Scattered across hills and valleys on the New South Wales North Coast are the remnants of a short-lived railway that once inspired celebration and controversy.

Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. Listen Duration: 8 minutes 19 seconds 8 m A railroadiana journey down the relics of the Old Ballina Railway ( ABC North Coast: Catherine Marciniak ) Download 3.8 MB

Closet rail buff Fiona Gray sees tantalising glimpses of the railway every time she drives into Ballina.

"I've seen bits and pieces of it and even the plaque to commemorate it,'' Ms Gray said.

''But why was it taken away?"

That's the question Ms Gray has submitted to Curious North Coast.

To find out the answer we took a railway journey with Ian Kirkland who wrote a book about the line titled Out Of Puff.

Mr Kirkland feels a personal connection to this discarded piece of infrastructure.

"My grandfather was a medico in the camps when the line was being built,'' he said.

"He was affectionately known as Iodine Ian because he treated the navvies with iodine if they suffered cuts. And I got named after him."

The family property at Booyong, where Ian still lives, also overlooks the route of the old rail line.

Growing up hearing stories of the Ballina railway, Mr Kirkland was inspired to document the rail line's history.

A postal worker in Ballina, Fiona Gray regularly rides past remnants of the old Ballina Railway. It made her curious about why the railway was decommissioned. ( ABC North Coast: Catherine Marciniak )

A railway that was never viable

From as early as the 1880s the early settlers agitated for more rail lines to get them, and their primary produce, to a port on the coast.

This ramped up once the main north coast line from Casino to Murwillumbah opened in 1894.

"A trial survey was done for a line from Booyong to Ballina in 1894,'' Mr Kirkland said.

"It showed the cost of the line would be 5,592 British pounds or about $11,000 a kilometre.

"At the time it was felt that the line would not be viable."

However, the Ballina community was determined.

Locals convinced the minister there would be 30,000 passengers a year and sufficient freight to justify the cost.

In December 1919 the NSW Government approved the rail line.

When the first sod was turned to mark the start of the construction of Ballina Railway, there were two days of celebrations. ( Photograph courtesy of the Richmond-Tweed Library, Ballina. )

There was a street parade and two days of celebrations when the first sod was turned in 1923.

A local newspaper report said "never before in its history has Ballina witnessed such a large congregation — the crowds in the streets united in unmistakeable rejoicing".

Despite continued lobbying by road and shipping companies claiming the line was "a shocking example of a waste of money", the Ballina rail commenced services in 1930.

The age of the steam train

"It started off with one that was called a tin hair, it was sort of like a motor rail," Mr Kirkland said.

"Then they moved to a mixed passenger and goods train that went six days a week.

"People used to come for picnics and a day at the beach where they had band competitions."

Ian Kirkland at Tyumba station on the old Ballina Railway line. Today it is in the middle of a macadamia plantation. ( ABC North Coast: Catherine Marciniak )

A railroadiana journey

Mr Kirkland began our 19-kilometre tour of the old railway at the remains of Booyong station.

This is where the train for Ballina left the main Casino to Murwillumbah line, but it didn't actually join at the station.

"The train used to have to shunt back to the station about 200 metres, pick up the people, and then head off to either Casino or Ballina", Mr Kirkland said.

Travelling from farm to farm down the old line there are a variety of rail remains.

There are old bridge pylons, now used to keep an electric cattle-fence out of the creek.

A pre-fabricated, tiny concrete building that was once Tyumba station is today in the middle of a macadamia orchard.

A raised embankment of the forgotten railway is used as the driveway to a cattle stud.

At the end of the line in Ballina, the only remains of the railway are bridge pylons that support the town's sewerage pipes with a plaque acknowledging they are "relics of the Ballina — Booyong Railway line".

Workmen dismantling the Ballina railway line, which was decommissioned in 1948. ( Photograph courtesy of Peter Sanderson and the Alstonville Plateau Historical Society. )

Why the railway closed

The railway always struggled to realise the vision of its supporters because Ballina station was more than four kilometres from the centre of town and at least five kilometres to the docks and the beach.

"Many unwary passengers were caught out when they discovered the track ended a couple of miles short of Ballina and the beach", Mr Kirkland said.

Then there was the issue of the cost of the onerous road tax for freighting goods from the station to the docks, because the lobby to extend the line to the docks failed.

"I think the opposition was mainly from the north coast steam and navigation company,'' Mr Kirkland said.

"They didn't want a railway competing with their steam boats."

The number of passengers using the train also decreased.

"Road transport got better and I think people had their own cars so they had the freedom to go to the beach whenever they wanted to."

However, it was the weather that finally killed off the line.

"It was prone to flood and storm damage," Mr Kirkland said.

"There were floods in 1948 and the line washed away and it was too costly to repair the line.

"This combined with the loss it had made in its 18-year history, resulting in a decision to cease operation in 1948 and its tracks were pulled up to use in the coal fields."

Despite its thwarted history, Mr Kirkland is nostalgic about the railway.

"I'm sorry I was born the year after the line closed because I would have loved to have seen a steam train going up through the hills," he said.

Who asked the question?

Fiona Gray and Ian Kirkland at the Ballina Railway bridge pylons. ( ABC North Coast: Catherine Marciniak )

Fiona Gray is one of Ballina's local posties and rides her postal bike past the pylons of the Ballina rail bridge every day.

She asked Curious North Coast the question: "Why was the Ballina Railway decommissioned?"

To answer her question Ian Kirkland, author of Out of Puff, met Fiona at the Ballina Railway bridge pylons, the only relics of the railway left in Ballina.