Ormondville railway station restoration shaping as unique accommodation

Ormondville Rail Preservation Group committee member Roly Ellis and president Tom Williamson with the partly restored cattle wagon the group is fundraising to complete.

When the restoration of Ormondville railway station is finally complete the village will be able to boast a special attraction.

Ormondville Rail Preservation Group president Tom Williamson says while the restoration project has been continuing for a number of years, completion is probably still 10 years away.

"But the key objective is that we will have something that nobody else in New Zealand will have. The site will be unique."

Ormondville railway station provides a number of accommodation options.

Already the group has made considerable progress on the restoration by providing a unique accommodation experience. The railway station sleeps eight and two cabins each sleep two people.

"The cabins were railwaymen's huts that would be lifted on to wagons and taken to wherever the men were working," Williamson said.

The goods shed was restored at a cost of $150,000, funded by a grant from the Lotteries Board, and the well shed from the Ormondville Hotel was relocated to the station to be converted in to an information centre.

Restoration of a cattle wagon is the latest project, but it is one that was started 25 years ago. Years of effort went into removing rotten timber boards, removing and replacing rusted and deformed ironwork and needle-gunning decades of rust off the rest of the chassis and framework. Several coats of special primer and then oil topcoats were applied but that was all abandoned when other urgent work took over.

"We had various other priorities happening so we had to leave it sitting rusting away."

However, the project has been resumed and the group is running a Sponsor a Plank scheme to raise money to complete the wagon's restoration.

"We worked out there were 91 pieces of wood on a wagon and we thought the cost would be about $3000 by the time we had finished. So we thought of the sponsorship scheme.

For $30 you can buy a plank and your name will be put on a plaque to show that you helped," Williamson said.

"We are trying to do this project without approaching anybody for a grant."

Williamson said during the peak years for stock freight, during the 1950s, 8000 head of cattle went through the Ormondville yards.

Volunteers load poles on to a loader during a working bee at Ormondville railway station.

At a recent working bee volunteers relocated a pile of wooden tank poles, which will be used to build raised garden beds, and possibly also for the stock loading ramps, which are stage two of the project.

When that project is completed the wagon will be in front of the loading ramp to create a precinct closely resembling how things were in the 1950s.

Williamson said the Rail Heritage Trust of New Zealand has some of its collection at the Ormondville site.

Local sponsorship has been of huge help to the group. Neil and Josh Pedersen from Ruahine Timber are happy to help out when they can and Dannevirke Dairy Supplies sponsored a new shower for the station accommodation.

However, it's new members and volunteers the group needs now to continue the restoration, committee member Roly Ellis said.

"We have members from Napier, Hastings, Feilding and Wellington as well as some locals but what we really need is some more willing hands.

"We are very interested in talking to anyone who wishes to volunteer to help restore the buildings, carriages and the gardens."

Information on volunteering or becoming a member of the group is available at the station.