Pahiatua Railcar Society has been acknowledged for its efforts in bringing a railway station to Eketahuna by relocating and restoring an old station that was no longer in use.
The Rail Heritage Trust of New Zealand awarded the Pahiatua Rail Society a certificate of merit 2015 for the restoration of Waikanae Railway station building at the Eketahuna Railway Station.
The Waikanae station was put on the site where the original Eketahuna train station once stood and is utilised in rail tourism ventures.
Although regular trains stopped coming through the town many years ago, the original train platform and station carparking remained.
Pahiatua Railcar Society president Don Selby said the addition of the station had made the town more inviting for tourists coming through on rail ventures.
"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.