Stratford–Okahukura Line

[2] Near Okahukura there is an unusual combined road-rail bridge over the Ongarue River, with the one-lane road carriageway below the single rail track.

The section from Okahukura to Matiere was officially opened on Tuesday 23 May 1922, although the bridges to the west of Tuhua were temporary rather than the final and stronger structures.

[9] Ōhura had passenger and goods trains run by PWD from 18 December 1926, when the Public Works Minister, K J Williams, officially opened the line from Okahukura.

[10] The Mayor of Stratford celebrated the piercing of the last tunnel (52.5 chains or 3,460 ft or 1,060 m No.4 Mangatiti) on 2 August 1932[11] and, on 7 November 1932, the last spike was driven at Heao[12] by the Prime Minister, the Right Hon.

[17] Although generally understood to have trains operating, especially in the later years, on a warrant control basis, mention is made in the 1939 Railways Report to Parliament of the completion of automatic single-line signalling on the line.

[23] Fiat or "88 seater" railcars replaced the Auckland-New Plymouth express trains from 1956, but were cut back to New Plymouth-Taumarunui in 1971.

[24] A working party of stakeholders was formed in June 2007 to investigate the current state of the line and to develop a case for upgrading it.

[27] In the late 1990s and early 2000s deferred maintenance issues meant these services operated under heavy speed restrictions.

In November 2009 a serious partial derailment of a wagon occurred, damaging some 8 km of line preventing use by trains without repairs.

Adventure tourism operator Forgotten World Adventures[31] reached an agreement with KiwiRail in 2012 to lease the line for their new venture using modified petrol rail carts for tourists to travel between the line's termini at Stratford and Okahukura, via a number of trip options, starting from Labour Weekend 2012.

[33] In 2019 the Rail & Maritime Transport Union revealed that a review of the line is being undertaken to assess the viability of reopening for "Fonterra and log traffic.