Mangaroa Railway Station

Mangaroa
Formerly New Zealand Government Railways (NZGR)
The sole remnant of the station, its loading bank.
Location	Flux Road, Mangaroa.
Coordinates	41°7′16.58″S 175°6′37.48″E / 41.1212722°S 175.1104111°E / -41.1212722; 175.1104111
Owned by	Formerly Railways Department Now in private ownership
Line(s)	Formerly part of Wairarapa Line
Platforms	Single
History
Opened	1 January 1878
Closed	30 October 1955
Previous names	Mungaroa

Mangaroa railway station was a single-platform rural railway station on the Wairarapa Line between Upper Hutt and Featherston in the Wellington region of New Zealand’s North Island, on the section that was replaced by the Rimutaka Tunnel deviation in 1955. It served the small rural settlement of Mangaroa, in the Mangaroa Valley, east of Upper Hutt.

Mangaroa station was not originally built prior to the opening of Kaitoke station as part of the Mungaroa Contract.

In 1876–1877, a privately owned 43-wagon-capacity siding was laid several chains to the north of Cruickshanks Tunnel to serve a timber mill that was owned, constructed and operated by James Cruickshanks, a member of the Wellington Provincial Council. His siding handled only timber traffic, but also became a stopping place for main line trains, and was known as Cruickshanks. He later built a second mill about half a mile closer to Mangaroa station, but the first remained in use until 1889 when the siding was lifted. The second mill operated its own tramway between the mill and station yard where timber was transferred to railway wagons.

During the construction of the Rimutaka Tunnel, a siding was laid from the eastern end of the Mangaroa Valley and several chains north-east of Mangaroa station to the new Maymorn Station yard. This was to enable work trains to bring lengths of welded rail, other supplies and equipment from the Hutt Workshops directly to the construction site. Once the tunnel and deviation opened, this siding, along with the rest of the old section, was lifted in 1956.

A military siding was established at Mangaroa in World War II to service RNZAF No. 2 Stores Depot that was later used by the Army. The depot opened in 1942 after being moved from the RNZAF station at Rongotai and was used until after the war. After the war the depot was a disposal site for surplus stores until RNZAF use ceased in July 1949, at which time it is assumed that the site was transferred to the NZ Army for their use.