- Kingston Flyer (train)
The Kingston Flyer was a passenger
express train operated by theNew Zealand Railways Department between the 1890s and 1957. It operated to Kingston from multiple other termini: Gore,Invercargill , and less commonly,Dunedin .Introduction
The Kingston Flyer was introduced in the late 1890s as
New Zealand recovered from theLong Depression of the 1880s. During the Long Depression, slowmixed train s that carried both passengers and freight had served the Kingston Branch andWaimea Plains Railway , 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 betweenInvercargill and Kingston, while the Waimea Plains Railway diverged from the branch inLumsden and ran eastwards, meeting theMain South Line in Gore. 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 K and V class
steam locomotive 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 withLake Wakatipu steamboat s to the popular holiday destination of Queenstown. 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 until17 September 1945 . On both lines, the service was replaced by buses operated by theNew Zealand Railways Road Services .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
:"Main article:
Kingston Flyer "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 Invercargill and Kingston with two AB class steam locomotives. It began on21 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 14km of preserved track between Kingston and Fairlight. It has now passed into private ownership and is operated for tourists and enthusiasts.
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