New rail group name

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 9, Issue 406, 1 October 1991, Page 5

New rail group name

BY

DENNIS

BEYTAGH

Last Wednesday week 18 members of the group of local railway enthusiasts formerly known as PORS (Preservation of the Ohakune Railway Station) met to sign the Articles of Incorporation under which they will in future be known as Main Trunk Rail Ohakune Incorporated (MTRO Inc.). The rationale for the name change is as follows: When the PORS group was first formed some 10 months ago it was in

answer to what some local people saw as a threat to Ohakune's historic railway station building. At that time the building was either to have been demolished and removed by NZ Rail or it was to continue suffering the inattention and neglect of the person who had acquired it a year earlier. Either way it was doomed unless some urgent action could be taken first to preserve and then restore the building.

This was achieved by forming the PORS group - a group of local people who negotiated with NZ Rail and the Ruapehu District Council to acquire the building. They then put in many hours of voluntary labour on weekend working -bees, cleaning up the station, repairing damage, painting the exterior, resurfacing the platform, restoring the lighting and plumbing and improving the environs with planting and landscaping. Whilst much of this work on the building itself still has to be, completed, the project has now taken on a new dimension in that, having saved the building, the objective is to restore some of the functions that were once part of Ohakune's role in the development of the Main Trunk Line and to re-create a piece of Ohakune's history by establishing a unique railway 'village' concept and museum in the Junction area. Plans are already well advanced as far as these new objectives are concerned: a signal box has been acquired for the static display, work has Turnpage 6

New rail name

Frompage 5 already started on restoring the turntable, a water tower is to be erected and many other smaller articles of railway plant and equipment have already been collected. This local activity has already attracted the attention of two major groups of railway enthusiasts in the North Island: Steam Incorporated of Paekakariki and the Glenfield Vintage Railway in Auckland. Both groups recognise that Ohakune's strategic position in the centre of the N'orth Island with its spectacular scenery and rich railway_ history nearby (the Raurimu Spiral, Hapuawhenua Viaduct, Tangiwai etc.)

is ideally situated for steam train and vintage rail excursions. It is for these reasons - the provision of rail services and refreshment facilities in Ohakune, the hosting of railway excursions to this part of the Main Trunk Line, the creation of a railway museum etc. - that the PORS group have decided to form themselves into an incorporated society in order to meet the wider objectives than were what was seen originally as a rescue operation. It was generally agreed that the name 'Main Trunk Rail Ohakune Incorporated' (MTRO Inc.) met all the objectives of the present membership.