The Plains Vintage Railway & Historical Museum

This is The Plains Vintage Railway & Historical Museum, a heritage railway and a recreated historic village in Tinwald, New Zealand. The railway, which operates as The Plains Railway, runs for about three kilometers on a rural line that was once part of the Mount Somers Branch. The village and railway show how life was lived in New Zealand's pioneering past.

The Ashburton Railway & Preservation Society Inc. was founded in 1971 with the goal of buying a section of the former Mt Somers Branch to run restored locomotives and preserve heritage farm machinery. They founded this museum and began collecting railway, agricultural, and other local historical items, and they also put up buildings for storage and display. Some of the most significant buildings, like the cottage, church, and railway station, were moved here from other locations.

You might notice K 88 in active service here today. It's quite a story. The K 88 Trust Board was formed in 1995 to restore K 88 and possibly K 94. They leased the locomotives from the Ashburton Railway & Preservation Society in 1996 and bought the former Ashburton Countdown Supermarket in January 1996 as a restoration base. Fundraising for K 88 was underway by September 1996, and the restoration began in 1997. K 88 had been in storage with a condemned boiler since 1987 due to thinness in the firebox, and its original tender tank was badly rusted. A new tender water tank was built in Ashburton, and a new belpaire boiler, costing $151,000, was built by Lyttelton Engineering Limited. In December 1998, K 95's tender frame and bogies were recovered from the Ōreti River to be used for K 88. The new boiler took a year and four months to complete and was fitted to K 88's frame on July 1, 2000. It was first steamed on November 14, 2001, and recommissioned on March 30, 2002, showing off a new kaleidoscope design it wore in February 1878. K 88 is notable for hauling New Zealand's first intercity express, being one of the original Kingston Flyer locomotives, the first locomotive in the world restored from a riverbed, and New Zealand's oldest ex-NZR tender locomotive.

K 94, on the other hand, never resumed service, even though its restoration started in 1986. Many of its good parts were used for K 88. K 94 is currently behind the carriage shed and can be used for comparison, illustrating the condition in which K 88 was recovered.

On January 17, 2015, an arsonist set fire to the old workshop building here, destroying most of the contents like tools, parts, and potato equipment. Five fire engines and a water tanker responded. The fire was labeled suspicious, and a police investigation is ongoing. The locomotive shed next to it was damaged but has since been made safe.

The Plains Railway gained international attention when K 88 was recovered on January 19, 1974, from the Branxholme Locomotive Dump in the Ōreti River. It was transported here in July 1974 and fully restored by November 27, 1982. This recovery set a precedent for other enthusiasts to retrieve locomotives from where they were dumped, including two other K-class engines. K 94 was recovered by a private owner and brought here, but its restoration was canceled, and it remains unrestored.