The Shag Point Branch was a short branch off the Main South Line

Main South Line

The Main South Line, sometimes referred to as part of the South Island Main Trunk Railway, is a railroad line that runs north and south from Lyttelton in New Zealand through Christchurch and along the east coast of the South Island to Invercargill via Dunedin...

 on the east coast of the South Island

South Island

The South Island is the larger of the two major islands of New Zealand, the other being the more populous North Island. It is bordered to the north by Cook Strait, to the west by the Tasman Sea, to the south and east by the Pacific Ocean...

 of New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

. It left the main line about nine kilometres north of Palmerston

Palmerston, New Zealand

The town of Palmerston, in New Zealand's South Island lies 50 kilometres to the north of the city of Dunedin. It is the largest town in the Waihemo Ward of the Waitaki District with a population of 890 residents...

 at the small settlement of Shag Point to provide railway access to a nearby supply of coal. It was built in 1879 and ran until 1934.

Construction and operation

Authorisation was granted to build the line in 1878 and was built wholly to serve the Shag Point Coal Company, whose engineer supervised construction in 1879. Records exist of traffic using the line in June that year, though the official opening was not held until August 18. The line was roughly three kilometres in length and it was shunted when required by passing freights on the Main South Line. Traffic declined as the 20th century began, and on 1 April 1908, the New Zealand Railways Department

New Zealand Railways Department

The New Zealand Railways Department, NZR or NZGR and often known as the "Railways", was a government department charged with owning and maintaining New Zealand's railway infrastructure and operating the railway system. The Department was created in 1880 and was reformed in 1981 into the New...

 (NZR) stopped serving the line.

This, however, was not the end for the branch. It passed into the ownership of the Shag Point Coal Company, who privately operated the line for a quarter of a century. At different points during this time, the company owned two small ex-NZR tank locomotive

Tank locomotive

A tank locomotive or tank engine is a steam locomotive that carries its water in one or more on-board water tanks, instead of pulling it behind it in a tender. It will most likely also have some kind of bunker to hold the fuel. There are several different types of tank locomotive dependent upon...

s. Activity picked up in the 1920s but then the Great Depression

Great Depression

The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...

began and the mine did not survive. The mine closed in 1934 and therefore so did the line.

The branch today

Little remains of this line. The rusted remains of the local wharf are clearly evident, and the line approached this wharf through a cutting. Evidence of the line's formation can be seen near where it met the Main South Line at Shag Point station. Part of the formation has been re-used as a road serving some houses in the small fishing village.