Station Profile: Ngakawau - Coal from the Clouds

DXC's 5333 and 5391 lead an empty coal service to Ngakawau with the Papahaua Range and Denniston Plateau in the background. 18 September 2026.

Ngakawau is located along the rugged northern part of West Coast. In te reo, Ngakawau translates as ‘the shags’ after the sea bird that is found in this area. Coal was discovered in the Buller region by Charles Heaphy and William Brunner in 1846 and commercial mining started at Ngakawau in 1872. Because of the lack of natural harbours or rivers large enough for ships to enter along the northern West Coast, a railway line was built between Westport and Seddonville. Construction of the 48 kilometer Seddonville Branch began in 1874 and reached its terminus just north of Seddonville at the Mokihinui Mine in February 1895. The branch was built almost exclusively for transporting coal to the river port at Westport. Mixed trains did run on the branch, but these ceased in October 1946.

Ngakawau Railway Station 1919. Unknown photographer. National Library.

Located 30 kilometers from Westport, Ngakawau started life as a terminus station on the line as it was under construction but soon became a through station as the line crossed the Ngakawau River on a substantial timber truss bridge.

Ww 573 crosses the Ngakawau River as it heads north on the Seddonville Branch. Photo courtesy of the Buller History Facebook page. 

Ngakawau was an important station on the line with two major sources of tonnage. The Charming Creek Tramway was a nine kilometre long bush tramway that brought logs from the Charming Creek area to Watsons Mill, with the cut timber then going to the station at Ngakawau for onward transport. Later on the tramway also carried coal from the Charming Creek Coal Mine to coal bins near Ngakawau. The tramway closed in 1958.

A coal train led by a converted tractor making its way to Ngakawau on the Charming Creek Tramway sometime in the 1940's. Photo courtesy of the Buller History Facebook Page.

The station also received coal from the then private Westport - Stockton Coal Company Stockton Mine. The Mine opened in 1906 and by 1908, regular production from the mine had begun. Coal was transported from the mine to Ngakawau using New Zealand’s first electric railway. The line was 10.5km long with 2.4km of that in two long tunnels. The electric railway was in use between 1908 and 1953.

Alf Harris driving an electric locomotive on the Stockton Mine railway. Photo courtesy of the West Coast New Zealand History page.

In 1944, the Westport - Stockton Coal Company was purchased by the Mines Department. To increase production, the Mines Department replaced the electric railway with a 7.7km long heavy bi-cable aerial cableway in 1953. The cableway uses a stationary heavy steel cable which the buckets roll along. A second moving cable called a haul rope pulls the buckets along the stationary cable. The system works largely off gravity with the heavy buckets of coal going downhill helping to pull the empty buckets uphill for refilling.

Dave Reid checking the pulleys on one of the 368 buckets used on the 7.7km long cableway sometime in the 1990's. Photo courtesy of the West Coast New Zealand History page.

In 2001 the cableway was shortened from its original 7.7km long length to its current length of 2.2km with the upper section replaced by a heavy haulage road. Large dump trucks now bring the coal from the mine to a processing plant where it is then transported by the cableway down the steep decent from the Denniston Plateau to the large loadout facility at Ngakawau.

Ngakawau in January 1959.Whites Aviation photo. National Library.

The closure of the mine at Mokihinui, decreased domestic demand for coal, the decline of coastal shipping and increasing maintenance costs led to the closure of the line beyond Ngakawau on the 3^rd of May 1981. 

The coal extracted from the Stockton Mine on the Denniston Plateau is high quality bituminous hard coking coal. It burns very hot and produces very little ash. The coal also contains high concentrations of Vitrinite which acts as a binding agent. It's these characteristics that made it excellent for use by steel makers who blend it with lower quality coal. The international demand for West Coast coal climbed significantly in the 1980's driven largely by Japanese steel makers. Instead of transporting coal to the ports at Westport and Greymouth for use in the domestic market, the New Zealand Railways started to run trains from Ngakawau, across the Southern Alps to the port of Lyttleton for export. 

DJ 3568 with an empty coal train heads towards Ngakawau. Photo by George White. 

