Branxholme Locomotive Dump

Branxholme locomotive dump is a steam locomotive and wagon (rail car/vehicle) dump located on the eastern bank of the Oreti River adjacent and just to the north of Southland's Wairio Branch Line in New Zealand. Locomotives and rolling stock have been dumped here for river protection since the 1920s. In the time since numerous items have been recovered for preservation purposes.

During the history of New Zealand Railways, all locomotives and rolling stock have reached or will reach a state of obsolescence. When the cost of scrap metal drops below an economic level, other uses for locomotives and rolling stock are found. Some were dumped in locomotive dumps to aid protection of the railway against erosion or soft ground.

The geology of the Southland Plains is built upon loose rock which has washed down from the Southern Alps over many centuries. The loose rock and surrounding mud at the Oreti River crossing at Branxholme provided an unstable formation for the railway lines running west of Invercargill to Ohai, Riverton and Tuatapere.

Initially large amounts of rock and other debris were tipped at Branxholme to stabilise the line, however, this did not stay in place, particularly after heavy rains and subsequent flooding. In 1927, when scrap steel was an uneconomic proposition, New Zealand Railways started dumping obsolete steam locomotives at Branxholme to arrest erosion.

Branxholme is located along the-then Wairio Branch (now the Ohai Industrial Branch) at the point where the railway crosses the Oreti River. Due to the river coming alongside the railway in an S-bend before passing under the railway bridge, the railway embankment was prone to erosion caused by the flow of the Oreti. Initial attempts to control this using large quantities of rock and other debris were unsuccessful, and so NZR decided to use old steam locomotives which had been withdrawn as a bulwark against this erosion.

In 1927, NZR sent the hulks of fifteen stripped locomotives to Branxholme for erosion control purposes. The locomotives were moved into position and then were tipped by a steam crane into the river. The first to be tipped into the river was the hulk of P 133, which subsequently lodged on the bank above the river and had to be further tipped by the crane to fall into the river. During the tipping operations, the boiler of P 60 came loose from its frames, as this boiler had been taken from another locomotive but not secured in place as P 60 had been withdrawn from service and was to be stripped prior to dumping. The dumping also exploited a key weakness in the V class locomotives, causing their frames to break just to the rear of the cylinders.

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