Oxford Branch, New Zealand

Oxford Branch
Overview
Type	Heavy Rail
System	New Zealand Government Railways (NZGR)
Status	Closed
Locale	Canterbury, New Zealand
Termini	Rangiora Sheffield
Stations	13
Operation
Opened	28 July 1884 (1884-07-28)
Closed	14 July 1930 (1930-07-14) (Sheffield – Oxford East) 19 April 1959 (1959-04-19) (Oxford East – Rangiora)
Owner	Railways Department
Operator(s)	Railways Department
Character	Rural
Technical
Line length	35.47 km (Rangiora – Oxford West)
Number of tracks	Single
Track gauge	3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm)
Route map 0 km RangioraMain North Line Bells Fernside Stoke Springbank (Moeraki) Cust Eyreton Branch 32.41 km Bennetts Junction Carleton Oxford East 35.47 km Oxford West View Hill Bexley Waimakariri River Gorge bridge Sheffield (Malvern)Midland Line

The Oxford Branch was a branch line railway that formed part of New Zealand's national rail network. It was located in the Canterbury region of the South Island, and ran roughly parallel with the Eyreton Branch that was located some ten kilometres south. It opened to Oxford in 1875 and survived until 1959.

It was unusual in that for much of its life it linked two main lines, the Main North Line and the Midland Line, the only portion of the proposed Canterbury Interior Main Line to be completed.

In the late 1860s, the Oxford region had poor transport, and as it had one of Canterbury's two major stands of timber (the Little River Branch was built to the other) it was seen as economically important to build a branch line to transport the timber. The Main North Line up the east coast from Christchurch was under construction and a number of proposals were made of routes from the main line to Oxford. Two proposals were accepted, from Rangiora to Oxford and from Kaiapoi to West Eyreton (the Eyreton Branch).

Construction was undertaken by central government even though the Canterbury Provincial Railways were building the Main North Line, and work began in mid-1872, four months before the main line reached Rangiora. The main line was being built to 1,600 mm (5 ft 3 in) while the branch was the newly nationally accepted 1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in) narrow gauge, and this created a break of gauge in Rangiora for a brief period until the Canterbury Provincial Railways were converted to narrow gauge.

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