Operation
When the Waimea Plains Railway opened, New Zealand was slipping into the Long Depression and traffic justified trains only three days a week. As the Kingston Branch ran on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, the Waimea Plains Railway ran on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. When the national economy improved in the 1890s, so did services on the line, and a passenger express ran from Kingston to Gore three days a week; this became known as the "Kingston Flyer" and a tourist service now replicates this on 14 kilometres of track between Kingston and Fairlight on the Kingston Branch. Although the preserved Kingston Flyer uses two AB class locomotives, the initial Flyers used K and V class engines.
Passenger numbers declined in 1937 when regular services were withdrawn on the Kingston Branch north of Lumsden, and although the possibility of railcars was considered, the line's passenger services ceased on 17 September 1945. Like the Kingston Branch, the Waimea Plains Railway had regularly seen a significant number of passenger excursions on top of normal services throughout its history, and these continued for over a decade after 1945. 1956 was the last year passenger trains ran each way on the same day over the Waimea Plains, and the last excursions came during the next year's Easter holiday period.
Freight trains initially operated out of Lumsden and ran five days a week until 1956. Services were re-organised to operate from Gore in 1959 and operated thrice-weekly. In 1930 and 1952, the line was not considered to be a branch and thus was not assessed in the branch line commissions of those two years, but in 1967, it was announced that its future was under review. The district negotiated a reprieve for three years, promising extra traffic, and DJ class diesel locomotives replaced steam locomotives on the line in January 1969, but less than 24,000 tonnes were carried annually and closure of most of the line came on 1 April 1971. The 16 kilometres from Lumsden to a silo at Balfour remained open for the transport of wheat, but the quantity was not enough to justify the continued existence even of the truncated portion of the line, and it closed on 15 January 1978.
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