An old trolley bus from Wellington made its way to the Foxton Tram and Trolley Bus Museum.
An old trolley bus from Wellington made its way to the Foxton Tram and Trolley Bus Museum.
A stoush is brewing between a trolley bus enthusiast and Horowhenua District Council.
Wellington man Malcolm Little wants to see trolley buses return to Foxton's Main Street and continue the legacy created by his late parents Ian and Christina Little.
"I was probably born on the back seat of abus. I was maybe conceived on the back seat of a bus too," he said.
The buses and bus lines were introduced to Foxton in the late 1980s by Ian Little. The last time a trolley bus did a circuit on the lines was in 2016.
Malcolm Little is keen to keep his father's legacy alive in Foxton.
HDC declined to comment, but the Horowhenua Chronicle understands HDC had tried for the last four years to enter dialogue with Little, but had met with no response.
In the absence of any concrete plans or formal discussions, Horowhenua District Council had run out of patience and now wanted the old trolley bus lines gone.
It was now forced to look at recovering costs associated with dismantling the old lines in the interests of public safety, as parts of the line network had been deemed a safety hazard.
A section of the network had already been taken down by a contractor earlier this month due to safety concerns, near new development at the Foxton wharf.
Workers from Electra dismantle a portion of the lines on the corner of Wharf St and Harbour St near the Foxton River Loop.
But Little had since sought legal advice and said he was in the process of seeking an injunction to stop the dismantling before it went any further.
Little said he hadn't seen any safety reports himself and was carrying on with his plans to revive the Foxton Trolley Bus Museum.
"We own it ... it's not unsafe," he said.
His vision was to see trolley buses return to the streets of Foxton and was confident he could make it happen.
Little said he was teaming up with the Omnibus Society in Wellington to form an incorporated society that would run the Foxton Trolley Bus Museum.
They had recently purchased seven relatively new bright-yellow trolley buses from the now-defunct Wellington network, which he said would form part of the new fleet.
An old trolley bus using the lines in Foxton.
Little said if it didn't work in Foxton they would be forced to look at setting up the museum and network in another New Zealand town.
The issue came to light with the construction and reconfiguration of the new carriageway on Main Street in 2018 at the corner of Wharf and Harbour streets as part of the development of Te Awahou Cultural Park.
Little said the Foxton Trolley Buses can still be mobile with the removal of some of the overhead cables.
"The reason for the cable removal is for safety reasons as well as they're starting to show their age, however, it's only a short metreage on the corners of Wharf and Harbour street being removed at this stage," he said.
"There's a couple of poles as well."
The trolley buses were first introduced to Foxton in the late 1980s when Ian Little, with the support of Foxton Community Board and HDC, had trolley bus cables erected.
He got a fleet of old buses mobile again and created a circuit and a specific route in 1989. For years, trolley buses were a familiar site in Foxton and travelled the Wharf St square.
These days they're parked up and idle. The last time a trolley bus travelled its route in Foxton was July 2016.
Malcolm Little said he planned for some of the old Wellington fleet to be used in Foxton.
Ian and Christina Little were originally from Dunedin. Ian Little, upon leaving college, became a bookbinder and later a law clerk before deciding on bus driving, and drove buses in Dunedin for six years.
With a passion for trolley buses, he took up a trolley bus driving job for Wellington City Transport, being the Wellington City Council's bus operation.
He had a personal museum in Miramar and was on the payroll until 1977. By then he was ready to run his own bus company and was figuring out what to do with his growing collection.
Little then moved to Featherston, before being invited by the Foxton Community board in conjunction with the HDC and moving to Foxton, where the installation of the overhead cables for the trolley buses and for the like-minded enthusiasts.
The Foxton Tram and Trolley Bus Museum originally had eight working examples of trolley buses, one from Auckland, six from Wellington and - Ian's favourite - a single specimen from Dunedin.
Little's natural aptitude for restoration and his habit of collecting made him perfect for the job of restoring the buses.
His mind was stacked full of mechanical information, model types, makers' histories, favoured routes and no doubt the fraternity of drivers.
It was said he never forgot a mechanic or driver he'd worked with and was like an encyclopedia when describing the minutiae of mechanical detail.
The late Ian Little.
His passion and enthusiasm wasn't limited to trolley buses. He saved trams, too, and was a key figure in the foundation of the Wellington Tramway Museum at Paekakariki, being its first president.
Little also collected radio broadcast gear, from which he built his own from rescued parts from Radio 2XM in Gisborne. A radio broadcaster, Ian rebuilt it in the basement of his Miramar home when he shifted there in 1963.
When the Littles shifted to Foxton in 1987 they moved the gear there and established and launched Radio Foxton.
Christina Little collected hundreds of old dolls and opened a doll gallery, too.
Ian Little died in July 2008 aged 76. Christina Little died in 2012, aged 65.
