Waimea Plains Railway

The Waimea Plains Railway was a secondary railway line (not a branch line) that linked the towns of Lumsden and Gore in northern Southland, New Zealand. It skirted the Hokonui Hills, and operated as a through route between 31 July 1880 and 1 April 1971, with the short section from Lumsden to Balfour continuing as the Balfour Branch until 15 January 1978.

The Waimea Plains Railway was built in order to improve communication between Dunedin and the Lake Wakatipu district. At the time, construction of the Otago Central Railway had barely begun and the only other way to reach the region by rail - the most efficient form of transport in the days before modern road transport – involved a detour south via Invercargill. The Waimea Plains Railway Company was formed in 1878 in New Zealand under the District Railways Act of 1877, and began construction on 11 January 1879. The easy terrain meant construction was swift, with the last rail laid on 24 May 1880 and the official opening a couple of months later on 21 July.

The Waimea Plains Railway Company was part of several companies speculating in land settlement in Southland set up by politicians including Robert Stout and William Larnach, along with the New Zealand Agricultural Company (set up in London in 1879) and then the New Zealand Land and Loan Company. By 1879 these companies were precarious financially, and the whole scheme was "little short of a scam". Bourke says that George Grey not agreeing to purchase the Waimea Plains Railway Company in 1879 was the reason for subsequent fall of the Grey ministry. This and several other private railway companies were later purchased by the new Stout-Vogel ministry. Stout’s financial affairs were covered up in 1893 by Richard Seddon, Stout’s rival in the Liberal Party, provided that Stout left politics.

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