Saturday 5 August 2017

Stillwater Ngakawau Line [15]: Cascade

Cascade is the westernmost station within the Buller Gorge area, being 5.7 km east of Te Kuha. As such it was opened as part of the Westport Section, although Te Kuha was the railhead of the public network at this time and east of there the line was a construction section under the control of the Public Works Department. Rail operations at Cascade began in 1927 and a private siding was built to the nearby Cascade Coal Mine bins. The mine itself was well upriver, just below the Denniston Plateau, and a long flume was built to bring the coal down to the bins in the Buller Gorge. Given the proximity of the mine to the Plateau it must have been a separate operation from the Westport Coal Co that developed most of the Plateau mines - the well known Coalbrookdale mine was on the hill above Cascade. The siding closed in 1958 by which time Denniston Plateau mines were under the control of the Mines Department. NZR then used the siding for a time as a service siding.

 Cascade station.
 General overview of the Cascade area.
 Cascade mining camp 1945.
 (NZ Railways Magazine 1939)
 (1945)
Cascade Station 1945.