The system was initially built to narrow gauge, however this was changed to standard gauge in the 1880s. Stations became established as access points to local communities along the route. Sometimes these community access points were quite a distance from the established community centres. The center of the New Zealand community was about one kilometre from the railroad station that served it. The locals that worked for the New Brunswick Railway as section men named the access point Zealand Station. This was readily accepted by the railway, followed almost immediately by the centre of the community shifting toward the economic and social centre growing around the railway station. In short order the community became known as Zealand Station.