Railways Department's Housing Scheme

The scheme was intended to provide railway workers and their families with affordable and accessible accommodation during a time when it was otherwise difficult to find suitable housing.

Railway workers, especially those who often shifted between stations and yards, found it difficult to find and to afford housing in the new location.

[5] The scheme was led by architect George Troup, who in 1919 became the officer in charge of the Architectural Branch of Railways.

The wood was to be sourced from state-owned forests, and the houses were to be sited on Railways-owned land adjacent or near existing railway stations and yards.

[8][10] The Railways became New Zealand's first employer to provide workers' accommodation at such a scale, and became the country's largest property developers and landlords.

[15] In 1983, international consultants proposed major staff cuts to make the corporation profitable, which resulted in the need for railway housing to decrease substantially.

[15] In July 1988, details of the sell-off were announced by Rail Properties in a booklet to all tenants entitled "Sale of Railway Houses".

In 1990, the corporation sold all of the railway houses in the town of Otira in the South Island, with a peppercorn rental paid on the land.

[17] Some were retained by the corporation and later transferred to its successors, the last being occupied in 2012 when its tenant, at Cass on the Midland Line retired.

[5][19] The standard variation of entry porches included trellised porches with hipped roofs; bungalow-styled exposed pointed rafters; gabled hips with Art Nouveau bracketed posts; Arts and Crafts shallow-hipped arches with trellised posts; or a combination of these different elements.

Such was the case with Milson in Palmerston North, which was only provided with a community center and school after the tenants complained.

[20] Settlements were often not connected to boroughs' service lines[clarification needed] due to the Railways Department not paying rates to the Councils.