Sheep are loaded onto the upper deck of a J-class wagon at Turakina in the early 1950s. Farmers were New Zealand Railways’ most numerous and regular customers from the 1870s to the 1960s. The government gave them price concessions, with cheap rates for carrying fruit, lime and other necessities. It also placed restrictions on the carriage of freight by road in order to boost rail freight. For the lucrative export trade in refrigerated meat, the Addington railway workshops designed and built insulated wagons to take carcasses from freezing works to ports.