Seddonville Branch

The Seddonville Branch, later truncated as the Ngakawau Branch, is a branch line railway in the West Coast region of New Zealand's South Island. Construction began in 1874 and it reached its terminus at the Mokihinui Mine just beyond Seddonville in 1895. In 1981 it was closed past Ngakawau and effectively became an extension of the Stillwater–Westport Line, since formalised as the Stillwater Ngakawau Line.

The branch was built for transporting coal from mines to the harbour at Westport. Unlike most other railways of the era, there was no expectation that it would open up country for settlement and farming, as the terrain was mountainous and not suited to settlement of significant size. Coal had been discovered on the north bank of the Waimangaroa River on 25 March 1873, and on 3 March 1874 tenders were called for the construction of a railway to link Waimangaroa with Westport. Construction began soon after, and the first section opened to Fairdown on 31 December 1875. Waimangaroa was reached on 5 August 1876 and regular services began operating. The extension to Ngakawau opened on 12 September 1877, bringing the length to 30 kilometres (18.6 miles).

The impact of the Long Depression limited government funds available for railway construction, and no extension of the line occurred for over a decade. By the end of the 1880s, the economic position was improving and work commenced on extending the line to Seddonville. On 8 August 1893 it opened to Mokihinui, and on 23 February 1895 the New Zealand Railways Department acquired a 6.2 kilometre (3.8 mile) private line from Mokihinui through Seddonville to the Mokihinui Mine, run by the Mokihinui Coal Company. Some of the funds for the construction of the Ngakawau-Mokihinui section and the purchase of the Mokihinui line were provided by the Westport Harbour Board.

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