The Story Behind The Experience

The story of The Plains Vintage Railway and Historical Museum begins nearly 130 years ago, in May 1878. It was in this year that the first section of the branch line railway that would in time become the 'Mt Somers Branch' and later, operating on the first approximately 3 kilometres - to the old Frasers Road railway crossing -The Plains Railway was laid. The branch was different from a great many of the other branch-line railways built by the New Zealand Government Railways at the time, in that its sole purpose was not the opening up of the land for agricultural activities, but instead for the cartage of lignite coal and lime from deposits behind Mt Somers - an extinct volcano, on the edge of the Southern Alps. The branch was opened in sections, to Westerfield at 13.39 kilometres in April 1880, to Anama at 30.9 kilometres in October 1882 and onto Cavendish at 35.02 kilometres from the junction at Tinwald in March of 1884. The line originally terminated here, on the south bank of the Ashburton River. However, the decision was made to extend the line 2.58 kilometres to the township of Mt Somers, a bridge was built over the Ashburton River and the line opened in October 1885. The termination of the line at this point, still relied on cartage of coal and lime to Mt Somer's township, from the bush tramway built behind the Mountain. For this reason the line was extended a further 5.5 kilometres to Springburn which opened in September 1889, bringing the branches total length to 43.17 kilometres.

The branch operated a daily 'mixed train' - that is to say a train carrying both goods and passengers - for almost half a century, before roading improvements saw the decline in passenger numbers leading to the closure of the line to passengers in 1933. The branch continued to see less and less traffic, until World War II. A military camp was opened at Westerfield which saw military passenger services and and increase in general freight for the duration of the war. However, this traffic increased proved to be a spike, and after the war the traffic returned to its pre-war levels. This led to trains being run from Ashburton, instead of the branches western terminus of Springburn, and a reduction in services to two per week down from daily. Closure of the Mt Somers - Springburn section was first mentioned in 1930, and in 1957 the Railways Department closed this section to all traffic. The continual decrease in traffic saw the entire line closed to traffic in January 1968, however wheat trains continued to run from a small country station named 'Valetta' until April of the same year.

The Ashburton Railway And Preservation Society (ARPS) purchased, on the lines closure, the section of track from just west of the mainline junction to the road and rail crossing on Frasers road. The section from the South Island Main Trunk to the Plains Railway's section, including the mainline turnout, was retained by the Railways Department, later Tranz Rail and now Ontrack. This section used to serve Ravensdown Fertiliser but is now leased from Ontrack by The Plains for the operation of their trains. An agreement was settled on for ARPS to lease land in the Tinwald domain to set up their operational hub for the railway, and The Plains Vintage Railway & Historical Museum was formed.

Several historic buildings were trucked onto the premesis, including the old railway station from Chertsey on the South Island Main Trunk. Other buildings were constructed on site to create a 'Pioneer Village' which includes a Fire Station with appliances covering the history of the district.

Alongside the railway The Plains also operates vintage and historic farm machinery to grow crops on the agricultural land owned by the Museum. This machinery includes traction engines, harversters, ploughs and even an old style Threshing Machine.

The Plains Railway become the center or world-wide attention when in 1981 the Rogers Locomotive Works Built 'K' Class locomotive, 'K'88 or "Washington" as she is named, was returned to steam after being buried in the Oreti River for 50 years for use as a stop-bank and railway protection. What also attracted large amounts of attention was that this restoration was performed largely by one man, the late Bob Anderson.