MOUTOHORA ADVENTURE: Shot by Eastland Photographers in 1959 for Gisborne Photo News, this image depicts the “up” train on he Moutohora line at Otoko, with the guard’s van just coming off the Otoko viaduct. Limited places are available for a bus trip along the remains of the Moutohora rail line. Gisborne Photo News picture
MOUTOHORA ADVENTURE: Shot by Eastland Photographers in 1959 for Gisborne Photo News, this image depicts the “up” train on he Moutohora line at Otoko, with the guard’s van just coming off the Otoko viaduct. Limited places are available for a bus trip along the remains of the Moutohora rail line. Gisborne Photo News picture
HISTORIC Places Tairawhiti is planning a bus trip for November 21 with opportunities to explore significant sites along the remains of the Moutohora rail line route.
The bus tour will start at 8.30am with a viewing of locomotive Wa165 at the railway shed. At 9am passengers will board the busand the first stop will be at Innes Street-Northcote Road, where the branch line leaves the main Gisborne to Napier line. This will be followed by a stop at the East Coast Museum of Transport and Technology to view lines and other relics.
“The locomotive Wa165 operated on the Moutohora line from 1911 until 1943,” said Historic Places Tairawhiti deputy chairman and trip organiser Roger Bell.
“It was then sent to Frankton and written off in 1959. Gisborne Jaycees bought it in 1961 and brought it back to Gisborne. Volunteers worked tirelessly on it until it was restored to the condition it enjoys today.”
The tour will feature points of interest such as tunnels and viaducts as it follows the line through Makauri and Ormond to Waipaoa, Matawai and Moutohora. The plan is to arrive for lunch at Motu-vation Cafe at about 12.30pm, and the bus will arrive back in Gisborne before 4.30pm.
Former New Zealand Railways engine driver and author of Steel on Steel Bob Hepburn will be tour guide. Mr Hepburn was a driver on the Moutohora line from 1953 to 1956. The line officially closed on March 14, 1959. Most of the track has been removed since then.
Mr Bell hopes kaumatua Temple Isaacs will join the tour. Mr Isaacs was a train driver when the line closed in 1959.
A limited number of seats are available, and you can register interest with Sheridan Gundry at 868 5805 or write@gems.co.nz. Payment will secure your place on the trip.
