Tourist Train

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32361, 29 July 1970, Page 32

Tourist Train

(N.Z. Press Association) INVERCARGILL, July 28. A gleaming AB-class steam engine pulling a rake of three or four ancient, but well restored, open-ended carriages filled with dining, wining, photographtaking tourists may soon be a common sight between Lumsden and Kingston. The service was suggested by the General Manager of Railways (Mr I. Thomas) to keep open the 92-year-old Northern Southland line. Announcing the plan to a meeting in Lumsden today on the future of the Lums-den-Kingston and Waimea Plains lines, the Minister of Railways (Mr Gordon)* said that details of the proposal had to be worked out Two AB-class locomotives were available in good order, and three or four old carriages with open-end platforms and fluted

wooden aides would complete the train. Mr Gordon said he envisaged engines “polished up the way they used to be in the 1880 s,” and a buffet car, with a bar. Tourists, he said, would transfer from their buses, on which they would reembark at the end of their rail journey. It would be the only steam train service tn New Zealand. Similar services overseas, particularly in the United States, attracted plenty of traffic. The Lumsden-Kingston line was very suitable for the venture. .It was on a main tourist route, and it was not too long. Emphasising the attraction of steam trains to tourists, Mr Gordon recalled that the Queen, during her recent visit, had asked him if a future itinerary for her and the younger members of her family could include such a ride.