Whanganui railway station

The station opened with the Whanganui Town Branch on 21 January 1878.[15] The Aramoho to Turakina railway had opened on 17 May 1877[20] and had 2 trains a day from 18 May.[21] The line to Marton opened on 4 February 1878.[4] From 5 May 1880, Whanganui had 3 trains a day to Palmerston North and 2 to Kai Iwi,[22] though the line to Kai Iwi didn't officially open until 16 September 1880.[23]

The first work on the railway was a 1 July 1875 contract with Calman & Richardson to build a wharf for £788-16s. By 26 October 1875 James Moore Edwards had built an open ended shed for 2 engines. By 3 November 1875 there was a store room and office and by 25 December 1875 the wharf was ready. By 1 February 1877 G M Chalmers had built a temporary station on an unused bit of Churton Street.[4] On 19 July 1877 William Rowe got a £4795.6.8 contract to build Wanganui Town Branch, which was finished by 4 November 1877. In 1877 and 1878 housing and offices for a stationmaster and public works (PWD) staff were bought and a 50-ton coal store built.[4]

The station was 2 mi 76 ch (4.7 km) from Aramoho Junction, 58 mi 54 ch (94.4 km) from Hāwera, 62 mi 74 ch (101.3 km) from New Plymouth and 85 mi 30 ch (137.4 km) from Foxton.[4]

By 1896 there was a special station, platform, cart approach, stationmaster's house and urinals.[4] Fixed signals were added by 1898 and there was a trial of Sykes' block signals to Aramoho in 1899. In 1945 a new signal box was built near the end of the platform.[4]

There was a turntable by 1911.[4] In 1989 the 21.3 m (70 ft) turntable on Taupo Quay was disconnected,[24] but it has been restored by SteamRail Wanganui,[25] which has a shed on the wharf.[26]

A February 1878 plan, to extend the station and add a cloak room and booking clerks office,[4] was dropped by April 1878, as the Churton Street station was temporary and a much more extended station was envisaged on Ridgway Street. On 24 November 1880 tenders were invited for a further goods shed and station buildings.[27] By 9 April 1881 James Tawse had built a 100 ft (30 m) x 42 ft (13 m) goods shed and extended and moved the station buildings.[4][28] Tenders for the station were invited in July 1881[29] and it was built by 25 November 1881.[4] In 1882 a verandah was added to the station. In 1885 an estimate was made of the cost of lighting the station with gas. Telephones were connected from 21 November 1885 at the station and wharf, in 1886 at the PWD office, District Manager's office, and East Town Workshops, the District Engineer in 1897, the Foreman of Works and District Manager's house 1898, the stationmaster's house 1899 and the running shed foreman's house in 1901. From 1 January 1940, a teleprinter linked Whanganui and Wellington.[4]

In 1881 PWD were asked for a carriage washing shed, but it wasn't until 1893 that a carriage shed was built. In 1910 a concrete stage was added for dining cars.[4]

• 
  1880s Whanganui railway station
• 
  Whanganui railway station and wharves after 1901
• 
  Whanganui 1901 station
• 
  The 1903 Castlecliff station was about 400 metres from the 1901 NZR station

A new station, opened on 29 April 1901, cost £2,500 to 3,000 and was 18 ft (5.5 m) wide and 187 ft 6in long on the lower storey and 120 ft (37 m) on the upper. The lower had a 15 ft (4.6 m) long guards and porters room, 10 ft (3.0 m) luggage room, 40 ft (12 m) parcels office, 22 ft (6.7 m) booking office, 12 ft (3.7 m) stationmaster's and traffic inspector's offices, 10 ft (3.0 m) clerk's office and 15 ft (4.6 m) ladies' waiting room and lavatories. The Taupo Quay entrance, under a 68 ft (21 m) x 10 ft (3.0 m) verandah, had a 25 ft (7.6 m) x 15 ft (4.6 m) general lobby, with seats, a fireplace, 2 ticket windows and a wide, easy graded, staircase. Upstairs a 54 ft (16 m) x 4 ft (1.2 m) corridor lead to the 18 ft (5.5 m) square District Traffic Manager's office, 13.6 ft (4.1 m) x 12.6 ft (3.8 m) records, 7.6 ft (2.3 m) x 7 ft (2.1 m) lavatories, 29.6 ft (9.0 m) x 13.6 ft (4.1 m) telegraph gallery, and 43 ft (13 m) x 18 ft (5.5 m) traffic clerk's office. The platform was enlarged from 68 ft (21 m) x 12 ft (3.7 m) to 187 ft (57 m) x 20 ft (6.1 m), with 5 double incandescent globe lights.[30] To ease the curve at the station approach, the line was moved westwards, from Churton Street[31] to run beside a new Hatrick Street,[32] as from 5 February 1906.[33] There was a bookstall at the station from at least 1902[34] to 1947.[35] By 1908 the station dealt with 11 trains a day.[36] The area around the station flooded in 1904[37] and 1940.[38]

