Old railway property goes up for sale

HISTORY: The former Woodside railway land and the former Greytown station building on it are on the market. PHOTO/DARLYA REDFERN

A rare opportunity has come up to own an historic railway property in Greytown.

The former Greytown station building which also served as the Woodside goods shed, plus the land it is sitting on, is up for sale.

Property Brokers have been instructed by the Crown to tender the 2.2-hectare property on the open market as it is surplus to its requirements.

Built in 1880, the wooden building served as Greytown station, 5km down the side line from the main trunk, for more than 70 years until 1953 when the Greytown branch line closed.

It was then put on a rail car and moved to Woodside station, where it was used as a goods shed until the 1980s.

It has since sat there unused, in a semi-derelict state.

David Montgomerie, Property Brokers rural and lifestyle sales consultant, said the building was an interesting part of Greytown's rail history and the property was bound to attract a wide range of interest.

He said it wasn't often the Crown put this type of property on the market and it was pretty rare for Wairarapa.

"I would struggle to think of anything else like this here, we don't have a huge number of railway buildings in Wairarapa."

He said the Cross Creek railway buildings were gone and there were not many other old railway buildings left.

While the building is over a century old, it is not listed on Heritage New Zealand's historic places register.

The land was first acquired by the Crown in 1876 and was part of the Woodside railway yards.

It is about 40 metres wide for most of its length, with the railway line on the western boundary and Woodside Rd as the northern boundary.

A full information memorandum, including an environmental site investigation report, is available on request.

Tenders close at 4pm on February 11, 2015, at the Property Brokers office on the corner of Main and Hastwell streets, Greytown.