Jigger rides for rail fans

ALL ABOARD: Driver Russell Jackson prepares to take passengers up the line on the motor trolley. PHOTO/BEVAN CONLEY

Visitors to the Taupo Quay Railway yard had a trolley good time on Monday with jigger rides put on by SteamRail Wanganui.

For a $2 fee, passengers were taken up and down the line and there was an opportunity to view the heritage collection in the railway shed.

Steamrail Wanganui president Blair Jordan said it had been a great day with the good weather bringing many families to the yard.

"Unfortunately I have spent part of the day at the police station because we had a theft at the yard," he said.

"Someone helped themselves to a sheet of steel last night."

Mr Jordan said the the theft could not spoil the good weather and ideal conditions for riding on the motor trolleys.

SteamRail Wanganui was formed in 1989 with the main purpose of preserving Whanganui railway memorabilia.

Whanganui was a large employer of railway workers until the 1980s and the site of a training school for apprentices.