Hīhītahi was a station on the North Island Main Trunk line,[1] in the Rangitikei District of New Zealand,[2] in the Hautapu River valley.[3] The station served the settlement of Hīhītahi, which was big enough to have a store[4] and a school.[5] It was 12.55 km (7.80 mi) south of Waiouru and 3.05 km (1.90 mi) north of Turangarere.[6] Hīhītahi is at the top of a 1 in 70 gradient from Mataroa,[7] so that it is 39 m (128 ft) above Turangarere, but only 73 m (240 ft) below the much more distant Waiouru.[6]Acrossing loop remains.[8]
Hīhītahi means the first rays of the sun.[9] When opened on 1 July 1908 the station was Tarangarere,[10] changed to Turangaarere on 15 April 1909 and to Hihitahi on 21 August 1910.[11]
Until 25 October 1928 the crossing sidings to the south were called Gardner & Sons Siding, or Gardners Siding but then took the former name of its northern neighbour, Turangaarere, later becoming Turangarere.[11]
1909 Hīhītahi map showing the station layout and planned township
A service road to help with building the railway was formed in 1887,[10] when the route was first surveyed.[12] The Public Works Department (PWD) had the rail and telegraph lines through Hīhītahi[11] built by 1906.[13]NZR took it over as a flag station on 1 July 1908, when the railhead from the south was extended from Mataroa to Waiouru.[14]
A plan for the proposed station was made in 1903. Tenders were invited on 4 March 1907.[15] On 7 June 1907 a contract was let to A S Johnston of Hunterville for £2,201.0s.7d and the station was built by January 1908. When opened it was 66 ft (20 m) by 14 ft (4.3 m), with rooms for stationmaster, luggage, a lobby, urinals and ladies, on a 240 ft (73 m) by 15 ft (4.6 m) platform. There was also a 40 ft (12 m) by 30 ft (9.1 m) goods shed with verandah, a loading bank, cattle yards, two 4,000 imp gal (18,000 L) water tanks and a cart approach. Cottages for railway staff were built from 1904 to 1955. A crossing loop could take 54 wagons and a snowplough was kept at the station.
The station lost its passenger trains before 1972 and closed to all traffic on 31 January 1982.[11]
There were at least three tramway networks in the area, which took timber to sawmills and the railway. Gibbs & Trevor had a tramway running west from the station and George Gardner had tramways to the north west.[6] They had a 1927 Type Cb 0-4-4-0 built by A & G Price.[17] In 1906 a tramway ran to the PWD siding and next year, W G Irvine applied to run one beside the railway. Quin Bros siding was noted in 1909[11] and, in 1910, owners of the Hawera Sash & Door Co Ltd,[18] had a 4 mi (6.4 km) tramway linking their logging area to their mill and the railway.[19] They used a 1909 Type A 0-4-0 T built by J. Johnston's Vulcan Foundry at Invercargill and a 1914 0-4-4-0 by G & D Davidson Ltd. of Hokitika. The tramways were dismantled about 1934, when the bush had been cleared.[17][20]
In 1940 a boulder, estimated to weigh 120 tons,[21] slipped onto the line just north of the station, derailing K-Class locomotive,[22] No.919.[23]KA-Class No.945 suffered a similar crash in 1961.[24]
Slips in 1935[25] and 1945 closed the line[26] for several days.[27]
