Waipahi, 132km southwest of Dunedin by rail, was once an important railway junction.
The township itself came into existence during the early 1860s when a hotel was built for travellers making their way to the Dunstan and Wakatipu goldfields from South Otago.
The local population received a considerable boost during the frenzy of railway construction during the 1870s.
The main line from Gore was opened in June 1877 and five months later it had extended to Clinton.
In the meantime, contractors Messrs Proudfoot and McKay were building a branch line into West Otago, reaching Kelso by November 1880.
Waipahi became a junction from then on until the floods of 1978.
Not only did Waipahi serve as a railway junction but it became an important passing place for trains, located, as it is, about halfway between Dunedin and Invercargill.
The station was well-served by passenger trains over the years.
These included Clinton-Invercargill mixed trains, various expresses and in more recent years, the railcars.
Waipahi had yet another function, the terminus of an extensive, West Otago New Zealand Railways Road Services (NZR) network.
During the height of the Depression, the branch was losing considerable money, and a proposal was floated by the NZR to alter the services, a proposal which received considerable local support. From the beginning of 1934, instead of trains starting from Edievale, they would now originate from Clinton.
In its day, considerable tonnages passed on and off the branch through Waipahi consisting, mainly in the early years, of farming supplies and produce.
A feature in later years was sawn timber outwards from the large Conical Hill sawmill along with considerable log traffic.
Converted coal wagons were used to convey phosphate from Awarua to Heriot where they were emptied by a special conveyor system.
Right up until the 1970s, Waipahi was a busy, efficient station then staffed by two station agents, Les Fisher and Albie Croton.
There was a large goods shed opposite the imposing railway station which had once served Waikaka township.
Two water vats were a reminder of the recently departed steam-locomotive era.
From March 1969 the branch was worked from Gore by diesel locomotives.
Then the rains came.
Little did the train crew that worked the branch train on Friday, October 13, 1978 realise their train would be the last ever to work the branch.
For the next two days very heavy rain swept across Otago and Southland, causing the Pomahaka River to cut a swathe through the railway formation, especially beyond Conical Hill.
The branch was officially closed on January 12, 1979 with the station closing not long afterwards. Though trains still cross at Waipahi, the station yard is now just a dot on the map with no buildings, no traffic and definitely no atmosphere.
