Fernhill Branch
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| Fernhill Branch | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Overview | |||
| Locale | Otago, New Zealand | ||
| Service | |||
| Operator(s) | New Zealand Railways Department | ||
| History | |||
| Commenced | 1882 | ||
| Opened | 9 July 1883 | ||
| Closed | 2002 | ||
| |||
The Fernhill Branch is a railway line in Otago, New Zealand. It was opened in 1883 and the remaining section formally closed in 2002 although abandoned for ten years. A significant amount of controversy surrounded the ownership status of the line in its early years.[1]
The reason this line was constructed was little different from why many bush tramways throughout New Zealand were constructed in the days before modern road transportation. It was built to run from the Fernhill coal mine to the Main South Line, about 2.75 kilometres south so that the company's owners had easy railway access. In 1882, the Fernhill Railway & Colliery Company Ltd. commenced work on the line and it was finished the next year, opening on 9 July 1883. For the first four years, the company continued to maintain the line while trains were operated by the government's New Zealand Railways Department (NZR).[1]
The controversy began when the line's ownership was granted to the government without compensation to the colliery company under the Government Railways Act of 1887. In 1891, the owners of the Fernhill Colliery commenced legal proceedings against the government for compensation on the basis that the Act should not be applied to private railways. During this time, the colliery fell into financial difficulties and the mine did not operate between March 1892 and February 1893, meaning no trains were required to run. The mine and line had only been operating again briefly when railway commissioners took control of the railway on 6 March 1893. Almost two years later, on 6 December 1894, the courts awarded the line to the mortgagees, but later that month, on the 24th, traffic again stopped. In 1895, the line was passed to new owners on 4 June and then six months later, NZR themselves purchased it on 19 December. The ownership disputes were finally settled and the line became the state-owned Fernhill Branch.[2]