The Kotanga Valley and the Kotanga Timber Tramway.

[Annie]

This is going to be the thread where I write up the history of the Kotanga Valley as well as record the building of my indoor 'G'ish scale layout.  I've had lengths of wood and all sorts of hardware bits and bobs leaning about in my room for a while now as I've been fashioning the layout in my mind's eye.  
At first I was going to build an entirely serious and historic NZ timber tramway such as was commonplace in the district where I presently live.  Only after a while I came to realise that could get to be fairly boring.  That was when my little 'Klickie' (Playmobil people) helpers moved in and that cheered me up no end.  I was building in 16mm scale at first, but after seeing some 1/12th scale narrow gauge models I decided that would be the way to go.  I was on the brink of selling off 'Emily' my mostly cardboard 16mm scale NZ bush tram converted tank engine of British origins, - when my little helpers pointed out that they couldn't drive a 1/12th loco without having to stand on a very tall pile of boxes and could they please keep 'Emily'.
So I said, 'Alright then,' and the scene was set for building the strange and wonderful tramways of the Kotanga Valley.

Emily.


More soon I promise  

[Annie]

The Kotanga Valley:

In the backroom of the Lands and Survey Dept there is a dusty folio on a shelf that states that the Kotanga Valley is believed to be somewhere in the Hauraki, Thames or Coromandel Districts and there have been reports that it was once seen in the Waikato District, but this is considered to be unlikely and might be no more than the ravings of a drunken possum trapper.

The Kotanga Valley is believed to lie somewhere inside the red circle.


According to a historic recorded interview with an 100 year old gum digger who had lived in the area for most of his life it had been possible to buy a ticket for Kotanga on the Waitoa-Thames branchline for quite some years before its closure in May of 1995.  Subsequent checks with the office of the Minister of Transport have drawn a blank however and since the branchline is now lifted there is no real way to discover the truth of this claim.
A diary held in the archives of the Thames Museum contains a strange report written by a man who was with a party of hikers in the district and after becoming disorientated in the heavy mist blanketing the bush clad slopes of the Cormandel Ranges, they stumbled upon the small township of Kotanga nestling in the valley of the same name.
Well received by the townsfolk they were given a hearty meal before a roaring fire in the public bar of the Kotanga Hotel.  In the morning after a comfortable night's sleep they were directed to the railway station and were able to travel back to Thames on the morning mixed goods train.
Once back in Thames and having collected their Model 'A' Ford car they thought they might return to Kotanga so they could properly thank the townsfolk for their kindness.  However after a lengthy search of all the roads in the district and even after attempting to follow the railway line on foot they were unable to find the smallest clue as to where Kotanga might be.

More soon.........

[Annie]

Believed to be the mill at Kotanga:


Professor Brown of the Dept of Phenomenal Studies at Waikato University has a number of provisional theories as to why the Kotanga Valley remains to this day almost impossible to find.  In a interview which he very kindly granted at short notice he remarked that the fact of the Kotanga Valley's existance cannot be denied as the fact of the sheer tonnage of finshed goods brought out of the valley by train is a matter of proven historical record.  However the goods themselves give the clue as to what may have happened.
In the Spring 1897 edition of the Timber Industry Digest an article on page three states that trees growing in the Kotanga Valley produce timber that has a noticeable curve to the grain and this largely renders them useless for the purposes of the building and cabinet making trades.
'Ah but what did they prove to be good for?' asks Professor Brown.  'Wooden coathangers of course.'


'The distinctive curved wooden coathanger became the goose that laid the golden egg for the Kotange Valley,' continued Professor Brown with some degree of excitement.  'Other makers tried to compete, but lacking the special trees of the Kotanga Valley they could only produce designs that used straight grained wood as a raw material.'

A coathanger not made in the Kotanga Valley:


'Perhaps you are not aware of the other major export of the Kotanga Valley,' Professor Brown told me.  'Immediate use postholes!'
With some surprise your reporter had to admit that she had not heard of these postholes before.
'They were a discovery of a certain Brian O'Rorke who was formerly employed as a navvy during the construction of the railways through this region,' continued Professor Brown.  'While engaged in digging a latrine close what was believed to be the Kotanga Valley, he discovered that he was able to cut the large hole he'd dug into seperate individual smaller holes that could then be placed in position wherever they were needed.  To have made such a discovery in a region that was to become one of the major centres of agriculture in the country would've made O'Rorke a rich man if he hadn't have had that dreadful accident where a stack of ready to use postholes had fallen on him.'
'Yes a dreadful accident,' Professor Brown told me, 'but others learned from it and once the knowledge of how to store and transport immediate use postholes in safely had been perfected the Kotanga Valley Posthole Mine went from strength to strength.'
Believed to be a photgraph of the historic Posthole Mine at Kotanga:


Stay posted for further alarming revelations concerning the Kotanga Valley......

