A spruce up of the Ngongotaha Rail Park has won the trust which controls it a prestigious award.
Rotorua Ngongotaha Rail Trust general manager Sharon Fleet said she was thrilled to win the Keep Rotorua Beautiful Supreme Community Award 2011 on Tuesday night.
"We're thrilled to bits that someone has nominated us."
She
thought they won because of the work the trust has done on the Ngongotaha Rail Park.
"We've put a lot of work into improving the appearance of our park.
"We've taken the park from a mediocre looking area to something the community can be proud of."
In the last year or so Mrs Fleet said the grounds had had a lot of work done to them. "It's had a big spruce up."
She said the trust had done a lot of weeding, tree trimming and planting.
There had also been a fenced off enclosure set up for people to use for dog sports or groups with young children. The trust is also in the process of rebranding the park by painting buildings with new heritage colours.
Work on the wetlands which are part of the rail park has also progressed.
This includes working to seal the lake, doing planting around the area and encouraging birdlife there, with plans to extend the miniature train tracks through the area in future. The trust is also working on rebuilding a number of old train engines, and received a $15,000 grant from Environment Bay of Plenty towards eradicating weeds and restoring the main train lines that run between Rotorua Boys' High School and Mamaku.
"We want to encourage the use of the main line between Rotorua and Putaruru," Mrs Fleet said.
The trust was established in 1998 with the objective to retain and promote the use of rail in the Rotorua district. "And also help to give locals and visitor the opportunity to experience yesteryear rail," Mrs Fleet said.
The Ngongotaha Rail Park officially opened in 2001 and is now available for public events and open days.
There is a miniature railway which runs every fine weekend and on school holidays.
There is also a museum, a model railway room where people can take a look at the model train layouts and a library with a range of resources.
