Stepping aboard Wanganui's restored No 12 tram has revived good memories for Dot Holloway (right.
Pictured with her are Don and Maree Adams, of Take It Easy Tours, who have been bringing coachloads of people to the tram's temporary storage shed to learn about the project first-hand.
No 12 operated in Wanganui
from 1912 to about 1938 and, after long years of decline and neglect, it is almost ready to take to the track again.
The credit goes to Aucklander David Harre and his restoration team and Tramways Wanganui, a trust chaired by Rob Vinsen.
Mrs Holloway was overwhelmed when the tram came home to Wanganui. And her face said it all when she took a seat once again.
"It's fantastic," she said. "When they get it going I'm going to ride in it, if I'm still around. I'll be the first one on it.
"We used to get on in Dublin St and it would go straight past our place in Bell St and into Guyton St.
"We'd change trams and go out to Castlecliff."
Mrs Holloway recalled when she was a girl the tram bell clanged outside her home.
She rushed outside and discovered her little brother sitting between the tram lines.
"The tram couldn't get going till he was safe."
She was a regular tram passenger? "we had no car in those days."
Mrs Holloway beamed while Mr Vinsen told the coach party about the project, the hundreds of volunteers and the $140,000 spent on restoration.
The Auckland team had a dream the tram would come back to Wanganui and, most importantly, have it working again, he said.
"Our dream is to drive it out of the tramshed about July 2006."
