Yesterday, after 48 years of marriage, he and wife Margaret relived the southern leg of the journey on the inaugural service of the Mainlander from Dunedin to Invercargill.
The couple had met in Green Island on the Great Barrier Reef in Australia in 1978.
Mr Maclean was working on a yacht and Mrs Maclean was a waitress, she said.
Three weeks after they met, Mr Maclean made the trip from Auckland to his future wife’s home in Gore aboard the Southerner to propose.
She said it only took him three weeks to propose and for her to say yes because "when you know, you know".
"We'd only seen each other and met a couple of times in Australia ... and he didn’t forget me. He came to get me."
The couple planned to stay in Invercargill overnight and return to Dunedin today.
She had been waiting on the train service to arrive for some time because, as a child, she had loved travelling by rail.
The Mainlander arrived at the Dunedin Railway Station on Tuesday from Christchurch.
It left for Invercargill at 10am yesterday and returns today before heading back to Christchurch tomorrow.
Rail and Tourism Group chief executive Paul Jackson said 520 passenger movements had been scheduled for the first four days of the Mainlander’s operation.
It was a solid start and the group was feeling positive, he said.
It was yet to announce future dates for The Mainlander.
