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Kingston Flyer (train)
Encyclopedia
Express train
Express trains are a form of rail service. Express trains make only a small number of stops, instead of stopping at every single station...
operated by the New Zealand Railways Department
New Zealand Railways Department
The New Zealand Railways Department, NZR or NZGR and often known as the "Railways", was a government department charged with owning and maintaining New Zealand's railway infrastructure and operating the railway system. The Department was created in 1880 and was reformed in 1981 into the New...
between the 1890s and 1957. It operated to Kingston
Kingston, New Zealand
Kingston is a small town at the southernmost end of Lake Wakatipu on the border of Otago and Southland, in New Zealand's South Island. It is 47 kilometres south of Queenstown by a road which winds between the lake to the west and The Remarkables mountains to the east...
from multiple other termini: Gore
Gore, New Zealand
Gore is a town, surrounding borough, and district in the Southland region of the South Island of New Zealand.-Geography:The Gore District has a land area of 1,251.62 km² and a resident population of...
, Invercargill
Invercargill
Invercargill is the southernmost and westernmost city in New Zealand, and one of the southernmost cities in the world. It is the commercial centre of the Southland region. It lies in the heart of the wide expanse of the Southland Plains on the Oreti or New River some 18 km north of Bluff,...
, and less commonly, Dunedin
Dunedin
Dunedin is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, and the principal city of the Otago Region. It is considered to be one of the four main urban centres of New Zealand for historic, cultural, and geographic reasons. Dunedin was the largest city by territorial land area until...
.
Introduction
The Kingston Flyer was introduced in the late 1890s as New ZealandNew Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
recovered from the Long Depression
Long Depression
The Long Depression was a worldwide economic crisis, felt most heavily in Europe and the United States, which had been experiencing strong economic growth fueled by the Second Industrial Revolution in the decade following the American Civil War. At the time, the episode was labeled the Great...
of the 1880s. During the Long Depression, slow mixed train
Mixed train
A mixed train is a train that hauls both passenger and freight cars or wagons. In the early days of railways they were quite common, but by the 20th century they were largely confined to branch lines with little traffic. As the trains provided passengers with very slow service, mixed trains have...
s that carried both passengers and freight had served the Kingston Branch and Waimea Plains Railway
Waimea Plains Railway
The Waimea Plains Railway was a secondary railway line that linked the towns of Lumsden and Gore in northern Southland, New Zealand...
, daily in some years and only a few times per week in others. However, as the economy was revitalised, the Railways Department sought to increase services on the two lines. The Kingston Branch ran north-south between Invercargill
Invercargill
Invercargill is the southernmost and westernmost city in New Zealand, and one of the southernmost cities in the world. It is the commercial centre of the Southland region. It lies in the heart of the wide expanse of the Southland Plains on the Oreti or New River some 18 km north of Bluff,...
and Kingston, while the Waimea Plains Railway diverged from the branch in Lumsden
Lumsden, New Zealand
Lumsden is a town in Southland, New Zealand. Lying in a gap in the surrounding hills, it is the location of a major junction halfway along the north-south road from Queenstown to Invercargill, where it is crossed by the east-west road from Gore to Te Anau. The town had a population of 453 as of the...
and ran eastwards, meeting the Main South Line
Main South Line
The Main South Line, sometimes referred to as part of the South Island Main Trunk Railway, is a railroad line that runs north and south from Lyttelton in New Zealand through Christchurch and along the east coast of the South Island to Invercargill via Dunedin...
in Gore
Gore, New Zealand
Gore is a town, surrounding borough, and district in the Southland region of the South Island of New Zealand.-Geography:The Gore District has a land area of 1,251.62 km² and a resident population of...
. Mixed services operated to a higher frequency, and dedicated passenger trains were introduced. These services came to be known as the Kingston Flyer, especially the Gore-Kingston services across the Waimea Plains.