tickets sales 1881–1950 – derived from annual returns to Parliament of "Statement of Revenue for each Station for the Year ended"

Whanganui had its annual returns of traffic recorded, as did Aramoho. Ticket sales reached a peak of 116,843 in 1943, plus 190 season tickets.[39]

This graph shows the variation in passenger numbers from 1881 to 1950 (detail and staff numbers shown in table below):

The goods business was as valuable to the railway as the passengers. For example, in 1921 passenger revenue was £50,417 (including £4,852 for parcels and luggage) and goods £50,605. In that year 21,433 tons of minerals, 31,137 tons of general goods, 8,373,600 superficial feet of timber and 304,233 sheep arrived at the station.[45] Most of the sheep would have been destined for the freezing works, which had been built at Castlecliff in 1891.[46]

By March 1878 the station had a goods shed. In 1879 Saunders reclaimed land and built a wharf and McLean built another goods shed. Cattle yards were added in 1880. In 1881 a verandah was added to the goods shed.[4] In 1882 Freeman Jackson had a wool store built beside the station.[47] In 1883 Alexander & McFarlane added to the goods shed for £431-19s-8d. Further improvements were made to the station yard in 1895. By 1896 there was a 180 ft (55 m) x 42 ft (13 m) goods shed, loading bank, cattle and sheep yards, hand crane, coal yard and weighbridge.[4] In 1899 several improvements were planned, including a new engine shed and reclamation of the area above the half tide wall,[48] later marked as Government Reclamation on a plan of about 1905.[49] The wharf was extended by 625 ft (191 m) in 1909.[50][51] By 1914 there was a wagon repair shed.[4] In 1911 the yard was lit and in 1930 electric light was put in the wharf shed.[4]

From 1908 the city trams travelled to Aramoho in 17 minutes[52] and, from 17 October 1912, served Castlecliff.[53] Buses began running to New Plymouth in 1921 and to Wellington in 1925.[54] In 1934 they were bought by Railways Road Motor Service,[55] whose buses ran to Wellington in 4½ to 5 hours;[56] by comparison, from 1933, a 2pm train from Wellington reached Whanganui at 9.12pm, with a change at Palmerston North.[57] On 1 January 1956 the Town Wharf was closed due to competition from Castlecliff,[58] a proposal which had been made as early as 1932.[59] Large crowds greeted a British rugby team when they arrived at the station in August 1959,[60] though regular passenger services had ended on 3 May 1959.[16] In 1959 part of the old wharf shed was demolished and the rest in 1963. In 1961 the station platform was reduced. On Taupo Quay in 1962 a new 250 ft (76 m) x 50 ft (15 m) good shed, 2 storey, 50 ft (15 m) x 40 ft (12 m) goods office and a loading bank were built. In 1963 the 1878 goods office was demolished, 3 floodlight towers were built, 2 of them 120 ft (37 m) high and the other 80 ft (24 m).[4]

A 16,500 sq ft (1,530 m²) district office opened on 1 November 1971 on Taupo Quay, costing $262,989. By August 1976 a new gantry was in use for lifting bulk flour containers and on 7 April 1983 a new Road Services terminal opened. In 1987 the locomotive depot and car & wagon block were demolished and replaced in 1988 by an $8,000 fuel point at East Town. By October 1989 the station, platform and sidings had been removed,[4] replaced by a new site further west on Taupo Quay.[16]

A container terminal replaced Taupo Quay in 2010, linking with Port Taranaki[61] and Centreport. It was formally opened in 2015[62] and is at 53 Gilberd Street, Castlecliff.[63] The other main traffic is logs.[64] Taupo Quay was redeveloped in the 1990s[65] with shopping, parking and open spaces.[66]