Construction on the tramway began in 1927, just as the East Coast Main Trunk reached Edgecumbe.
Once the exotic forests planted at Matahina had matured in 1943, they directly supplied the board mill.
[3] Following the end of the Second World War in 1945, the New Zealand Forest Service banned steam locomotives from working in the bush.
The Drewery locomotives, numbered 103 and 104 by WBM, were similar to the NZR DS class, from the same manufacturer and also introduced from 1949 onwards.
In 1952 New Zealand Government Railways (NZGR or NZR) investigated purchasing and incorporating the tramway into the national railway network as part of a new branch line to Murupara to access maturing exotic plantation forests, as part of the Kaingaroa Forest.