page_title: Glen Massey Line
section_title: Origins of the railway
hierarchical_section_title: Glen Massey Line / Origins of the railway
caption_attribution_description: English: An undated photo of a bridge over Firewood Creek, probably about 1917: Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, 35-R959
context_page_description: The Glen Massey Line was a private railway of 10.6 km near Ngāruawāhia in the Waikato region of New Zealand, built to serve coal mines, and, from 1935, run by the New Zealand Railways Department. The line had grades of 1 in 40, sharp curves - sharpest 6 ch and 40 of less than 10 ch - and 22 bridges, including a 91.5-metre-long and 18.3-metre-high timber trestle bridge over Firewood Creek halfway between Ngāruawāhia and Glen Massey and a 70-foot-long bridge, adapted in 1917 to take sheep, on 52 ft piles over the Waipa River, as well as the railway, after collapse of the road bridge.
context_section_description: Glen Massey's coal was known of by 1867, when it was suggested a tramway should be built down what is now known as the Firewood Creek valley. In 1908 government was asked to extend the proposed railway to Whaingaroa Harbour, but rejected that in favour of an extension of the proposed Glen Afton branch. Neither ever happened.
  Waipa Railway and Collieries Ltd was formed with a nominal capital of £80,000 in January 1910.  The construction contract was let in 1911 for £26,500. Actual construction began in 1910, when a private siding was built at Ngāruawāhia on the North Island Main Trunk, and used from May 1912 to supply construction materials for the 8.2 km line to Glen Massey. The Prime Minister turned the first sod on 12 March 1912. The line was opened to Glen Massey in March 1914, and coal transport commenced, using a weigh-bridge at the Ngaruawahia private siding. The company bought a new loco, Nᴼ 1, in 1913 from Andrew Barclay and, in 1914, purchased a second-hand ex-Wellington and Manawatu Railway tank locomotive from NZR, Wᴴ 449. Initial problems with lineside fires were resolved by fitting spark arrestors.
  A regular Saturday passenger service ran for many years, known as the "Wilton Express", using three ex-WMR clerestory carriages. A 'Waipa Collieries' advert, placed by the mine's first manager, showed passenger trains leaving Glen Massey at 8.30am and Ngāruawāhia at 4pm, with passengers also taken on coal trains leaving Glen Massey at 11.30am and 2.30pm and Ngāruawāhia at 10am and 1pm.
caption: An undated photo by Frederick George Radcliffe of a bridge over Firewood Creek, probably about 1917: Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, 35-R959
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