Panoramas of the Great Waikokopu Slip

Better than any words could do, these panoramic pictures of the great Waikokopu slip, probably the largest in the history of New Zealand Railways, show the extent of the work undertaken by the department to reopen the line to Gisborne.

Picture above, reprinted from last "Photo News", shows landslide the day it came down. The small picture at the top of next page was taken on August 21, and the big picture across both pages on September 7. The line was reopened on Sept, 9.

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Nineteen bulldozers worked continuously for four weeks on the gigantic task of leveling out the slip from the steep, unstable face seen in the picture at left until the bread shelf seen below was lowered to the level of the former line. In the early stages they had short runs, but as the width of the shelf increased, they had to push the soil nearly two chains before tipping it over the face.

While the line was closed, passengers and some freight were carried by road to Gisborne. As soon as the line was open it was in frequent use by trains carrying the backlog of goods which had piled up during the month.

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