Author(s): Bruce and Richard Maffey

NZ History

In 1962, after eighty-six years service, the branch railway to White Cliffs was finally closed and dismantled. Its passenger service had ceased thirty-four years earlier, leaving the line 'goods only' in its later days, except for the popular excursion trains which give the public opportunity to enjoy the much loved Malvern Hills, so close to the city. Commercially, those who mourned the line's eventual demise were those who had supported traffic on the line to the end; the proprietors of the Glentunnel Pipe Works and the Coalgate coal mines. For the convenience it offered, most of the farming community had turned to road transport for their produce and stock. By 1960, the line was already in poor condition, having received only minimal maintenance over many years through a Railways Department directive determined to close branch lines in order to save money. This line had however, been responsible for helping to open up the prosperous Malvern Hills area for settlement and agricultural development. The volume of sheep, cattle and grain traffic was a testament of the area's new found wealth supporting the busiest branch line in Canterbury. In the nineteenth century, the supposed abundant mineral wealth and richness of the local coalfield raised hopes of Coalgate becoming the centre of an English industrial 'Midlands', surrounded by well populated townships. This proved disappointing and the villages along the line failed to develop and prosper. In 1962. the junction at Darfield, which became the Malvern County's administrative seat, was still a small rural township where almost all rail traffic went to and from the West Coast. The Malvern coal with its broken seams of predominately brown coal was found to be a limited field of inferior quality, compared with the large rich deposits of the West Coast accessible via the Otira Tunnel after 1923 - this ultimately proved to be the real 'Gateway to the Coalfields'.

Second hand.