to the Waioeka Valley down to the Bay of Plenty via Opotiki, and then on to Taneatua. The Great Depression following the Wall Street Crash of 1929 saw this scheme shelved. Operations Until connected with the Palmerston North – Gisborne Line in 1942 the Moutohora branch served a purely local function in maintaining access to Gisborne's hinterland. The line had heavy traffic in its early years and consistently showed an operating profit In the 12 months between April 1903 and March 1904, when only about 21 km of line were open, the approximately 6,500 people in the district made 47,706 single or return passenger journeys, and 4,464 tonnes of freight were carried. In 1919-1920, with the full length of the line in operation, over 30,000 tonnes of freight were carried. Road metal from a quarry at Moutohora accounted for 16,400 tonnes of the 1919-1920 total, and continued to be a major component of all freight traffic in following years. Much of the rest of the 1919-1920 freight was timber cut from the extensive forests to which the line provided access. In the same year over 113,000 passenger journeys were recorded, the passenger traffic being sufficient to support a privately leased refreshment room at Te Karaka station. Apart from occasional passenger excursion trains all trains were mixed, carrying both passengers and freight. By 1930 most of the economically accessible timber had been cut out and sawmills along the line began closing down. Road metal and livestock continued to provide reasonably large tonnages, but with the onset of the depression both passenger and freight operations fell away, with only a small fraction of the district's primary produce being exported. Even when economic conditions improved rail traffic did not recover to pre-depression levels until the imposition of road traffic restrictions and petrol rationing during the 1939-1945 war years. In August 1942 the Moutohora branch was connected to the rest of the NZR network via the Palmerston North – Gisborne Line, causing a temporary increase to nearly 70,000 passenger journeys on the branch in the 1942-1943 year. After 1944, and the partial easing of some road transport restrictions, passenger numbers and freight fell away dramatically. Because of the combination of reduced passenger numbers and wartime coal shortages, passenger services were withdrawn from the branch on 29 January 1945. They were replaced by a 24-seat New Zealand Railways Road Services bus. Motive power and train