Although the amount of tonnage had increased significantly, the means of transporting the coal from Ngawakau had changed little from the steam era with four wheel wagons still in use. The combination of low powered DJ locomotives and small capacity LC four wheel wagons severely restricted the amount of coal the New Zealand Railways were able to transport. Aging infrastructure to load wagons also played a part in this.

Ngakawau loadout facility in 1983. Photo courtesy of the Buller History Facebook page.

With the existing wooden coal bins and screens no longer able to cope with the massive quantities of coal being produced for export, the State Coal Mines built a brand new coal loadout facility in 1980 which remains in use today.

Alongside the new load out facility, new CB bogie high capacity coal wagons were introduced, DC locomotives, transferred to the South Island following the electrification of the North Island Main Trunk, entered service and track and signalling upgrades were completed to increase the capacity of the the lines between Ngakawau and Lyttleton.  

DC 4640 helps load CB coal wagons at Ngakawau in the early 1990s. Photo from the Nicholas Family Collection, Ghost Railways of Westland Facebook page.

The Stockton Mine is now operated by Bathurst Resources and produces between 900,000 and 1,200,000 tonnes of high quality coking and thermal coal per year. Ngakawau remains the terminus of the Stillwater – Ngakawau Line and continues to load multiple trains of high capacity bogie hopper wagons of high quality West Coast coal every day.

Ngakawau is the end of the line and the end of Track Warrant Control that is used to control trains on the Stillwater - Ngakawau Line. A station warning board is located on the line just to the north of Granity to warn locomotive engineers they are approaching the terminus.

The Track Warrant Control station warning board for Ngakawau.

The current yard at Ngakawau is very simple for the large amount of traffic that it generates. It consists of the main, a loop and a short dead end siding. 

The mainline points to the loop looking south.

The mainline points leading to the loop looking north towards the loadout facility.

The Ngakawau yard showing the short dead end siding with a solitary CB wagon.

From here the yard curves to the east towards the rail loadout facility.

The Ngakawau yard looking south. The original yard and line to Seddonville continued straight along the tree line.

Ngakawau Railway Station in 1983 showing the sidings on the left leading to the loadout facility. Photo courtesy of the Buller History Facebook Page.

The loadout facility is fed by a steady stream of buckets on the aerial ropeway. On reaching the loadout facility, each bucket enters the receiving building where they follow a mechanical track loop. The buckets hit a tipping mechanism that automatically flips them over, dumping the cargo of 1.5 tonnes of coal into a large receiving bunker. Conveyors then carry the coal to the stockpile area.

The Ngakawau rail loadout facility.

Coal buckets on the aerial cableway.

Underneath the stockpile area is an underground tunnel with automatic feed valves. When the valves are opened, coal falls from the base of the pile onto the underground conveyor which moves the coal up to loading hoppers called surge bins. As the train passes under the loading tower at a steady speed of one to two kilometres per hour, an overhead chute opens up filling each hopper wagon. The entire system is automated with electronic sensors used to measure the precise volume and weight of the coal being loaded. The bottom of the chute also acts as a blade that levels off the coal to prevent it from spilling from the wagons as they cross the Southern Alps on their way to Lyttleton. The entire filling process takes between an hour and a half to two hours to load approximately 1,460 tonnes of coal across 30 hopper wagons.
Both the main and the loop pass under the loadout hoppers and there are the remnants of a siding under a third hopper but this has been disconnected. 

The Ngakawau rail loading hoppers.

The north side of the rail loadout hoppers.

At the northern end of the loadout facilities, the mainline and loop curve to the east and cross Tyler Street before ending in a backshunt on the former Charming Creek tramway right of way.

The Tyler Street level crossing.

The main to loop points looking back towards the loadout facility.

The backshunt on the former Charming Creek tramway right of way used by locomotives to run round their trains.

Ngakawau remains a vital part of KiwiRail's freight business and almost single handedly keeps the Stillwater to Ngakawau Line and the Midland Line open for business.

If you're on the West Coast, I would highly recommend following the line from Stillwater to Westport and then to Ngakawau. It is definitely a day trip but the combination of the beautiful rugged scenery and long, heavy coal trains make this a bucket list trip for New Zealand railfans.

And that is about it.