Rewanui Branch
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The Rewanui Branch, sometimes referred to as the Rewanui Incline and known as the Point Elizabeth Branch in its early years, was a branch line railway located in the West Coast region of New Zealand's South Island. It branched from the Midland Line near its western terminus in Greymouth and ran up to Rewanui in the Paparoa Ranges. The branch closed in 1985 but the first six kilometres to Runanga remain in operation as part of the Rapahoe Branch.
In 1889, the Cobden Railway and Mining Company and Point Elizabeth Coal Company in conjunction began construction of the line, with the original terminus situated in Dunollie. However, a decade later, the joint venture collapsed, and in 1901, the State Mines Department took over the railway operations in conjunction with the mining activity. Operation of the line subsequently passed to the New Zealand Railways Department on 1 December 1904. In comparison to the extension to Rewanui, this section was sedate, with the only significant engineering work being the Cobden Bridge across the Grey River at the start of the branch.
Good coal deposits had been discovered in the Paparoa Ranges, and although the Roa Incline was being built on the other side from a junction with the Stillwater - Westport Line in Ngahere and could carry coal mined from some of the coal seams, a branch up the valley of the Seven Mile Creek was seen as necessary. This line was to be extremely steep: over its 5.4 kilometre length between Dunollie and the terminus, it would rise 163 metres with grades as severe as 1 in 26. This necessitated the installation of a Fell centre rail to assist braking on the descent, though this was not a full use of the Fell system like the Rimutaka Incline in the North Island was. The line was opened to its Rewanui terminus on 21 January 1914, with a full length of 13.07 kilometres.
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