Waingawa railway station is a station on the Wairarapa Line

Wairarapa Line

The Wairarapa Line is a secondary railway line in the south-east of the North Island of New Zealand, connecting the capital city of Wellington with the Wairarapa region. The line ends at Woodville, where it joins the Palmerston North - Gisborne Line...

 in the Wairarapa district

Wairarapa

Wairarapa is a geographical region of New Zealand. It occupies the south-eastern corner of the North Island, east of metropolitan Wellington and south-west of the Hawke's Bay region. It is lightly populated, having several rural service towns, with Masterton being the largest...

 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...

’s North Island. It is located about 1 kilometre (0.621372736649807 mi) south of the Waingawa River and is situated in a heavy industrial area. It served passenger trains until 1992 and now only handles freight (private sidings and special consignments).

History

The first use of the name Waingawa in relation to rail facilities in the Wairarapa was when from 1895 a siding about 2 miles (3.2 km) south of Kurupuni (Solway

Solway Railway Station

Solway railway station is an urban single-platform railway station in the Wairarapa town of Masterton in New Zealand’s North Island. It is on Ngaumutawa Road, between Hillcrest Street and Judds Road...

) became known as Waingawa. It was a private siding that had for a long time been known as Donald’s Siding, and was used by the Wellington Meat Export Company to load livestock for transport to their abattoir at Ngahauranga

Ngauranga

Ngauranga is a suburb of New Zealand's capital city, Wellington, in the lower North Island. Situated on the western bank of Wellington Harbour, it lies to the north of the centre of the city. It is a Maori name meaning "the landing place", and the original spelling was "Nga-Uranga"...

.

Between 1908 and 1912 the Wellington Farmers’ Meat Company established their own private siding about 45 chains (905.3 m) south of Waingawa called Taratahi. In 1921 this became the location of a new station called Waingawa, complete with signalling apparatus, and the name Taratahi ceased to be used.

Though a co-operative freezing works was established at Waingawa in 1897, the brisk traffic in livestock from Waingawa to Wellington continued, at least until the opening of the Waingawa Freezing Works. In 1966 a siding was laid from the Waingawa yard to the then new Masterton saleyards. The saleyards are still extant today but their siding has long since been removed.

Several industrial neighbours have come and gone in the vicinity of Waingawa station. In 1911, the Waingawa Freezing Works were opened by the Wellington Farmers’ Meat Company and lasted until 9 November 1989 when, in the hands of AFFCO, the works were closed as part of an industry rationalisation. Japanese forestry products company Juken Nissho (now Juken NZ) opened a mill just north of the station in February 1992, which continues to transport goods by rail using its own private siding.

Today

Since the closure of the freezing works, forestry related businesses and trucking companies have largely supplanted the livestock trade at Waingawa, with the JNL mill now the largest rail customer on site. This may change in the future, as several projects are under consideration that may involve the use of rail for the transport of product out of the Wairarapa, including:

• Wairarapa log freight rail project
• Waingawa Industrial Park
• Bulk milk transfer from Waingawa to Hawera via the Manawatu Gorge

In February 2009 funding from the National Land Transport Programme for the log freight project was approved by the New Zealand Transport Agency

New Zealand Transport Agency

The New Zealand Transport Agency is a New Zealand Crown entity tasked with promoting safe and functional transport by land, including the responsibility for driver and vehicle licensing and investigating rail accidents. It was created on 1 August 2008 by the Land Transport Management Amendment...

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The former Waingawa station building was rescued from demolition by the Wairarapa Railway Restoration Society

Wairarapa Railway Restoration Society

The Wairarapa Railway Restoration Society is a railway heritage and preservation community group in the town of Carterton, in the Wairarapa district of New Zealand's North Island...

 in 1991 and relocated to the Carterton station

Carterton Railway Station

Carterton Railway Station, in the Wairarapa district of New Zealand, is a single platform railway station in the town of Carterton. It is located at the corner of Cnr Broadway, Davy and Wheatstone Streets, near the main shopping precinct on State Highway 2...

precinct where it may be viewed by visitors to the museum there.

The only sign at Waingawa that passenger trains used to stop there is the old station platform which can still be seen from Waingawa Road. There is little prospect of a passenger station being re-established here, as Waingawa is officially considered to be part of the "Solway/Masterton rail station catchment".