Excursion train to visit Canterbury

Press, 22 October 1981, Page 3

Excursion train to visit Canterbury

A specially rebuilt excursion train will travel Canterbury railway, lines over the next 10 days. The Otago excursion train, under charter to the Ferrymead Railway, will arrive in Christchurch tomorrow to be used for a series of excursion trips.

Some of these will coincide with the Railway and Locomotive Society’s' annual convention, which will be held in Christchurch at the weekend.

More than 120 delegates from throughout New Zealand and Australia will attend. Railway preservation and travel are among the topics to be discussed.

On Saturday the first of the excursion trips will start. They' will be open to the public’;

A shuttle service would run between Christchurch station and Lyttelton, starting at 10 a.m. on Saturday, said the president of the society’s Christchurch branch, Mr Colin Dash.

Charges would be $3 for adults and $2 for children. An all-day trip to Kaikoura would run on Sunday with seats costing $lB and $l2.

Then on Monday the train would travel to' Cass, near Arthur’s Pass, on the rugged Midland line. Fares were $l2 and $B.

On Sunday, November 1. the train would again travel on the Midland line, this time to Arthur’s Pass. This all-day trip would cost $l5 and $lO.

Mr Dash said the train comprised 11 old-type wooden carriages which had been extensively rebuilt: These would be hauled by a Railways diesel locomotive.

The train was an attractive brown and yellow, and an extra carriage had been fitted out as a buffet car, Mr Dash said.

• Profits from the excursion trips would be used for restoring and rebuilding the Ferrymead railway.