Pleasant Point Museum and Railway

Pleasant Point train station .

Pleasant Point Museum and Railway is a railway museum and heritage railway in the town of Pleasant Point , west of Timaru in the Canterbury region , on the South Island of New Zealand .

history

With the opening of the railway line from Timaru on December 24, 1875, Pleasant Point was the end point of the railway line for over a year until the line was continued. Until the closure of the Fairlie branch line on March 2, 1968, the station was used as a typical rural train station.

After the railway line was closed, a traditional club was formed with the aim of maintaining the original Pleasant Point station building, built in 1875, with the ticket office built in the 1930s. In the end, however, the association took care of the entire station facilities, the approximately 2.5 kilometers long railway line and a small depot at the other end of the line.

The depot (left) with a view of the almost 2.5 kilometers in the direction of Pleasant Point.

Museum exhibits

The Pleasant Point Railway Museum has the following vehicles:

• a NZR Ab class tender steam locomotive No. 699 from 1922
• a NZR D class steam storage locomotive No. 16 from 1878
• an NZR TR class diesel locomotive No. 18 from 1936
• a diesel locomotive from 1955
• a replica of a NZR RM class (Model T-Ford) motor trolley

The Model T-Ford motor trolley is a replica of a test vehicle from 1925 that was scrapped in the 1930s. The vehicle is a rarity, as there is only a second replica of a Model T-Ford motor trolley in the USA , but built to different specifications. New Zealand's only so-called "half bird cage" (observation car) from 1895 is part of the railroad car fleet. In addition to numerous railway memorabilia, the museum also has an older computer model and operates an Old Time Movie Theater .

Facilities of the museum railway

Right in the center of Pleasant Point is the station with the historic station building. The signal box, which is now located right next to the station building, was originally in a different location. A transfer track as well as a turntable and a platform roof complete the fenced-in facility. At the end of the 2.5 kilometer long railway line, which runs directly parallel to a street, there are two sheds for storing the vehicles, a turntable, a loading ramp and a small platform.

The museum trains run on the 2.5-kilometer route during the summer months and during the holiday season.

literature

• Geoffrey B. Churchman, Tony Hurst: The Railways of New Zealand - A Journey Through History . HarperCollins Publishers (New Zealand) (for 1st edition 1990), transpress New Zealand Wellington (2nd edition 2000), ISBN 0-908876-20-3 .
• David Leitch, Brian Scott: Exploring New Zealand's Ghost Railways . Grantham House, 1998, revised edition (without ISBN).

Web links

• About Us . Pleasant Point Railway Museum,accessed December 30, 2015. 
• Grown Like Topsy . Employment Matters, December 2004, archived from the original onMay 1, 2005; Retrieved on September 5, 2014(English, original website no longer available (article about the origins of the railway)). 

Coordinates: 44 ° 15 ′ 40 ″  S , 171 ° 7 ′ 52 ″  E