Flyer to return as section of southern rail tour
The Flyer, named for a passenger educate that ran from 1878 till 1957, operated off and on as a heritage train attraction in between 2003 and 2013, travelling involving Kingston and Fairlight.
In 2011, right after a a few-year hiatus, it was revived by the late David Bryce, who put in $1.3million restoring the engines and carriages right before relaunching the procedure.
But it ran for only two summers, and was mothballed until finally a group of Auckland-based investors purchased the coach and associated land and buildings in 2017.
Nowadays it will carry 360 passengers during a distinctive leg of the inaugural Great Southern Coach Tour.
Pounamu Tourism Group controlling director Paul Jackson reported the team experienced been working intently with the Flyer’s engineer, Neville Simpson, to set jointly the tour for the tour functions.
Mr Simpson experienced set in a “huge volume” of operate on the rolling stock, locomotives, and carriages, as well as clearing the tracks and replacing sleepers to permit it to come about, he mentioned.
“[The tour] is genuinely heading to be a excursion of a life span, not just for rail lovers, but all people on board, and 1 of the highlights [of the tour] will no question be the Kingston Flyer.”
Along with the Flyer, the tour groups would journey on trains hauled by a 100-yr-previous steam locomotive and two 1950s heritage locomotives during the two-7 days excursions all over the South Island.
Two tour events set off in the previous couple times, likely in opposite instructions.
Mr Jackson explained one group of 180 started out in Blenheim and would vacation by educate to Invercargill ahead of remaining transported by luxurious coach to Te Anau for two nights.
On the way to Queenstown they would get a journey on the Flyer, expend two nights in the resort, journey by coach to Franz Josef, and then hook up with the TranzAlpine educate assistance and complete in Christchurch.
The other group started out in Christchurch and was accomplishing the reverse excursion.
He claimed the accomplishment of the tour had now influenced Pounamu Tourism to glimpse at jogging more heritage tours to assistance New Zealand’s financial recovery.
“One particular only wants to glance at the United kingdom to see how a lot of thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands of kilos is generated from heritage rail.
“What we’ve realised … is there are so lots of other heritage products that are of interest when you get to just about every town.
“Factors like the Earnslaw and Walter Peak and Kingston Flyer and the Passchendaele locomotive and the transport museum — New Zealand has a phenomenal range of heritage points of interest and people do just definitely enjoy that.”
Mr Jackson approximated the tour was worthy of extra than $2million to the South Island financial state and it was also supporting heritage rail and “using a large amount of persons in the approach”.