Story: Railways

Single men’s huts, Gracefield

These single men’s huts are in the railway camp at Gracefield in the Hutt Valley in 1954. They were designed to be transportable on railway wagons. The Railways Department built thousands of ‘railway houses’ and single men’s huts – mainly in its Frankton factory, which turned out almost 1,400 prefabricated houses between 1923 and 1929.

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Archives New Zealand - Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga

Reference: AAVK W3493 B4954

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How to cite this page

Neill Atkinson, Railways – Housing the workers, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/21417/single-mens-huts-gracefield (accessed 7 June 2026).

Story by Neill Atkinson, published 6 April 2010.

Comments

Mike Hoeta
03 June 2020

WE lived in Railway houses which my Dad purchased in the late 50s, we had 3 of them for a very large family in Huntly, we all lived in them till Dad built a new house, I remember they had a Melthoid roof, Ive never seen one since