 After the day out at Glenhope, the train arrived back in Nelson to be greeted by a crowd of 5,000 and exploding track detonators.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.By 1880, there were 30 boys travelling daily into Nelson, and they were joined in 1883 by girls attending the newly opened Nelson College for Girls.