NZ/Oz Steam Recommendations

Does anyone have any suggestions for these two countries.

Many thanks.

 

NZ is a big place, so it depends where you are going. Also, I'd recommend pre-planning, because a number of railways only have limited opening days.

Anyway, a few suggestions:

Glenbrook - North Island, near Auckland
Running railway, about 5 miles in length.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/jamessquared/albums/72157633093482314

Motat - in Auckland
General transport and technology museum, including a railway collection. There is a running line, though it wasn't running when I was there. The museum is split over two sites a couple of kilometres apart, with a tram linking the two.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/jamessquared/albums/72157633093337862 - I'll dig around for other photos, as those aren't very representative of the railway collection!

Fielding and District (near Palmerston North)
Mostly involved with mainline running, but you can go round their depot at times ...
http://steamrail.org.nz/main.php

Fell Museum, Featherstone (south end of North Island)
https://www.flickr.com/photos/jamessquared/albums/72157633444044502

Steam Incorporated, Paekakariki (near Wellington, South Island)
Another mainline steam base you can go round
http://www.steaminc.org.nz/

South Island

Ferrymead, near Christchurch
Not specifically Steam; think Beamish on a small scale, i.e. with a restored town, trams etc., but there are railway and aircraft collections as well
http://ferrymead.org.nz/

Not steam either, but there are a number of decent scenic rail excursions. Tranzalpine (Christchurch to grey town via Arthur's Pass) and, in the far south starting at Dunedin, the Tairi Gorge are worth doing.

Can't really give any recommendations in Australia, except the Puffing Billy Railway (near Melbourne) and the Ipswich railway Museum - years since I visited either.

Tom

 

nAssuming you have not been there lots of times, I would see steam as ancillary to the plenty of other things you can do/see. If you are in Melbourne, the Puffing Billy is good, and there is the ARHS museum in Melbourne. Melbourne has trams of course. If in Sydney, there is a pleasant rail trip to Picton for the museum at Thirlmere, there is a tram museum not too far out of town, plus you can kill a little time at the Power House museum. Check out if there are any mainline specials. You could also visit the Zigzag Railway at Lithgow, but not my favourite. If you happen to find yourself in Cairns, the trip up to Kuranda is good, but diesel rather than steam. There are a few things things to do around Perth apart from visiting the Quokkas.

Last time I was in NZ, we stayed in Wellington, but got there on the daily pax on the North Island Main Trunk from Auckland, which is thoroughly recommended. We also enjoyed walking up the old Rimutaka incline, there is the Fell loco museum nearby, and there is a pleasant enthusiast tram operation near Wellington. We did not get to see the operation at Silverstream despite being near there, I think it was not open on the days we had available. The Trans Alpine from Christchurch across the middle of the South Island is very good (diesel), there is a museum at Ferrymead and there is an operation a couple of hours north of Christchurch whose name I can't remember.

 

Weka Pass Railway, at a guess - though that was operated by an English Electric built diesel when I went on it back in 1993........

Taleri Gorge Railway out of Dunedin is worth a trip, though its another diesel line.

 

That's it, English Electric Dg's. There is a preserved double Fairlie at Dunedin but I never got down that far. I don't know if any steam locos remain in the various dumps where they were tipped into river defences.

 

One of the river dumped ones was restored and living in a shed at Gore, South Island (Rogers built 2-4-2, K92) when I last went to NZ in 2000. The owner of an aircraft restoration company (Croydon Aircraft Company, I think) owned it and it was destined for a planned recreation of a station adjacent to his airfield on an old trackbed.
Was on an aviation tour of NZ at that time, so we got into the shed to see it!

 

Zig Zag Railway, currently not running check website http://www.zigzagrailway.com.au/ for any developments.

 

We did South Island a few years back and visited a few heritage sites and operations. Tom is correct, that some of the lines have infrequent operation, or only use steam at weekends. Here are a few observations:

South Island is fabulous. Make sure you enjoy its natural splendours, not just the trains.

Shantytown on the west coast, near Greymouth, is another mini-Beamish, recreating a gold mining community. It has a steam-operated railway. When we visited it was worked by an old Sharp Stewart 0-6-0T. They also have a Shay and a Climax amongst others. Well worth a visit.

http://www.shantytown.co.nz/

Kingston Flyer was superb, worked by an Ab pacific and a rake of authentic coaches in lovely scenery. But last I heard they had suspended services due to financial problems.

Otago Settlers Museum in Dunedin has a Fairlie and a large 4-6-2 (or 4-8-4) on display. They are behind glass ... not a great display.

Ferrymead - steam does operate here, depending when you visit, e.g. when we visited on a Sunday. An electric tram was also operating. Lots of interest at this museum.

