 Due to the isolated nature of the Nelson Section, it was also necessary to ship in all of the fuel, parts and other supplies required to run the railway itself.Because there was no locally available source of coal in a sufficient quantity, a collier brought in supplies of West Coast coal every few months from whence it was shipped by rail either to local merchants in Nelson or to the coal stages at Nelson, Belgrove and Glenhope.The period 1900 to 1919 were the most prosperous years for the railway.