 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.As the railway was being built, new sections were usually opened when the cost of operating it could be justified by the expected returns from freight traffic on the new section.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.