Terminus The Plains Museum Length 2,500 m Opened 4 October 1885 | Original gauge 1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in) Locale Tinwald | |
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Connections KiwiRail Main South Line Name Mount Somers Branchline Owned by Ashburton Railway & Preservation Society Operated by Ashburton Railway & Preservation Society Built by New Zealand Railways Department | ||
The Plains Vintage Railway & Historical Museum is a heritage railway and recreated historic village located inside the Tinwald Domain, Tinwald, New Zealand. The railway (operating as The Plains Railway) operates on approximately three kilometres of rural railway line that once formed part of the Mount Somers Branch. The entire village site and the railway are open regularly to the public, the railway operation utilises preserved and restored locomotives and rolling stock once used on New Zealand's national railway network while the village allows people to see how life was lived in New Zealand's pioneering past.
Contents
Overview
The Ashburton Railway & Preservation Society Inc. (AR&PS) was founded in 1971 with the goal of purchasing a section of the former Mt Somers Branch railway on which to run restored locomotives alongside preserving heritage farm machinery fast disappearing from the surrounding district. To meet the goal the AR&PS founded The Plains Vintage Railway & Historical Museum and began to acquire exhibits - of both railway, agricultural and other locally historical items - and to erect buildings for storage and display purposes. The museum also acquired three of its most significant buildings, namely the cottage, church and railway station, by relocating existing buildings to the site of The Plains Vintage Railway & Historical Museum.
K 88 Trust Board
The K 88 Trust Board was formed on 23 May 1995 and ceased to exist on November 3rd 2015. Their overarching goal was to restore and overhaul K's 88 and, perhaps, 94 to operating condition.
The plan was to:
On 10 April 1996 The locomotives were formally leased to the K 88 Trust from the Ashburton Railway & Preservation Society, the K 88 Trust Board had purchased the former Ashburton Countdown Supermarket in January 1996 for the restoration base for the locomotives and the trust as a whole.
Fundraising was well under-way before September 1996 and the first goal of restoring K 88 was achieved in 1997 with the construction of its new tender tank well under-way. The trust financed the construction of a new boiler for K 88, and construction commenced in 1998 and was completed in 1999. After the refitting of the boiler and other restoration works the locomotive was recommissioned on 30 March 2002.
'K' 94 was never restored, but was instead used as a source of parts as many parts on it were in better condition than those on 'K' 88.
2015 Arson Attack
On the morning of 17 January 2015, the old workshop building burnt down after an arsonist set light to it. The fire destroyed most things contained within the shed (mainly tools, parts, nuts and bolts, boxes, potato equipment, etc.) with only few very of the contents able to be recovered. The fire was reported at around 5:00am that morning. Five fire engines and a water tanker attended the blaze to bring it under control. The fire was labelled suspicious and a Police investigation is ongoing. The locomotive shed alongside the workshop was damaged, but has been made safe with minor repairs to secure the building.
Locomotives, Railcars and Rolling Stock
The Plains Railway came to world attention when a member of the Rogers K class, K 88, was recovered on 19 January 1974 from the Branxholme Locomotive Dump in the Oreti River in Southland. Transported by truck to The Plains Railway in July 1974 and restored to a fully operational condition on 27 November 1982. This has set a pattern other railway enthusiasts recovering a number of locomotives of various classes from where they were dumped including two other K's. One of them being K 94 was recovered by a private owner and transported by truck to The Plains Railway. Restoration commenced in April 1986 but was later cancelled. It is presently in storage in an unrestored condition and is used as a comparison as it vividly illustrates the condition in which K 88 was recovered and the work required to bring the locomotive to running condition. K 88 received a second restoration beginning in 1997 by the K 88 Trust Board. It was completed on 30 March 2002. The second restoration saw her receive a brand new Belpaire Boiler and tender tank.
The museum's rail rolling stock contains several historically important items. These are A 64 which is currently the second oldest operating steam locomotive in New Zealand; JA 1260 which was the last steam locomotive to haul the last night train out of Invercargill and the last steam locomotive to haul trains out of Christchurch; K 88 Washington - which hauled the first inter city express in New Zealand between Christchurch and Dunedin, being one of the original Kingston Flyer locomotives, the first ever locomotive in the world to be restored from a river bed and the oldest ex-NZR tender locomotive in New Zealand; Vulcan Railcar RM 50 which holds the official New Zealand Railways speed record of 78 mph and TR 38 which is the first petrol locomotive in New Zealand.
In addition:
Railcars
In addition:
Carriages
In addition:
Jiggers
The society has in their care 3 four-wheel motor jiggers, a three-wheel motor jigger, 2 four-wheel hand jiggers and a three-wheel hand jigger. They also have four trailers also in their care.
Traction Engines
The society has three tractions engines and one portable engine in their collection. The traction engines consist of a 1/3 scale Burrell Traction Engine built by a local engineer the late Hughey Rainey, a McLaren NO. 1718 (owned by the Ashburton District Council) and a Marshall NO. 59534. In the past some AR&PS members have loaned their engines to the museum for extended periods, but these have since gone elsewhere.
The Society has a Portable Engine of Marshall, Sons & Co. in their collection, which is currently privately owned.
Portables
Also: