Ormondville Rail Preservation Group Inc - 'Hubs & Spokes' excursion 2000

Ormondville Rail Preservation Group Inc.

Railway Enthusiasts Society's 'Hubs & Spokes' Excursion

Saturday, 21 October 2000 - Labour Weekend

(Part One)

Having an excursion train stop at Ormondville is naturally a very exciting event for our group. In fact, we even enjoyed having the now deceased Bay Express let its passengers off for a quick visit (and to allow any travelling smokers a quick fix).

However, Labour Weekend 2000 had a few extra aspects to make it memorable. Firstly, on Thursday, 19 October, a party of about 28 Australian railfans spent time at the station, complete with a catered dinner and historic slide show. Some then stayed at the station, while others stayed at Makotuku pub or at Dannevirke. The next day most caught the Bay Express and visited Napier, before doubling back to Wellington.

Then on Friday, 20 October (Hawkes Bay's Anniversary Day), Steam Inc. ran a steam train from Hawkes Bay to Wanganui (though a diesel pulled it on the main trunk line). While this excursion didn't officially stop at Ormondville, our B&B hostess and her family kindly nobbled it for us, by arranging to be collected and dropped off there. We hear that she and other ORPG members aboard also did their bit to make sure Ormondville station became well known to those aboard!!!

Saturday, 21 October, though, was our big day, as we welcomed the around 100 passengers and crew aboard Auckland's Railway Enthusiasts Society's 'Hubs & Spokes' DA-hauled excursion train, that was spending five days travelling around the lower North Island. After leaving Auckland on the 20th, they had stayed the night at Palmerston North, and on the 21st they were travelling up to Napier for the day, where some were to visit the Cape Kidnappers gannet colony. Then they were to return to Palmerston North for a second night, before continuing their tour.

Our role in this Hawkes Bay trip was to supply those aboard with morning tea at around 10:00 am, and then in the early evening to provide them with dinner, during an hour-long stop, on their return journey. Anyhow, the following photos will provide you with a pictorial impression of how the big day went:

The station office is a hive of activity as the 'kitchen staff' set up 100 plates with scones and cake, in anticipation of the train's arrival for morning tea in a few minutes. There would have been a close-up photo of the train en route from Palmerston North (near Ashhurst), but the intrepid photographer was too busy racing the train to Ormondville. And was also - unfortunately - encumbered with the need to hold the steering wheel.

The sharp end of the 'Hubs & Spokes' train is shown above, moments after its arrival. In the distance its passengers disembark and take a crash course on 'how to quickly access morning tea' in some loose form of 'traditional railways style.' For example: first one enters the twin bedroom (formerly the postal lobby), then into the old main office where the food is, then out through the old waiting room to where the tea/coffee is, then down to 'Cafe Ormondville's forecourt on the south end of the platform. Unfortunately no photos of that are to hand as the photographer was too busy helping attend to the guests by that time.

Sorry about the lack of technical detail about the loco folks. I figure that avid railfans will already know what they are looking at and the rest won't really care. In fact, I tried (on their website) and thus far have failed to deduce anything other than what is blindly obvious to the 'less-well-informed' in the above photo. One further thought though, perhaps the Bay Express's locos should have been visiting the same beautician. - ed.

After about 20 minutes, the station bell rings alongside the platform, the DA's horn blows and everyone either heads for the train or their cameras - or on some cases both! Note the fantastic blue sky that sets off this scene and also set off much of the success of this particular day.

Now, having rested on 'Cafe Ormondville's' forecourt for a while, most of the 'kitchen staff' adjourned across the road to the forecourt of the Settler's Arms for another rest. George, the Settler's Arm's resident dog, had the same idea. All this rest was, of course, essential to gain the necessary inspiration to deal with peeling 'THE SPUDS!' It was also preferable to spraying weeds and planting agapanthus, only the former of which actually got done. 'Kitchen staff,' of course, know to steer clear of some inappropriate combinations, although dealing with a suicidal hedgehog did cause a brief (but hygienically attended to) review to that policy.