History

The Nelson Railway Society, formerly the Grand Tapawera Railroad Co, began in the late 1980s with monthly meetings at the Wakefield Hotel.
It was intended to set up a working railway at Kohatu using the old existing railway formations but in 1991 the decision was made to move to Founders Heritage Park, Nelson. From 1991 to date is credit to those hard-working members putting in many voluntary hours on Saturday workdays etc. It is this dedication along with fundraising, train running days, sponsorship, grants etc that has built our railway up to where it is today. We have tried to create a railway that has all the old flavour of the old Nelson to Glenhope line and we are very fortunate to have steam locomotive Wf 403 identical in type and class to the Wf ‘s that were used on the old Nelson line. (See “Wf403” page  or “Equipment” for details on Wf 403)