One of her grandfathers suffers from “severe dementia” and she said the group were moved to a cabin further down the line from the main one because of this.
Pollock quickly noticed a woman in the cabin ahead who was with a group of other people and appeared to be getting drunk.
When the train arrived in Waipukurau, Pollock could tell the woman was already “pretty wasted”.
Upon returning to the train for the journey home, Pollock said the woman began harassing staff and was moved by staff from the main carriage into the carriage she and her grandfathers were in, where staff tried to calm her down.
“That’s when she started verbally assaulting the staff,” Pollock said.
“Then she kept getting up trying to harass the customers. She came up and told my granddad with dementia that he was a drunk old man.”
Following this behaviour, train staff tried to detain the woman in the toilets, which is when “she started getting physical” and “scratched up” a staff member’s face.
Pollock said a younger staff member behind the train’s bar was in tears.
“They didn’t have any security or anything, so staff were put into a difficult position.”
A police spokesperson said they were contacted around 9.50pm on Saturday, February 21, with a report of a person acting in a disorderly manner on a train in Hastings.
The train stopped near Stock Rd in Pakipaki, where officers removed the person from the train, police said.
The spokesperson said the person was spoken to by police and taken home. No charges were laid.
Pollock said some people on board were in a “state of shock” after the intervention.
“They ... put her in the back of the car and she was screaming, absolutely screaming,” Pollock said.
Steam Incorporated operations manager Jack Dolman said a staff member had received minor injuries in what he described as an “assault”.
The staff member had returned to their duties, “at their request”, after being seen by the train’s on-board medical team.
“We love welcoming people aboard our heritage trains; we bring rail travel to life for old and young alike,” Dolman said.
“Thankfully, incidents like this are incredibly rare and we want to thank our wonderful passengers and crew, many of whom volunteered their time, for their patience while the incident was resolved.”
Despite the incident, Dolman said the weekend of steam- and diesel-hauled trains brought joy to thousands of people at the Art Deco festival, and the hundreds of their passengers.
“We are grateful to have been able to play a part in what was an incredibly fun celebration,” he said.
Jack Riddell is a multimedia journalist with Hawke’s Bay Today and has worked in radio and media in the UK, Germany, and New Zealand.