Christchurch Tramway - a circular route around Christchurch town centre operated by vintage trams. Well worth a ride.

We saw a couple of other operations, but being a weekday they were not open.

 

Thanks Tom; I off to NZ on 18th and may be able to pick up some of these. Last time I called at a centre alongside SH1 on the Canterbury Plains where the old volunteer in residence could hardly have been ruder about both the NZ Government and the nationalised railway. I put a few dollars in his box!

 

Pitchi Richi, museum in Adalade. Melbourne, Puffing Billy and Geelong. Tasmania. Don river and Queenstown for the Abt.

 

Geelong - do you mean the Bellarine Railway or a Steamrail special? The Bellarine railway is OK if in the area, but I am not sure it would be much of a factor in the decision to spend 18 hours on a 'plane. They do (or did) however hire bikes so you can do a one way trip by bike and back by railway to make it a bit more of a general experience / appealing to the family. Never got to Tassie but the Mount Lyell/Wilderness Railway looks very interesting.

 

The Puffing Billy is excellent, but make sure you catch a train that goes all the way to Gembrook.

The Victorian Goldfields Railway is also well worth visiting - Castlemaine is easily reached by electric train from Melbourne and Maldon is a delightful small town for a stroll/potter and lunch.

I enjoyed the Zig Zag Railway too - but that was before the fire.

 

I agree about the Victorian Goldfields Railway Michael - a very typical VR branch line but you wont get there by electric train as the Bendigo line is not electrified. That said it is only a two hour train journey from Melbourne. It is well worth going on from Castlemaine to Bendigo which among other delights still retains part of its electric tram system (if you like that sort of thing).

I do not know when you intend to visit but remember that at this time of year it is high summer and certainly in Victoria steam activity is severely restricted due to fire risk

Peter James

 

I went in the shop at Lakeside; the couple running it were not from those parts so I had a guess at Bolton. I was miles out; they were from Blackburn.

 

There's more than you think in New Zealand. I was on South Island just over a year ago and found far more than I expected to.

There's the Nelson Railway in Founders Park, Nelson which is on virgin ground and has been all diesel but where they were in the last stages of restoring Wf403 to steam. (http://www.nelsonrailwaysociety.co.nz/)


Shantytown at Greymouth as mentioned is worth a visit and has steam most days. (http://www.shantytown.co.nz/)


Oamaru Steam and Rail Society operate on around a mile of line around the harbour and have a little Hudswell Clark 0-4-0ST, Oarmaru itself is a delightful colonial town with lots of historic buildings around the harbour and is the home of Steampunk HQ. There's also the remains of several locos that have been recovered from the foreshore where they were dumped many years ago to prevent erosion. (http://www.oamaru-steam.org.nz/)


Ferrymead at Christchurch is excellent and has trams as well as the railway. Also Christchurch itself has a tramway around the city centre which offers a good way to tour the city with commentary from the drivers.


I'm not sure what's happening with the Trans Alpine from Greymouth to Christchurch at the moment as there have been bad wild fires between Cass and Springfield that have damaged bridges so not only is this route closed but also the line up the east coast from Christchurch to Picton because of the earthquake late last year.

Blenheim has a 2ft gauge line running from the town centre to the aviation museum, they are also in the last throes of restoring a loco to steam although it's usually diesel operated. (http://brrnz.webs.com/)

The Kingston Flier hasn't operated for several years but all the stock is still there and easily viewable if you stop for a look, it's also a lovely quiet town on the bottom end of lake Wakatipu. Also if you're in the area take a trip on the TSS Earnslaw from Queenstown, a beautiful 1912 steamship with two triple expansion engines and a friendly chief engineer.


There's also plinthed logging locos of various and unusual designs to be found on the west coast if you know where to look (take a look here for more info http://www.trainweb.org/nzgearedlocomotives/)

I missed out on the Plains Railway at Ashburton as we didn't have time to stop (http://www.plainsrailway.co.nz/) but did find a nicely plinthed little Andrew Barclay 0-4-0ST in Havelock whilst driving through.


We didn't get to North Island but the one thing I would say about NZ is how friendly and welcoming everyone was where ever we went and it's a country I will definitely be returning to.

 

If your interests go beyond railways, the Waimarie Paddle Steamer in Wanganui (west coast of North Island) does daily (I think) steam-powered cruises. There's a nice museum there as well.

http://waimarie.co.nz/about/waimarie-paddle-steamer/

There is also the "Edwin Fox" sailing ship at Picton (top of South Island, where the ferries from Wellington arrive), which is supposedly the 9th oldest surviving ship in the world:

http://www.edwinfoxsociety.com

Tom