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|} The Roxburgh Branch was a branch line railway built in the Otago region of New Zealand's South Island that formed part of the country's national rail network. Originally known as the Lawrence Branch, it was one of the longest construction projects in New Zealand railway history, beginning in the 1870s and not finished until 1928. The full line was closed in 1968.〔Geoffrey B. Churchman and Tony Hurst, ''The Railways of New Zealand: A Journey Through History'' (Auckland: HarperCollins, 1991), 204.〕 == Construction == The original reason for the line's construction was to provide better transport access to Lawrence, then known as Tuapeka, the site of New Zealand's first significant discovery of gold. Contracts for construction were let by mid-1873, and work on the line was well under way by the next year, with a junction with the Main South Line established at Clarksville. Slips and contractor bankruptcies presented delays, but on 22 January 1877, the line opened to Waitahuna, followed by Lawrence on 2 April 1877, 35.27 km from Clarksville.〔David Leitch and Brian Scott, ''Exploring New Zealand's Ghost Railways'', rev. ed. (Wellington: Grantham House, 1998), 100.〕 Calls were made to extend the Lawrence Branch further, with some proposals suggesting a route via Roxburgh could serve as the railway to Alexandra and Central Otago in general (instead, the Otago Central Railway followed a more circuitous route via the Taieri and Maniototo).〔J. A. Dangerfield and G. W. Emerson, ''Over the Garden Wall: Story of the Otago Central Railway'' (Dunedin: Otago Railway and Locomotive Society, 1995), 9.〕 Decades passed until approval was granted to extend the line beyond its Lawrence terminus, with the next section to Big Hill (location of a tunnel between the Bowlers Flat and Craigellachie stations) opened on 4 October 1910. Upon completion of the Big Hill tunnel, the line was opened to Beaumont on 15 December 1914, but World War I delayed construction and the next section to Millers Flat was not opened until 16 December 1925. The line was finally completed when the section from Millers Flat to Roxburgh was opened on 18 April 1928.〔Leitch and Scott, ''Exploring New Zealand's Ghost Railways'', 100.〕 A modified form of the proposal to use Roxburgh as the route to Central Otago resurfaced, proposing that the branch be extended to meet the Central Otago Railway in Alexandra, but this did not come to fruition. The junction of the Roxburgh Branch with the Main South Line did not always remain in Clarksville. In 1907, an extension of 2.8 km was built alongside the Main South Line into Milton to provide for better operation, and until this extension was closed on 19 September 1960, Milton rather than Clarksville acted as the junction.〔Churchman and Hurst, ''The Railways of New Zealand'', 204.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Roxburgh Branch」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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