It has been a long time coming.
The train received resource consent to operate commercially last July, soon getting charter trips up and running.
Public services are set to finally resume on Sunday, September 18 for three months.
Trips along the 14km line, from Kingston to Fairlight and return, will run each Sunday at 10.30am and 1.30pm.
The train, which dates back to the 1870s, was originally a passenger service which operated between Kingston and the Main South Line in Gore, before running as a heritage service a century later.
A series of ownership changes through the 2000s saw several revivals of the heritage operation, including a takeover by the late David Bryce, who spent $1.3 million restoring the train’s engines and carriages, before it was mothballed in 2015.
Two years later, a group of Auckland-based investors bought the train and associated land and buildings.
Subsequently, a refurbishment of the Fairlight railway terminus has been finished, and further restoration of the rolling stock and railway tracks, led by Kingston Flyer Ltd director Neville Simpson, means the steam train can return to operation.
