WAB 794 on excursion between Bunnythorpe and Palmerston North - 31 August 2003

The Feilding and District Steam Rail Society, also known as Feilding Steam Rail, is a railway preservation society located in

Feilding Feilding ( mi, Aorangi) is a town in the Manawatū District of the North Island of New Zealand. It is located on State Highway 54, 20 kilometres north of Palmerston North. The town is the seat of the Manawatū District Council. Feilding has ...

in the Manawatu region of New Zealand. The society has restored or is restoring a number of locomotives and wagons once used on New Zealand's

national rail network In United States railroading, the term national rail network, sometimes termed "U.S. rail network", refers to the entire network of interconnected standard gauge rail lines in North America. It does not include most subway or light rail lines. F ...

, with its star attraction being a W^AB class

tank locomotive A tank locomotive or tank engine is a steam locomotive that carries its water in one or more on-board water tanks, instead of a more traditional tender. Most tank engines also have bunkers (or fuel tanks) to hold fuel; in a tender-tank locom ...

, W^AB 794. The society also has X 442 and F 163. Although nine members of the F class are preserved, this is the only one in mainline running condition. The society also possesses two small diesel shunters, DSA 227 and TR 13, along with a large mainline diesel locomotive, DA 1401, and a varied collection of rolling stock including both passenger and freight wagons. The society's depot includes the

turntable A phonograph, in its later forms also called a gramophone (as a trademark since 1887, as a generic name in the UK since 1910) or since the 1940s called a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogu ...

from

Palmerston Palmerston may refer to: People * Christie Palmerston (c. 1851–1897), Australian explorer * Several prominent people have borne the title of Viscount Palmerston ** Henry Temple, 1st Viscount Palmerston (c. 1673–1757), Irish nobleman an ...

, a town in north

Otago Otago (, ; mi, Ōtākou ) is a region of New Zealand located in the southern half of the South Island administered by the Otago Regional Council. It has an area of approximately , making it the country's second largest local government reg ...

in the

South Island The South Island, also officially named , is the larger of the two major islands of New Zealand in surface area, the other being the smaller but more populous North Island. It is bordered to the north by Cook Strait, to the west by the Tasman ...

, as well as the Taonui station building that used to be located near Feilding on the

North Island Main Trunk The North Island Main Trunk (NIMT) is the main railway line in the North Island of New Zealand, connecting the capital city Wellington with the country's largest city, Auckland. The line is long, built to the New Zealand rail gauge of and ser ...

railway at the junction with the short-lived

Taonui Branch The Taonui Branch was a minor branch line railway in New Zealand's national network. Located in the Manawatū District of the North Island, it opened in 1879 and operated until 1895. Construction In the late 1870s, sleepers were needed for t ...

. Feilding Steam Rail operates excursions from its Feilding base to locations such as

Wanganui Whanganui (; ), also spelled Wanganui, is a city in the Manawatū-Whanganui region of New Zealand. The city is located on the west coast of the North Island at the mouth of the Whanganui River, New Zealand's longest navigable waterway. Whangan ...

Ohakune Ohakune is a small town at the southern end of Tongariro National Park, close to the southwestern slopes of the active volcano Mount Ruapehu, in the North Island of New Zealand. A rural service town known as New Zealand's Carrot Capital, Ohak ...

, Dannevirke, and

Pahiatua , image_skyline = Market day pahiatua 1st dec 2007 1.JPG , imagesize = , image_caption = , image_flag = , flag_size = , image_seal = , seal_size = , image_shi ...

. When severe rainfall and floods caused destructive slips in the Manawatu Gorge in 2004, the society operated sightseeing trains through the Gorge.

Locomotives, Railcars and Rolling Stock

Steam locomotives

* F 163, named "Ivanhoe" built by Dübs & Company, builder's number: 1542. Withdrawn from NZR in service , arrived at Feilding and District Steam Rail Society . Entered NZR in July 1881. In 1963 it was named

Ivanhoe ''Ivanhoe: A Romance'' () by Walter Scott is a historical novel published in three volumes, in 1819, as one of the Waverley novels. Set in England in the Middle Ages, this novel marked a shift away from Scott’s prior practice of setting st ...

(formerly used by F 241). Withdrawn on 10 October 1964. It was placed into storage at

Arthurs Pass Arthur's Pass, previously called Camping Flat then Bealey Flats, and for some time officially Arthurs Pass, is a township in the Southern Alps of the South Island of New Zealand, located in the Selwyn district. It is a popular base for explori ...

until being used by the NZR for special services. In February 1979 it was leased to the AR&PS for display over a weekend. It was then restored to operation condition in the 1980s. During this time it was used in

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by me ...

. It was purchased by the

Rail Heritage Trust of New Zealand The Rail Heritage Trust of New Zealand is a charitable trust established in October 1991. At the time the New Zealand Railways Corporation New Zealand Railways Corporation (NZRC) is the state-owned enterprise that owns the land beneath KiwiRail' ...

in 1993. In 2002 it was placed on lease to the F&DSRS.

External links

Official website of the Feilding and District Steam Rail Society
Heritage railways in New Zealand Tourist attractions in Manawatū-Whanganui Steam Rail Society {{NewZealand-rail-transport-stub