Kingston Flyer (train)

Kingston Flyer
The Kingston Flyer approaching the terminus at Fairlight
Locale	New Zealand
Terminus	Kingston
Commercial operations
Name	Kingston Branch
Built by	Southland Provincial Council (to 1870) Otago Provincial Council (1870–1876) Department of Public Works (1877–1878)
Original gauge	3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm)
Preserved operations
Owned by	Kingston Acquisitions
Operated by	Kingston Flyer Steamtrain
Stations	2
Length	13.69 kilometres (8.51 mi)
Preserved gauge	3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm)
Commercial history
1886	Kingston Flyer name first used for train between Gore and Kingston after nationalisation of the Waimea Plains Railway.
4 October 1937	End of regular passenger services.
1957 or 1958	End of holiday season passenger services.
21 December 1971	Re-opened to summer season vintage trains.
Closed to passengers	17 April 1979
Closed	25 November 1979
Preservation history
18 December 1982	Kingston – Fairlight re-opened to summer season vintage trains.
1 December 1992	Operation sold to NZ Rail.
2011	Operation sold to private owner, David Bryce. Services restarted after a two-year lay up.

The Kingston Flyer is a vintage steam train in the South Island of New Zealand at the southern end of Lake Wakatipu. It used 14 kilometres of preserved track that once formed a part of the Kingston Branch. It suspended operation in December 2012 due to locomotive problems. Services resumed later that month following the return of the railway's second steam locomotive. However it then ceased once again and various assets were sold off. Trains and rolling stock are currently, mid-2014, out of use at the end of the line in Kingston. On February 2017 it was reported that ownership of the service had been sold to local investors aiming to revive the service as a tourist attraction.

Originally, Kingston Flyer was a passenger express train between Kingston, Gore, Invercargill, and less frequently, Dunedin. It was operated by the New Zealand Railways Department from the 1890s to 1957.

The Kingston Flyer was introduced in the late 1890s as New Zealand recovered from the Long Depression of the 1880s. During the Long Depression, slow mixed trains that carried both passengers and freight had served the Kingston Branch and Waimea Plains Railway, daily in some years and only a few times per week in others. However, as the economy was revitalised, the Railways Department sought to increase services on the two lines. The government acquired the Waimea Plains Railway and incorporated it into the national network. The Kingston Branch ran north-south between Invercargill and Kingston, while the Waimea Plains Railway diverged from the branch in Lumsden and ran eastwards, meeting the Main South Line in Gore. Mixed services operated to a higher frequency, and dedicated passenger trains were introduced. These services came to be known as the Kingston Flyer, especially the Gore-Kingston services across the Waimea Plains.