Historic Rimutaka Railway gets Trust Registration

New Zealand Historic Places Trust Media Release
4 July 2002

The 16km of railway formation between State Highway 2 at Kaitoke and the former rail settlement at Cross Creek has been registered by the New Zealand Historic Places Trust Board as an historic area. It includes the historically significant Rimutaka Incline.

The rail formation is a popular recreational walkway and annually some 30,000 walkers, runners and mountain bikers use what has become known as the Rimutaka rail trail.

The section of rail formation between the Summit and Cross Creek is known as the Rimutaka Incline. It is a 4.8kilometre stretch of steep mountain railway. Trains travelled the Incline to and from the Wairarapa for 77 years from 1878 to 1955 when rail traffic was re-routed through the new Rimutaka Tunnel. The former Rimutaka rail route was twice as steep as the steepest mainline railway in New Zealand. A special 'Fell' engine system was employed to assist locomotives grip the rails and pull carriages over the Incline.

The rail formation which includes embankments, tunnels, culverts and associated structures and occupation sites ( Summit yard, Cross Creek and campsites), are archaeological sites as defined in section 2 of the Historic Places Act 1993. Trust authorisation is required for any works that might modify or damage these sites. Artefacts and remnants of railway structures continue to be found on the rail route and many remain uncovered.

After the railway ceased to be used, the railway land from Kaitoke to Summit was vested in the Wellington City Water Board, now Wellington Regional Council and from Summit to Cross Creek in the Department of Conservation, formerly the NZ Forest Service.

Meetings in 1983 between the Wellington Regional Council and regional environmental and recreation groups led to an agreement for the development of a walkway over the route of the former railway, largely in recognition of the heritage values of the area.

The old Rimutaka Railway was seen as of great importance in the nation's development, a perception reinforced by many visiting Royalty who were taken over the route: the Prince of Wales in 1921; the Duke and Duchess of York in 1927; the Duke of Gloucester in 1935 and the Queen and Prince Philip during their first visit to New Zealand in 1954.

For more details please contact:
David Watt
Acting General Manager Central Region
Tel : (04) 472-4341
Fax: (04) 499-0669
Email: dwatt@historic.org.nz