The Hutt Park Railway Company opened a private line running along the Petone foreshore in February 1885, terminating at the Hutt River. Passengers would then walk across two bridges to attend race day. The line was first proposed in 1874 but turned down by the royal commission on New Zealand Railways, however competition from the Island Bay Racecourse ten years later prompted a the company to be formed and the capital of £4,000 (roughly $840,000 today) was raised in a single day. The land along the foreshore was given free to the company and the track, platform and a small ticket office were built in just 38 days.
There were two stations on the line, one at each end - Beach Station, at the junction to the main line, which had the ticket office, and Pipe Bridge at the river, which had the platform. On race days NZR ran the trains from Lambton Station in Wellington - this was the only time that passenger services were available, and the train fare included the entry fee into the race course. Otherwise operation was by a pilotman with a certificate granting approval from the stationmaster at Ngauranga which allowed the Gearmeat Company to run a train carrying their produce to Petone to forward to Wellington. They also shipped out their offal, via Petone Station's infamous manure siding.
By 1897 growing dissatisfaction with Beach Station and its uneven ground led to its removal in November of that year and a new station was built here, a more central location for the local residents, and not awkwardly situated on a curve. Although one of the complaints about Beach Station was the quality of its amenities, I doubt it was anything different at Victoria Street - I was not able to find any information about the station, or any photographs, but given the low usage (only on race days) I suspect it was like Beach Station - no platform, maybe it had a ticket office with a shelter shed, which would be an improvement on Beach Station's ticket office. Competition from increasing numbers of personal cars led to declining revenue and in 1915 Victoria Street station was pulled out and the rails from here to the end of the line were removed. The remaining line was sold to the Gear Meat Company. The Gear Meat Company had laid a network of sidings within its works and had owned three locomotives between 1890 and 1963. Two of these are now owned by the Silverstream Railway, after having sat for many years in children's playgrounds. The remaining line serviced Gear Meat and Odlins Timber for another 60-odd years until the 1970s when the all rails were lifted.
A wharf here was originally built here by the Gear Meat Company but when it decayed and was removed Gear Meat used the railway to ship is produce to Wellington.The Petone Council eventually built the current wharf but found the difficulties in making it a railway wharf were too difficult. I suspect this might be due to the amount of land that sidings and curve radii would need.
References:
Parsons, D: "Wellington's Railways Colonial Steam to Matangi", published by the New Zealand Railway & Locomotive Society, 2010