Newspaper Article 1995 – Country railway station’s friends band together

Country railway station’s friends bank together

A group of enthusiasts wants to preserve a piece of Hawke’s Bay railway history at the Opapa Railway Station.

Friends of the Opapa Railway Station have asked the Hastings District Council to negotiate a lease for the station with New Zealand Rail.

Friends spokesman Warren Blackburn said the group had already spent time clearing away rubbish and tidying up the site but hoped to fully restore the station, which is in good condition, once the lease was approved.

Mr Blackburn said the present building was not the original station. The existing building was believed to have replaced the original in the early 1920s. A 1908 picture of the Opapa Railway Station showed it to be almost twice the size it is today.

The station was a busy one in its day, seeing a “fair amount” of stock shipped from it, he said.

The group’s long-term aim was to get the train tracks for the passing loop at the station relaid but the cost could be prohibitive, Mr Blackburn said.  If the tracks could be relaid the group wants to see the steam trains which operate in Hawke’s Bay in the summer running short trips to Opapa and to Ormondville, a station where another railway preservation group is operating successfully.

Hastings District Council legal officer Peter Woodroffe said the council had received a draft lease from New Zealand Rail and was drafting a sub-lease for the Friends of Opapa Railway Station. One of the requirements of the sub-lease will be that the group becomes an incorporated society.

Mr Woodroffe said the terms allowed the council to lease the station and surrounding land for “one pepper corn – payable on demand”.

The lease was the first of its kind that the Hastings council had been involved in but several councils in New Zealand participated in similar schemes. One of the more well-known stations cared for through a similar arrangement is the Woodside Railway Station, the station which has featured for several years on the Farmbake Cookies television ad.

Photo caption – WARREN BLACKBURN and son Tony, 15, wait for a lift at the Opapa Railway Station, Mr Blackburn is the convener of a group which aims to preserve the station and would like to see steam train excursions running to it from Hastings.
PICTURE: JOHN COWPLAND