Tuesday 23 June 2015

Doigs Ballast Pit - Otago Central Railway

According to Dangerfield & Emerson, Doigs Ballast Pit was located at 223.08 km, a short distance east of Doigs Siding at 223.75 km. It was closed early 1964, while Doigs Siding closed early 1970.

Doigs is one of the few areas where there is a significant deviation of the railway from its usual position right next to the road. Although trains leaving Clyde ran on the "railway east" side of the road, the most commonly seen location for the railway in the Gorge was on the "west" or river side.  As can be seen from the above aerial image extract from 1962, the railway at this point crossed to the "east" side of the highway, crossed a small bridge and then veered further away to cross a larger bridge and run directly alongside the ballast pit. According to D&E, the points for the pit siding were right at the edge of the highway. This means probably just before the railway crossed back to the river side. The railway then took a wide deviation to pass around the far side of a property (probably an orchard) before meeting the road again at Doigs Siding.

No maps yet but they will be drawn once all of the aerial imagery for the Cromwell Gorge comes to hand.