"We wanted to have a tourist facility for visitors to Eketahuna by rail.
"They were getting on and off into the wilderness before."
He said the Waikanae station became redundant and was placed into storage when Wellington extended their electric train service up to Waikanae, where a new station was built.
Greater Wellington Regional Council owned the building and, no longer having a use for it, donated it to the Pahiatua Railcar Society for Eketahuna.
"It was quite a difficult project to make happen, but it was the right decision."
The station was a facility all rail services could benefit from, said Mr Selby.
He said Eketahuna community board chairman Charlie Death, Bridget Wellwood, team leader at Eketahuna museum, and Ms Wellwood's partner Jamie Ferguson had all been very supportive of the project and had organised a number of working bees to re-paint the station and tidy up around the site.
He said he was grateful to Eketahuna builder Brent Dickson, who had donated his time to lay a concrete floor slab on the site, ready to put the station on.
"As I understand it there have been no previous examples of a former station building being moved from its previous location to a new one and restored for use."
Ms Wellwood said on days when a rail event was happening she would don a "station mistress" persona and put flowers and flags outside the station.
"If there's a train coming through I turn up and wave at people and greet them as they come off.
"It's quite nice to say 'welcome to Eketahuna'."
Inside the station were displayed photographs, taken by members of the community, that show "what they liked about Eketahuna".
"We're trying to make it more inviting as a good tourist destination," said Ms Wellwood.
