowhere: The history of the Nelson railway (p. 81). Nikau Press.