 This line also carried workers between Wairio and Ohai on a passenger steam train called the ‘Piecart’.In order to provide convenient transport of the coal to markets beyond the local area, a privately owned railway extension from the New Zealand Railways Department's Wairio Branch was opened by the Ohai Railway Board in January 1925.In 1934, this line was further extended beyond Ohai to Birchwood, but the terminus had reverted to Ohai by the time the line was incorporated into the national rail network in 1990.