Silver Stream Railway is a

heritage railway A heritage railway or heritage railroad (US usage) is a railway operated as living history to re-create or preserve railway scenes of the past. Heritage railways are often old railway lines preserved in a state depicting a period (or periods) i ...

Silverstream Silverstream is a suburb of Upper Hutt in New Zealand, just under 7 km south-west of the Upper Hutt CBD. It is in the lower (southern) part of the North Island of New Zealand at the southern end of Upper Hutt, close to the Taitā Gorge, ...

in the

Hutt Valley The Hutt Valley (or 'The Hutt') is the large area of fairly flat land in the Hutt River valley in the Wellington region of New Zealand. Like the river that flows through it, it takes its name from Sir William Hutt, a director of the New Zeala ...

near

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 ...

, New Zealand. It regularly operates preserved

New Zealand Railways Department The New Zealand Railways Department, NZR or NZGR (New Zealand Government Railways) and often known as the "Railways", was a government department charged with owning and maintaining New Zealand's railway infrastructure and operating the railway ...

locomotives along a restored section of the

Hutt Valley Line The Hutt Valley Line is the electrified train service operated by Transdev Wellington on behalf of Metlink on the section of the Wairarapa Line railway between Wellington and Upper Hutt, New Zealand. History Construction The Hutt Valley lin ...

(part of the

Wairarapa Line The Wairarapa Line is a secondary railway line in the south-east of the North Island of New Zealand. The line runs for , connects the capital city Wellington with the Palmerston North - Gisborne Line at Woodville, via Lower Hutt, Upper Hutt ...

) before a deviation was built in 1954.

History

The beginnings of Silver Stream Railway were in 1967 when the Wellington branch of the New Zealand Railway and Locomotive Society began a collection of

locomotive A locomotive or engine is a rail transport vehicle that provides the Power (physics), motive power for a train. If a locomotive is capable of carrying a payload, it is usually rather referred to as a multiple unit, Motor coach (rail), motor ...

s and

rolling stock The term rolling stock in the rail transport industry refers to railway vehicles, including both powered and unpowered vehicles: for example, locomotives, freight and passenger cars (or coaches), and non-revenue cars. Passenger vehicles can b ...

. Tracklaying on the old

formation Formation may refer to: Linguistics * Back-formation, the process of creating a new lexeme by removing or affixes * Word formation, the creation of a new word by adding affixes Mathematics and science * Cave formation or speleothem, a secondar ...

of the Hutt Valley Line did not begin until 1977. The collection of locomotives and rolling stock had previously been stored at a site by the

Gracefield Branch The Gracefield Branch is a 1.6 km long, gauge industrial line from its junction with the Wairarapa Line at Woburn in the Wellington region of New Zealand's North Island to its terminus at the southern end of the Hutt Workshops yard. Th ...

in Seaview, and this was transferred to the present Silverstream site in 1984. The official opening of the full track took place on 15 February 1986.

List of locomotives

Rolling stock

The railway owns an assortment of rolling stock, some in operational condition while others are awaiting or under restoration. The railway has a wide selection of rolling stock and some of the items are rather rare. One of the most notable items of rolling stock is a 50' passenger carriage of the Wellington and Manawatu Railway (WMR), No. 48, later NZR A 1126, under restoration by the NZR&LS at the North End Shed. Although four WMR passenger carriages are known to exist, this is the only one under restoration. WMR No. 50 (NZR A 1130) is also stored at the railway, unrestored.

List of rolling stock

Operation

Trains run from 11am till 4pm on the 1st and 3rd Sundays of the month for most of the year except June, July, August and December when the railway is only open on the first Sunday of these months. In addition the railway is open on selected public holiday Mondays and is available for private charters throughout the year. There are several special event days held during the year, where multiple trains are run, and visitors are offered the opportunity to look behind the scenes in the railways workshop and at other locomotives and rolling stock on display.

References

External links

Silver Stream Railway's official website.

{{coord, -41.150864, 174.994946, display=title Rail transport in Wellington Heritage railways in New Zealand Upper Hutt Tourist attractions in the Wellington Region 3 ft 6 in gauge railways in New Zealand 1875 establishments in New Zealand