There was only a metre's difference - but what an important metre it was.
Yesterday Wanganui's tram supporters gathered to see the body of No 12 lowered slowly and carefully on to the wheels and engine beneath.
It was a 90-minute breath-holding process, because the two had to be lined up exactly right. The body and bogie each weigh around 6 tonnes, and the hydraulic house jacks of Central House Movers were needed to hold them apart.
The process might have looked pedestrian to the uninitiated, but to people who have watched the tram's laborious progress it was highly significant.
"Wanganui has now got a complete tram, whereas before we only ever had the body and the bogie," Tramways Wanganui Trust chair Jim Auker said.
It has taken five years to refurbish the tram's body and its bogyie - its undercarriage, wheels and electric motor. The bogie was bought and shipped from a museum in Minneapolis, in the United States.
The body was donated by Auckland man David Harre. Mr Auker said he was coming to Wanganui next week, to see it finally joined to some wheels.
The next stage is to build some tracks for the tram to run on.
Former project manager Doug Rolston said the trust got resource consent for the tracks from Wanganui District Council in March last year, after seeking it since 2006.
It had $180,000 from the Powerco Wanganui Trust to put toward building them.
Wanganui District councillor Rob Vinsen said the trust's resource consent allowed it to lay tracks along Moutoa Quay as far as the Waimarie wharf. It now needed building consent before it could start work.
Mr Rolston said conflicting demands for space on the riverbank - especially Whanganui iwi claims on harbour endowment land and Wanganui District Council ambitions for the area - were creating a feeling of uncertainty among tram supporters.
Their planned Stage 1 would take No 12 as far as the Waimarie wharf. Stage 2 would extend the tracks to create a circuit going up Somme Pde, across Guyton St, down St Hill St and back to the tramshed.
The tracks would be set into the road and not disrupt normal traffic, Mr Rolston said. Trams would obey usual road rules, in the same way as buses.
Tram parts finally come together
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