Railmodel Electronics Systems

___________STN____________ ___________STN____________ \_______________ ___________STN____________ \_______GD__________	The typical NZR rural station served many purposes. Basically it was a passenger station or shelter shed, usually about the centre, with a goods handling facility at one end. If there was a need for wagon storage to allow for loading or to wait for goods to be accumulated, then a siding was erected to extend into a goods yard, usually opposite the station building. If goods were to be stored before dispatch then a covered store was erected…the ‘goods’ shed.
___________STN____________ \________GD__________/	If train movements demanded it, the siding would be run back into the main line to form a crossing loop, it might extend (or be extended) well beyond the body of the goods yard. Crossing loops themselves took a variety of forms.
___________STN____________ ________\__GD__/__________ ____________ _____/_____STN__________ ______________/	For instance Ormondville, between Woodville and Napier, has a short loop with long backshunts at each end. The loops and backshunts are level while the main line climbs steadily except for the short length between the main-to-loop points at each end. The original Ngaurukehu between Taihape and Waiouru, had two long opposing sidings, one on each side of the main line, the sidings being level while the main line climbed steadily. Flat Stream, on the Otago Central branch, had a loop holding a few wagons and two long backshunts rising above the main line
______________ ___/_______STN_____\__ \_______GD________/	This latter design of loop and backshunt(s), usually originally dictated by local topography, was also adopted over the years to allow longer trains to cross (and thus avoid expensive work on lengthening an existing loop) by running the crossed train up into the backshunt area until it cleared the main line. Utiku in the early 1950s, and Morven (now closed) were examples. Some smaller stations boasted two loops which could be used for triple train crossings on opposite sides of the main line; Waikouaiti, Amberley, Studholme, were examples. A handy branch line could also be used for this purpose if need be.
___________STN____________ ________\____GD__/ ________BCH_____/	Waiareka, the junction for the now closed Ngapara line, had a very short loop, a long backshunt and the branch line itself at the other end of the loop; the branch still extends to Taylors but the station is no longer used for crossing trains.
___________STN____________ \______________/ ________\__GD__/__________	With increased goods traffic, goods handling was taken from beside the crossing loop to a loop or goods road running off the crossing loop. This in turn would have backshunts from it if wagon storage was needed. Goods sheds could also be constructed to go right over the track now and allow all weather goods handling.
___________STN____________ \______________/ ___LB_____\__GD__/____SY______	The goods function and freight handling was the most influential factor in rural yard , design. The original 'standard' yard needed space for a goods shed, (where bagged fertiliser and small consignments could be taken from wagons and held awaiting collection, or wool or grain accumulated to await a wagon) a low level loading bank (for loading wool and bagged grain or other crops directly from trucks or drays) and, potentially most demanding in wagon space, stockyards. Usually these yards catered for both sheep and cattle, with separate races; although some handled only one or the other. As farming efficiency in the area gradually increased the stockyards became the largest feature of the station yard in many stations.
	All these facilities needed some ‘headroom’ for wagons - that is, space for wagons to be moved within the siding without fouling others there already. Ideally the three structures would be spread with a few wagons between each - but again, topography did not always allow it. In some cases the bank would be attached to stockyards, or next to the shed, just where it could fit in, or for no particular reason.
___________STN____________ \______________/_________ ___\__GD__/_ LB_\__SY______	Livestock traffic, with its peaks when numerous wagons needed to be handled in a short period, made perhaps more particular demands on track layout than any other commodity. If there was any likelihood of more than a few wagons being handled at a time and space allowed, stockyards were located on a backshunt off the goods loop; there was then room to run wagons from the head of the backshunt past the yards into the main loop, where a train engine could pick them up readily. A pinch bar was the usual locomotion for wagons on the stock road. The bars could still be found at small stations, on the stockyard platform or in the goods shed, well into the 1970s.
_____________STN______________ \_____________________/ \______________/ _LB_______\__GD__/__\_____SY__	If stock traffic became heavier, it tended to merge with grain and other traffic (at the loading bank), especially in Canterbury where the grain loading and ewe fair seasons would often coincide. Various design practices were adopted; where practicable an extra loop was added, with a crossover from goods loop to No.1 road which allowed a long rake of stock wagons to be worked from the backshunt stock road clear of other traffic in the goods road. Ashhurst, once a busy stock loading station, was a somewhat elaborate example (the track is still there) - and there were many others built on this theme, or with the stock siding directly off the 'No. 1 road', e.g. Eketahuna, Mauriceville, Hinds.
____________STN______________ \__________________________/ \____GS_________LB_____/ \xxxxxxxxxxxxxx/ \______SY_______/	Other backshunts appeared at various stations over the years for purposes which are now long forgotten; sometimes to cater for increased traffic, especially where there was a seasonal peak of farm produce, or just as activity in a station's hinterland grew, and the goods loop became congested. One technique used was to build a 'balloon' loop or 'back road' where space allowed. e.g. Temuka and Studholme; Orari and Ealing had these back roads installed to serve stockyards. Whole yards were sometimes lengthened as local farmers produced more and more (e.g. Kaiwaka in the 1950s); and additional sidings (loops) were built for operating purposes where wagons were to be stored, or exchanged with major industrial sidings, or at junctions. These stations, while they maintained their rural function, became dominated by these specific uses, e.g. Palmerston, Clinton, Milton (which had, unusually, goods handling yard and stockyards next to a large station which included refreshment rooms; the goods shed is still there and in use, at close to 100 years old).
These points summarise the main features of rural station yard design: One can point to many oddities and exceptions: some yards, which have 'just growed' over the years, would seem ripe for simplification - Rakaia, with in effect four yards in one on both sides of the main line - branch, goods, stock and grain stores and the old Studholme yard, complete with wagon turntables to grain stores. There were other yards, usually designed by PWD rather than NZR, which never saw traffic to justify their size - Waihua, near Wairoa, Kekerengu and Clarence on the Main North Line.
Today the demands for local stations in rural areas has largely disappeared. Only in a few small areas - inland Taranaki, parts of the Midland line, and parts of Otago Central, does the small rural railway station still assume at least some of its traditional role - Rotomanu, Pukerangi, Tokirima, would be amongst those few. Elsewhere, good roads, reliable motor vehicles, and greater farmer mobility have added up to the demise of the rural station designed, in a pragmatic way, to meet local needs so far as site topography, limited finance and ingenuity would allow......thanks to "Coilspring", Rails 1981 and "Black Creek "97"