Operation
When the Flyer was introduced, it served Kingston every weekday. On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, it ran Kingston-Gore, where it connected with Main South Line expresses between Dunedin and Invercargill. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, it operated Kingston-Invercargill, using the length of the Kingston Branch. In the early years, services were typically operated by KNZR K class (1877)
The NZR Rogers K class was the first example of American-built locomotives to be used on New Zealand's railways. Their success coloured locomotive development in New Zealand until the end of steam.-History:...
and V
NZR V class
The NZR V class steam locomotive was used on New Zealand's railway network from 1885 onwards.-Introduction:The heavy increase in traffic by the early 1880s necessitated a design for a new class of passenger locomotive. The V class was conceived as an enlarged version of the 2-4-2 NZR K class of...
class steam locomotive
Steam locomotive
A steam locomotive is a railway locomotive that produces its power through a steam engine. These locomotives are fueled by burning some combustible material, usually coal, wood or oil, to produce steam in a boiler, which drives the steam engine...
s. At peak periods, especially Christmas and Easter, special services had to be operated to cater for demand, with some operating from Dunedin through to Kingston, where they connected with Lake Wakatipu
Lake Wakatipu
Lake Wakatipu is an inland lake in the South Island of New Zealand. It is in the southwest corner of Otago Region, near its boundary with Southland.With a length of , it is New Zealand's longest lake, and, at , its third largest...
steamboat
Steamboat
A steamboat or steamship, sometimes called a steamer, is a ship in which the primary method of propulsion is steam power, typically driving propellers or paddlewheels...
s to the popular holiday destination of Queenstown
Queenstown, New Zealand
Queenstown is a resort town in Otago in the south-west of New Zealand's South Island. It is built around an inlet called Queenstown Bay on Lake Wakatipu, a long thin Z-shaped lake formed by glacial processes, and has spectacular views of nearby mountains....
. For many years, this was the primary means of travelling to Queenstown.
Demise
In the 1930s, passenger numbers declined starkly and the Railways Department looked to cancel its services on the Kingston Branch. This occurred on 4 October 1937, bringing an end to the regular Flyers. An abbreviated service continued to operate across the Waimea Plain to the Kingston Branch junction in Lumsden until 17 September 1945. On both lines, the service was replaced by buses operated by the New Zealand Railways Road ServicesNew Zealand Railways Road Services
The New Zealand Railways Road Services was a branch of the New Zealand Railways Department and later the New Zealand Railways Corporation. It operated long-distance, tourist and suburban bus services and freight trucking and parcel services.-History:...
.
However, this was not the end of the Flyers. The timetables retained a 'runs as required' Kingston Flyer, which typically operated at peak holiday periods between Gore and sometimes Dunedin to Kingston. Patronage was initially heavy, but it declined through the 1950s. 1956 was the last year when Flyers ran each way in the same day, and the final Flyer operated during the 1957 Easter holiday period.
Revitalisation
On 26 October 1971, the final regular revenue service to be hauled by a steam locomotive in New Zealand ran, but around this time, the Railways Department announced that it was going to commence operating a heritage steam service in the coming summer. This service was to be a revitalised Kingston Flyer, running twice daily between Lumsden and Kingston with two AB classNZR Ab class
The NZR AB class was a class of 4-6-2 Pacific tender steam locomotive that operated on New Zealand's national railway system. Originally an improvement on the 1906 A class, 141 were built between 1915 and 1927 by NZR's Addington Workshops, A & G Price Limited of Thames, New Zealand, and North...
steam locomotives. It began on 21 December 1971 and proved to be wildly popular, operating during the peak Christmas and Easter seasons and carrying large numbers of passengers. However, due to damage to track by flooding between Lumsden and Garston in February 1979, the service was diverted to operate to other destinations. This damage led to the closure of the Kingston Branch beyond Lumsden, but in 1982, the Kingston Flyer was returned to its hometown to run on 14 km of preserved track between Kingston and Fairlight. It has now passed into private ownership and is operated for tourists and enthusiasts. The service ceased in 2009.