[Tommy Two Strikes]

Post Hole Mine?!  Rich, quite rich.

Tommy 2XX

[Rowan]

Annie, A most fascinating story. I can't wait to read the rest.
I can only gather that Kotanga Valley is way North of Rotorua, lying to the East of Auckland on the North island and just South of Thames. (If you guys think that's got a lot of direction in it, you wanna go to NZ and watch the weather report.........)

It must also be close by Driving Creek Potteries and Railway - check out what must be the most whimsical ride on trains anywhere are this web site:
http://www.drivingcreekrailway.co.nz/Introduction.cfm
 
The posthole mine reminds me a lot of Waihi Gold mine, which is located to the North of Auckland on the North Island. see attached pic. There is a great little tourist train line there.



I'm still trying to work out where the mill at Kotanga might be near - I'm inclined to think perhaps near Rimutaka with its unique centre rail system?



PS I've just realised the connection with the coat-hanger..... I'm a bit slow sometimes.

Cheers and looking forward to the continuation of your story, as I'm sure others across the Specific (who are asleep now) are as well.

Cheers
 

[Annie]

At this point your reporter felt she had to ask a most obvious question of Professor Brown.  'Professor, I don't wish to give the impression I haven't been paying attention, but I fail to see how curved trees and a posthole mine could have cause the Kotanga Valley to become lost.'
'No no, not exactly lost,' replied Professor Brown earnestly, 'more like severely misplaced.'
I was about to ask what the difference was if any, but the Professor failed to notice that I was about to speak and rapidly sailed on into perhaps the most amazing scientific revelation concerning Chaos Theory that I have ever heard.

'The trees are only a minor side effect, a symptom if you like of the presence of a nexus of forces centred upon the Kotanga Valley.  The fact that these trees can be milled to make the most fabulous wooden coathangers that the world has ever seen merely serves to cloud the issue.'  Rising to his feet the Professor began to rapidly pace up and down as he began to describe shapes in the air with his hands.  'What does a posthole consist of?' he asked suddenly looking at me over the top of his glasses.
'Not a lot,' I offered hesitantly feeling as if I was back in my 5th Form General Science class and I hadn't done my homework.
'Exactly,' cried the Professor, 'Nothing, nothing at all.'  He nodded his head vigorously at me.  'We have a mine in a valley where a very large hole is regularly cut up into smaller holes, packed into cunningly devised cardboard boxes and then shipped away all over the country.  He wagged a finger, 'And then they do it again, and again, and again.  Do you see what they are doing young lady?'

Somewhat amazed at being called 'young lady' at my age it took a moment for me to collect my wits.  'Oh my word!' I said once the awful truth began to dawn upon me, 'Oh my word.......'  I stared wide-eyed at Professor Brown.
'Yes exactly,' he said with some delight as he began to cram tobacco into his pipe with a stained forefinger.  'Yes exactly........'


More soon I promise .......

[MadHatter]

This Dr. Brown wouldn't happen to be the same one that stole uranium from a group of Libyans for his crazy time experiments, would he?  I've heard they're pretty angry about that.     Love the story! :)

[Annie]

Believed to be a photograph of a section of the timber tramway in the Kotanga Valley.  Note the use of a wooden check rail on the curve:



I must confess Professor brown lost me entirely when he started talking about a certain Mr Schrödinger who kept a cat in a box, but it appears that if nothing is taken away from nothing for long enough in the presence of a powerful geo-magnetic field then a tipping point is reached where something can be generated out of all of the negative state nothing that's flying around......... And it's that which has caused many of the mysterious effects that have been observed in the Kotanga Valley...... Or at least that's what I think the Professor said.
 Trees suitable for milling down to make coathangers is only one of the effects apparently and remains the sole proven effect to date simply because you only have to open your closet door and look inside to see the evidence.  The most controversial part of the Professor's theory however is that the railway line into the Kotanga Valley acted as a giant capacitor which helped to stabilize the worst of the effects and once the Waitoa-Thames branchline was lifted thereby severing this stabilizing link into the valley, then the Kotanga Valley simply disappeared from this dimension.
Unfortunately after many years of dazed and confused travellers stumbling into the small townships of this region with tales of a mysterious valley in the mists where there's a race of little people living and working alongside humankind, and beer is free and everybody is happy, - has only served to shed doubt upon the Professor's theory.

Next: - my further researches into the Kotanga Valley and the beginnings of  constructing a model of the tramway.

[G-man]

Annie, you are priceless. This site was fun before, but now it is unbelievably fun.  Keep it coming. Glad you took the hint to check out this site.

[Tommy Two Strikes]

G-Man speaks the truth, ya brought some lost whimsy to the group...

[Bill Wray]

I read of a recent discovery of an unusual metal ore in the Kotanga Valley - a previously unknown alloy with unusual properties. Although as yet unnamed (the leading candidate is "Unobtanium"), this metal has a unique crystalline structure conducive to being drawn into wire and, while being drawn, forms into the following shape:
.

