Ohinemuri Regional History Journal 26, November 1982
By Phoebe Howard (nee Dilworth)
My father, Richard George Dilworth, came to Paeroa about the year 1898 and married Eliza McMehan in 1900.
Our first home was in Corbett Street then we moved to Bradley Street. My father was employed as a Guard on the Railway and we as children often used to go to the Paeroa Railway Station with him about 8 o'clock at night as he had to signal the 'Wild Cat' as that train was called, into the platform with a big lamp showing red or green (whichever was needed).
The Paeroa to Waihi line was opened in 1905 and my Dad being the Guard had to go (along with my mother's brother George, and Jack and myself) in a cattle truck ahead of the Official train carrying Richard John Seddon the then Prime Minister, to make sure the line was safe for him, so I can say my family and myself were the first to travel on the Waihi line. After seeing the Prime Minister safely in Waihi and after the opening ceremony by Richard John Seddon we returned to Paeroa in the cattle truck.
My Dad was killed on the railway in the Newmarket shunting yards in 1925.