The photos in this post show a vintage steam train called the Kingston Flyer in New Zealand and were taken in May 2003 when she was still giving rides as a tourist train on the south island of New Zealand near Lake Wakatipu.
The Kingston Flyer
I came upon these photos as I was searching through a large selection of Kodachrome colour slides taken in May 2003 in New Zealand. The slides have recently been donated to the site, and I'm sorting through many thousands of photos to see which would be suitable for inclusion, and how they should be presented.
When I saw these four photos I decided to include them in a dedicated post because they are all nice photos, and after I did a bit of research on the Kingston Flyer I discovered the line is not currently running and therefore the pictures have a certain historical interest.
It seems the line had a rather chequered history in the 1980s and 1990s and appears to have stopped operating a few years after these pictures were taken. At the moment there are plans to re-start the service, but no definite timeframe has been announced.
I'm not sure of the current whereabouts of the train pictured here, but for enthusiasts (who probably already know this) the engine is apparently a NZR AB class engine.
The four photos below all show the train in the same general location near a building which I've assumed was one of the stations on the line the train operated on. A well as being nice photos of the train itself, they also show what spectacular scenery the train operated in.