Researchers in Kotanga are busily trying to determine a commercial application for this alloy.

(Don't ask me where I read this- I went back to check my reference again and it had mysteriously disappeared.)

[crackingjob]

I hope they figure it out soon before the locals get upset about more mining and the need to stick to the traditional hanger.

I hear of protests...whats the next chapter Annie?

Crackingjob

[Annie]

Hum...... I may need to check that reference myself as the emergence of a wire coathanger industry within the Kotanga Valley would upset the local branch of the Society for the Promotion of Environmentally Sustainable Coathangers (SPESC).

I've been fortunate enough to have been loaned a recording of an interview with a now retired engine driver who often worked trains along the Waitoa-Thames branchline.  I'm still taking notes, but I thought I'd post some of the transcript which specifically mentions the Kotanga Valley.

Interviewer:  'Is there anything in particular about the time you worked along the [Waitoa-Thames] branchline that stands out in your memory?'
 
Fred McMurphy:  'Oh aye, running the morning mixed goods into Kotanga was always good for a laugh.'

Interviewer:  'And why was that Mr Murphy?'

Fred McMurphy:  'T'was never boring running into Kotanga.  'Tell you now, - one morning we was running 10 minutes late going into the Kotanga Valley and by the time we got into Thames we were an hour early.  Thought the station master was going ta have kittens when he saw us.'
Tell you now, - was never official mind, - but the rule was never to leave a lokey or any wagons in the siding at Kotanga overnight.'

Interviewer:  'I don't understand why that could be Mr Murphy?'

Fred McMurphy:  'He he, - because one night old Harold Blakely left a big six coupled tank engine parked on the siding and when he got back to her in the morning she was only a tiddler.  Some o' the 2 foot gauge lokeys they had on the timber tram were bigger.'

Interviewer:  'So what did the Railways Dept do about that Mr Murphy.'

Fred McMurphy:  'Wasn't much they could do.  Lokey was left at Kotanga because it was useful enough there.  No good to anybody outside o' the valley.'
'You see the wee folk who lived in the valley could drive her; - nobody of the likes of us could get in the cab.'

Interviewer:  'Wee folk Mr Murphy?'

Fred McMurphy:  'Oh aye, wee folk, - 'about half the size o' you and me.  Hard working they was too, always busy with something.  Happy wee lot, - never down in the dumps.'
He he, they liked that lokey the Railways gave them; - called her 'Emily'. Kept 'er nice too.  Was really a wee bit too big for them, but they seemed ta do alright.'

Interviewer:  'Wee folk Mr Murphy, - seriously?'

Fred McMurphy:  'Oh aye, - I'm no pulling your leg.'


More from this interview soon......

[Annie]

The Brian Boru Hotel, Thames.  The hotel is still standing on this site to this day:


Interviewer:  'One of the longstanding local legends concerning the Kotanga Valley was that beer was alway available for free at the Kotanga Hotel; - what are your thoughts on this Mr McMurphy?'

Fred McMurphy:  'Oh aye, the beer was free alright lassie; - 't'was a right good drop too.'

Interviewer:  'So was the valley a notorious place for drunkeness Mr McMurphy?'

Fred McMurphy:  'Oh no, - never saw anybody getting into their cups.  Never saw a man drunk in the street, - no, not one.  With the beer being free I'd say that they weren't so bothered about drinking to excess; - no point really, - or that's my thoughts on it.'

Interviewer:  'It seems highly unlikely to me that a licenced hotel would give away free beer Mr McMurphy.'

Fred McMurphy:  'They had a well out the back you see, - 't'was no bother to haul up a bucketful or two and fill a barrel.  Mind you if you wanted a taste of the malt, - well you had to pay for that.'

Interviewer:  'Now really Mr McMurphy, - I think you are pulling my leg.'

Fred McMurphy:  No no lass, - the beer was real enough.  We took barrels of it through to Thames on the morning mixed goods for the Brian Boru.'
'Locals knew to tip a wink and ask for the special beer, - best kept secret for miles around.  Mind you, you had to pay for it in Thames, - 'twasn't free like in the valley.  The hospital used to take a couple of barrels now and then because it was a good tonic for you if you were feeling poorly.'

Interviewer: !!!

Fred McMurphy:  'Now don't be looking at me like that lass.  All I've told you is the honest truth.'


More soon.......

[Fritz]

Hi,

The Kotanga Valley seems to be a rather strange but interesting place. It is about time, the rest of the world learns more about it.

I suspect, that a load of timber intended for the coat hanger industry landed in the Kraehwinkle shovel handle shops.




The local archeological diggers with their 15 inch gauge railway line are not too amused having to work with these. Please send no more.

Have Fun

Fritz / Juergen