Pahiatua Railcar Society

The Pahiatua Railcar Society (PRS) is a society located in Pahiatua, New Zealand, dedicated to the restoration of railcars and other locomotives and rolling stock formerly operated by the New Zealand Railways Department. It is notable for possessing the sole remaining examples of the RM class 88 seater and Wairarapa railcars.

Standard railcar RM 31 in the yard at Pahiatua station.

Having restored Standard class railcar RM31 to mainline standard for use on the national railway network,[1] the Society ran its first revenue services on the Wairarapa Line at an open day on 12 February 2012.[2]

Infrastructure
RM 31 in the Pahiatua yard with the station building and platform to the left.

The PRS is based at Pahiatua's railway station on the Wairarapa Line and has preserved the station building, goods shed, and surrounds. The railway station is a wooden structure that dates from 1971 and was built to replace a former building from 1897 that had been demolished. It is one of the last wooden stations built by the New Zealand Railways Department and one of the few remaining examples of its type. The goods shed dates from 1897 and is one of the larger rural goods sheds to survive in New Zealand. The PRS has added its own structures to the station precinct: a railcar shed for storage and restoration work, and another shed to provide shelter for the society's rolling stock.

Rolling stock

NZR Railcars
Key: In service, Mainline Certified In service Under overhaul/restoration Stored Static display Scrapped
Original class

and number

 Name Builder Year Built Arrived Notes
RM 1 Nissho Iwai 1972 2020
RM 2 Nissho Iwai 1972 2020
RM 3 Nissho Iwai 1972 2020
RM 5 Mahuhu NZR Hutt

Workshops

 1936 1992 Leased from Silver Stream Railway
RM 31 Tokomaru NZR Hutt

Workshops

 1938 2001
RM 34 Tainui NZR Hutt

Workshops

 1938 2019
RM 121 Drewry Car Company 1956 200? Owned by the RM 133 Railcar Trust Board
RM 133 Drewry Car Company 1956 2002 Owned by the RM 133 Railcar Trust Board

Diesel locomotives
Key: In service, Mainline Certified In service Under overhaul/restoration Stored Static display Scrapped
Original class

and number

 Builder Year Built Arrived Notes
TR 36 Drewry Car Company 1939
TR 160 A & G Price 1959 2004
PWD D 597 1937

Wagons
Key: In service, Mainline Certified In service Under overhaul/restoration Stored Static display Scrapped
Original class

and number

 Type Year Built Notes
Bc 70 4 wheel cement wagon 1963
Jc 4857 4 wheel sheep wagon 1967
Kp 2714 4 wheel steel box wagon 196?
La 15097 4 wheel highsided wagon 1920
Lb 3217 4 wheel highsided wagon 1976
Lb 2854 4 wheel highsided wagon 197?
Mc 2383 4 wheel lowside wagon 1967
Mcc 2023 4 wheel motorcar wagon 1941
Rb 558 Bogie highside wagon 1952
T 218 Bogie cattle wagon 1965
Ub 1208 Bogie flat wagon 1950 Supporting No. 1 end of RM121
Ur 1953 Bogie flat wagon 1964 Supporting No. 2 end of RM121
Uc 824 Bogie tank wagon 1928
Vr 20 Bogie insulated wagon 196?
W 1235 4 wheel insulated box wagon 1960
Yb 581 4 wheel ballast wagon 1942
Za 1327 Bogie steel box wagon 1976

[3]

RM 31 in Pahiatua yard.
RM 5 under restoration.

RM 31 is the society's only operating railcar and is one of four preserved railcars of the Standard class. The PRS is actively restoring RM 5, which has had to be largely rebuilt due to its rotten wooden frame, and RM 121. Parts of RM 119 and RM 133 are being used on RM 121. It used to be believed that no 88 seater railcar would survive for preservation, but the PRS and the RM 133 Trust recovered RM 133 from its resting place at Auckland International Airport where it had been used by the rescue services for training. As both ends were affected by a fire, it has subsequently been decided to dedicate all efforts to the restoration of RM 121. Both ends of RM 121 have now been recovered and other parts have been sourced from the remnants of RM 133 and RM 119. The society aims to fully rebuild an operational 88 seater.

The two TR locomotives are small shunting locomotives, and the PWD D class is another shunting locomotive that was solely operated by the PWD on its construction projects and never owned by the Railways Department. The Society also possesses three jiggers (surfacemen's trolleys), two motorised and one hand-powered, and the turntable from Thames. The society's collection of rolling stock includes both four-wheel and bogie wagons of an array of types, from a guard's van to cement and sheep wagons.

In September 2020, the Society announced it had bought the three recently-retired Silver Fern Railcars off of Kiwirail.[4]

Footnotes
  1. Hickland, Amie (12 May 2011). "Railcar to ply Wairarapa". Wairarapa Times-Age. Masterton: APN News & Media. Retrieved 12 May 2011.
  2. "Railcar Revival". Excursions. Pahiatua: Pahiatua Railcar Society. Retrieved 17 January 2012.
  3. http://www.railcars.co.nz/rolling_stock.htm
  4. Pahiatua Railcar Society. "Pahiatua Railcar Society buys Silver Ferns". Retrieved 3 September 2020.

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