Early days of Hawke's Bay's railways

 

On 10 May 2008, Hawke's Bay today published this article which is an extract from Matthew Wright's book, Frontier to Deco: A Short History of Hawke's Bay.  It describes how the main railway in Hawke's Bay was developed from the first contract signed in 1872 to it being connected to the Government Railways in Woodville down through the Wairarapa in 1897, including some of the issues in developing the route. Vogel's famous public funding was intended to build a private railway network to connect the country, but ultimately would be the basis for a mostly state-owned network.  The railway from Napier pushed down to Woodville by 1887 and through the Manawatu Gorge to Longburn by 1891, where it connected to the privately owned Wellington & Manawatu Railway Company route down to Wellington. In 1897 the government railway had pushed north through the Wairarapa to Woodville, providing a second route to Wellington (albeit over the notorious Rimutaka Incline).  The line from Longburn through the Manawatu Gorge through Woodville and up to Napier remains to this day.