Status Closed Closed 1951 Rolling stock None | Opened 1908 Character Rural Termini Waipuku | |
Operator(s) New Zealand Railways Department Owner New Zealand Railways Department | ||
The Mount Egmont Branch was a short but steep branch railway line in Taranaki, New Zealand, built to supply rail ballast for the Taranaki and Wanganui districts from a quarry on Mount Egmont. It left the Marton–New Plymouth Line at Waipuku, 9 km north of Stratford.
Work started in 1906, and the first 9.6 km section was handed over to the NZR by 1 April 1908. The line was extended to about 11 km from the main line by 1912-13, but an upper quarry extension to an elevation of 930m (which would have made it the highest line in New Zealand by over 100m) was not proceeded with.
As the readily available rock was worked out by 1937 and it was cheaper to supply ballast from riverbed plants, most of the branch closed in 1938 and the remainder, which had been unused for years, in 1951. Few signs of the branch are now left apart from some roadbed, and the foundations of the crusher which are hidden in bush.