Goods traffic was reported to have started by November 1902.[2] A station master was appointed in 1911.[3] In 1920 he was working over 12 hours a day.[4] In 1924 it was a 6th grade post.[5] The stationmaster was withdrawn from 26 June 1926.[6] Reports mention a caretaker being at the station in 1948 and 1951.[6]
The name was changed from Taringamutu to Taringamotu after Alexander Young had described it as an error in Parliament in 1913.[7]
In 1908 additions were made to the station buildings and a station house was built. By 1911 there was a shelter shed, platform, loading bank and a passing loop for 36 wagons.[8] Electric lighting came in about 1936.[9]
Timber was the main traffic, transferring from the Taringamotu Tramway, but the station also handled other goods, such as 122 tons of fertilisers in 1926.[10] Taringamotu Totara Sawmills' private siding was 1+1⁄2 mi (2.4 km) south of the station.[8]
In 1939 the line between Taumarunui and Taringamotu became the first in the country to get CTC, meaning that Taringamotu closed as a tablet station.[11]
Taringamotu railway station passenger use 1910–1927
Passenger numbers rose rapidly until 1916, as shown in the table and graph below –
Taringamotu closed to all traffic from 16 April 1972. In 1974 the crossing loop was extended.[12] The loop was closed on 9 March 1987.[13]
There is now just a single track and a 2-span girder bridge over the Ongarue River.[14]
Incidents
The line wasn't fenced until 1909. In October 1905 a letter from 22 Māori farmers between Taumarunui and Taringamotu complained of the agreement to do so being broken, saying, "Fifteen horses have been killed, eight cows, and five pigs".[15]
In 1915 the Ongarue River undermined a bank and two engines and a van, which had been moving very slowly, were overturned. One fireman had a minor hand,[16] or head, injury.[17]
Two goods trains crashed in 1943, with slight injuries to drivers and firemen.[18]
Floods and slips closed the line nearby on several occasions.[19][20] In 2015 the wooden bridge over the Ongarue River was replaced in concrete and mass stabilisation was applied to the nearby embankment.[21]
