page_title: Railway preservation in New Zealand
section_title: 1985 to 2000
hierarchical_section_title: Railway preservation in New Zealand / History / 1985 to 2000
caption_attribution_description: English: NZR Lamp on the Weka Pass Railway.
context_page_description: Railway preservation in New Zealand is the preservation of historically significant facets of New Zealand's rail transport history. The earliest recorded preservation attempt took place in 1925, although the movement itself did not start properly until 1960.
context_section_description: Although the pace of preservation slowed into the early 1980s and beyond, several more groups were established to preserve longer branch lines as well as the more traditional museum-focused operation. The Weka Pass Railway in North Canterbury, the Bay of Islands Vintage Railway in Northland, the Otago-based Dunedin Railways, and the Goldfields Steam Train Society in the Bay of Plenty were all founded during the early 1980s using stock retired by NZR. In the case of Dunedin Railways (formerly known as Taieri Gorge Railway Limited), it was created by the OETT and the Dunedin City Council to preserve the 64-kilometre section of the Otago Central railway between Middlemarch and Wingatui through the Taieri Gorge for passenger operations after the New Zealand Railways Corporation closed the line in 1990.
  In 1988, numerous preservation groups contributed to the Ferrymead 125 celebrations in Christchurch to mark 125 years since the first public railway opened in New Zealand.
  With the retirement of the first-generation diesel locomotives, the Diesel Traction Group was founded in Christchurch in 1983 with an aim to preserve these locomotives. By 1990 this group had four locomotives at their Ferrymead base, all of which were built by English Electric. Other groups and individuals started to acquire other first-generation diesel locomotives to add to their fleet, such as Steam Incorporated's two Dᴬ class diesel locomotives which were purchased in 1988. Other individuals also purchased similar locomotives for preservation and based them at established heritage sites. NZR also selected numerous diesel and electric locomotives, along with two carriages, for inclusion in their own Heritage Fleet.
  During this time, Ian Welch's Mainline Steam Trust emerged as a heritage operator with its fleet of preserved ex-NZR steam locomotives. This period also witnessed the creation of other groups such as the Oamaru District Steam & Rail Society, the Grand Tapawera Railroad Company/Nelson Railway Society, the narrow-gauge Blenheim Riverside Railway, and special interest groups such as the Pahiatua Railcar Society. Some groups, such as the Gisborne City Vintage Railway and the Feilding and District Steam Rail Society were formed to preserve a specific locomotive, in this case Wᴬ 165 at Gisborne and the NZR&LS' Wᴬᴮ 794 at Ferrymead.
  Very few new groups emerged from 1990 to 2000. NZR's successor, Tranz Rail, did give further rolling stock to heritage groups, although a shortage of stock did see some of this recalled temporarily, while heritage diesel locomotives were leased from a private individual to alleviate the reduced number of locomotives. During this time, the NFRS became the Federation of Rail Organisations of New Zealand (FRONZ) to reflect its railway and tramway group members. In 1991 the Rail Heritage Trust of New Zealand was formed with former NZR executive Euan McQueen as its chair, to preserve former NZR buildings and rolling stock, which was leased to other groups. The Rail Heritage trust pioneered the concept of "heritage rolling stock" which was leased to various preservation groups around New Zealand by Tranz Rail. Over 200 such items of rolling stock are now leased.
caption: NZR Lamp on the Weka Pass Railway.
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