 It was the early success of the privately funded and constructed railway of the Dun Mountain Company in 1862 that first prompted suggestions of a railway to link Nelson with the West Coast town of Cobden.In May 1862, the Nelson Provincial Council member for Waimea West, Fedor Kelling, requested a feasibility study for a line from Nelson to the Wairoa River bridge.When the council agreed, Abraham Fitzgibbon – previously associated with the Dun Mountain Railway – was appointed to do the work.