It was the early success of the Dun Mountain Company that first prompted suggestions of a railway to link Nelson with the West Coast town of Cobden.

Though the select committee examining the idea was left in no doubt as to the economic benefits of such a railway, they were equally cognizant of the debt that would be required to fund it.

When he presented his report to the council the following 1 April, he enthusiastically supported the project and was confident that construction should take only three years with work starting simultaneously at Nelson, Cobden and Westport.

Though the financial requirements of such a project were beyond the means of both the provincial and central governments at the time, it was suggested that a British firm be engaged to finance, construct and own the line as had already been successfully done in other developing nations.

On the day the contract was due to be signed, 19 July 1870, France declared war on Prussia, an event that caused such uncertainty that the investors were no longer willing to commit to such an undertaking.

In June, it was announced that the Colonial Treasurer, Sir Julius Vogel, planned to borrow £10,000,000 over ten years to finance the Great Public Works policy.

Before work could begin on the Nelson – Foxhill section of the route, it was necessary to pass through the General Assembly empowering legislation, which could not happen before a survey had been completed.

While Austin was tasked with investigating the matter further, tenders were called for the 21 kilometres (13 mi) section from Stoke to Foxhill and steps were taken to acquire the necessary land.

Though the official turning of the first sod ceremony took place on 6 May 1873, sub-contractors who started at the end of the line began work a month earlier on 7 April.

As the line neared completion, trial runs were conducted and on 17 November 1875 30 passengers were conveyed to the Wakefield terminus as guests of Austin.

There were, however, complications that had slowed this process, primarily the insistence of the Nelson City Council on widening Haven Road along which the line would run.

Although the Nelson Provincial Council had come to an agreement with the government for the extension to be built and had committed £8,000 to the project, the issue of widening Haven Road meant that there were insufficient funds to complete the work.

In response, a local deputation left for Wellington on 4 June to prevail upon the authorities the need for the extension and was rewarded the following day when a contract was awarded for the 1.2 kilometres (0.75 mi) of formation.

By the time he reported back to the Railway Committee on 21 June in favour of his preferred east coast route, Nelson authorities were already celebrating the fact that the contract for the 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) Foxhill – Belgrove section had been let to Peter Day on 26 May 1879.

It was not until 9 September 1890 that the New Zealand Midland Railway Company put out a call for tenders for the construction of the next section of the line from Belgrove to the Motueka Valley.

Because the contracts that had been let thus far terminated just beyond the tunnel, a temporary station was established there, but it was obvious to all concerned that the line would need to be extended to a commercially useful centre beyond this point for the section beyond Belgrove to be viable.

The occasion was not considered to be an official opening, due to the lack of government (ministerial) representation, brought about by the unexpected death of Premier of New Zealand Richard Seddon on 10 June 1906.

After being shown around the construction site at the Tadmor Saddle and listening to the troubles that had been encountered with the unstable ground and earthworks, they were assured that despite the amount of work remaining, the project was nearing completion.

Prior to leaving office, the Minister Roderick McKenzie obtained parliamentary authorisation for the work to continue and tried to ensure that progress was maintained on it.

Progress was steady, and by 1927 construction crews working along the whole of the planned route only had to complete a couple of cuttings before the line could reach Gowanbridge.

The Murchison earthquake of 17 June 1929 diverted the railway construction crews on to the more immediate and urgent matter of restoring communication and road links with the affected areas.

Local member of parliament George Black opposed the decision to suspend construction of the railway, which ran through his electorate, and was later expelled from his party after refusing to vote for the government's budget.

Stations were generally established in small, existing settlements that usually served large farming districts and often had private sidings for industrial customers that had located their operations near the railway, as well as goods sheds and loops where loaded wagons would wait to be picked up by the next scheduled freight service.

Some of the primary product shipped out of Nelson via the railway included berry, vegetable, hops and fruit crops, wool, timber, livestock, and meat from the freezing works at Stoke from 1909.

One of the more important services that the railway would come to provide was to transport students from the various small settlements along the line to their secondary education in Nelson.

The mother of a new family settled in Wakefield with four school-aged daughters initiated, in June 1947, a petition calling for the school trains to be replaced by buses, for which she received strong local support.

The incoming United Party-led government of 1928 headed by Sir Joseph Ward promised to turn around the fortunes of the country, largely by borrowing.

The protest made a political impact; cabinet decided on the following Monday that in order for the Nelson Section to remain open, it would have to carry a minimum of 25,000 tons of freight annually.

Some of the requested improvements resulted in a new timetable being introduced including four daily weekday trains, a private siding to a sawmill at Hope, the provision of a tractor at Nelson to assist with the unloading of lime, and the addition of 17 new wagons from Blenheim.

The original expectation that the work could be completed in six months proved to be too ambitious, as for much of the railways' length there was limited site access, the need to also lift sidings or to not obstruct level crossings to allow for the passage of vehicular traffic.