Pictured with the K92 locomotive, the original Kingston
Flyer, are (from left) Kingston Flyer "patriarch" Russell
Glendinning, Kingston Flyer Steam Train Ltd's Phil Kerr,
Waimea Plains Railway Trust Board trustees Colin Smith,
Neville Simpson, McNeill Distribution manager Mark Shirley,
McNeill Distribution driver Chris McMath and Waimea Plains
Railway Trust Board trustee Bill Sutherland. Photo by
Tracey Roxburgh.
A deafening silence fell yesterday afternoon as the
24-tonne, K92 locomotive, which turns 131 years old on December
13, was shunted on to the back of a McNeills Distribution truck
at Kingston before it left town bound for Mandeville.
A small crowd gathered and watched.
Waimea Plains Railway Trust trustee Neville Simpson said the
locomotive was named the Flyer because it cut the travelling
time from Gore to Kingston from three days to five hours.
Built in 1878 by the Rogers Loco company of New Jersey,
United States, K92 was retrieved from a river in Southland in
1990, where it had been since 1921, used as part of a
stopbank.
It was carefully and lovingly restored by the Te Anau Vintage
Machinery Club, led by Herbie Hall, Ted Roberts and the late
Bill Fahey.
Mr Simpson said the group sold K92 in 1997, and in 1998 it
was bought by the Croydon Aircraft Company, comprising Mr
Simpson and Colin Smith, both from Mandeville, who then
formed the Waimea Plains Railway Trust Board.
The locomotive was a couple of years in Gore being stripped
down and reworked to make it more authentic, and then built
up again.
It spent time at Ferrymead in Christchurch, Ashburton and
Oamaru before being taken to Kingston for its 130th birthday
last year.
Yesterday, it went "home", where it will eventually operate
again on 4km of track as part of a railway museum.
Mr Simpson said the decision to move K92 was primarily due to
the Kingston Flyer receivership.
"There's no operating licence here [in Kingston] any longer;
we haven't got the opportunity to run it here.
"It's always been the plan to have it in Mandeville, for the
railway museum [but] it's not going to be the same operation
as the Kingston Flyer.
"It will complement the [existing] aeroplane museum and
recreate the history of the railway . . .
It will be a different operation to the Kingston Flyer and
wouldn't detract [from it]."
The railway museum, which would cost "hundreds of thousands"
to establish, was in its infancy.
Planning had been completed and consents granted, so it was
now just a matter of raising capital, Mr Simpson said.
"We've already raised some money through the lottery board
and the Community Trust of Southland.
"As we continue to build the railway and the museum, we're
hoping more and more people will come on board."
tracey.roxburgh@odt.co.nz
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