Waingawa Railway Station

Waingawa
New Zealand Government Railways Department regional rail
Waingawa railway station platform.
Location	Waingawa Road, Wairarapa, New Zealand
Coordinates	40°58′8.47″S 175°35′46.82″E / 40.9690194°S 175.5963389°E / -40.9690194; 175.5963389
Owned by	ONTRACK
Line(s)	Wairarapa Line
Platforms	Single side
Tracks	Main line (1) Wagon loops (4)
Construction
Parking	No
Bicycle facilities	No
History
Opened	30 March 1921
Closed	27 February 1987 (freight, general consignments only) 28 September 1992 (passengers)
Previous names	Taratahi

Waingawa railway station is a station on the Wairarapa Line in the Wairarapa district of New Zealand’s North Island. It is located about 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) south of the Waingawa River and is situated in a heavy industrial area. It served passenger trains until 1992 and now only handles freight (private sidings and special consignments).

The first use of the name Waingawa in relation to rail facilities in the Wairarapa was when from 1895 a siding about 2 miles (3.2 km) south of Kurupuni (Solway) became known as Waingawa. It was a private siding that had for a long time been known as Donald’s Siding, and was used by the Wellington Meat Export Company to load livestock for transport to their abattoir at Ngahauranga.

Between 1908 and 1912 the Wellington Farmers’ Meat Company established their own private siding about 45 chains (3,000 ft; 910 m) south of Waingawa called Taratahi. In 1921 this became the location of a new station called Waingawa, complete with signalling apparatus, and the name Taratahi ceased to be used.

Though a co-operative freezing works was established at Waingawa in 1897, the brisk traffic in livestock from Waingawa to Wellington continued, at least until the opening of the Waingawa Freezing Works. In 1966 a siding was laid from the Waingawa yard to the then new Masterton saleyards. The saleyards are still extant today but their siding has long since been removed.

Several industrial neighbours have come and gone in the vicinity of Waingawa station. In 1911, the Waingawa Freezing Works were opened by the Wellington Farmers’ Meat Company and lasted until 9 November 1989 when, in the hands of AFFCO, the works were closed as part of an industry rationalisation. Japanese forestry products company Juken Nissho (now Juken NZ) opened a mill just north of the station in February 1992, which continues to transport goods by rail using its own private siding.

Since the closure of the freezing works, forestry related businesses and trucking companies have largely supplanted the livestock trade at Waingawa, with the JNL mill now the largest rail customer on site. This may change in the future, as several projects are under consideration that may involve the use of rail for the transport of product out of the Wairarapa, including:

In February 2009 funding from the National Land Transport Programme for the log freight project was approved by the NZ Transport Agency. Log traffic started in March 2012 and typically moves around 300 tonnes of logs per day.