Wanganui welcome on right lines for early rail travellers

TEA ANYONE? The Wanganui Station tea rooms, circa 1910. In the absence of dining cars on trains, refreshment and toilet stops were essential.

Wanganui was noted for pulling out the stops when providing comfort to passengers on long journeys through the region, a noted author says.

On shelves in Wanganui today, 150 Years of Rail in New Zealand, a joint project with Motat, follows the "amazing pace" at which the rail network became the "arteries" of New Zealand, through a collection of historical photos.

English-bred author Matt Turner said that, as well as being an important rail and sea port in its own right, Wanganui was a "key stop" on the line from Wellington to New Plymouth.

In the late 19th century, before the main trunk line through the North Island was completed, Wanganui was the port where people caught the steamer connection to Auckland.

"Another interesting point about Wanganui is that the city adopted electric trams as early as 1908, although Motat also has a lovely little Baldwin steam tram, built in 1891 for use in Sydney, which came to Wanganui in 1910."

Mr Turner said his love for trains sprang out of his car-less student days, when a cheap, fast rail network was a "lifeline".

"It is no exaggeration to say that rail transformed New Zealand. When it was first pioneered here, mid last century, there were no inland road routes across the country, and large areas were inaccessible or impassable. If you wanted to travel any distance, you did so by sea.

"The early rail lines were lightweight and sharply curved, so the average speed was slow, but the many rural branch lines that fed the main trunks connected us as a nation, carrying us and our produce during the pre-automobile era and beyond. Trains ferried produce - meat, wheat, coal, timber - to cities and ports, and carried men to war."