Attractions & Projects

Saturday 30th March 2024 ((From 11:00am ’til 4:00pm))

The Plains Vintage Railway & Historical Museum is home to a wide range of exhibits, spanning the history of Mid-Canterbury since European Colonisation. Our core exhibits are split into three main sections, The Vintage Railway – Featuring three operational steam locomotives and the New Zealand Rail Speed Record holding Vulcan Railcar, The Pioneer Village – With the old Waterton Anglican Church taking pride of place alongside the former Chertsey Railway Station, and our vast Rural History section – Complete with vintage tractors, traction engines and other farm machinery.

To find out more about any of these sections, click on your selection below.

The Vintage Railway

Our Steam Locomotives ‘A’ 64 – from the New Zealand Railway’s construction days in Canterbury, ‘K’ 88 ‘Washington’ – from the Vogel era of railway expansion in the late 1870’s, ‘Ja’ 1260 – big mainline power from the zenith of steam railways in NZ in the 1950’s and Vulcan Railcar ‘RM’ 50 the New Zealand Rail Speed Recorder holder are the mainstays of our vintage railway.

Pioneer Village

Our Pioneer Village comes complete with Railway Station, Church, Cottage and recreated shops – there is even a blacksmiths shop complete with functional forge! Many of the buildings are of historicial value to the local area and we transported to our site, other buildings have been built on-site with a ‘heritage’ feel to them in order to recreate the feel of days long gone by.
Pioneer Weatherboard Cottage
Locomotives

Rural History

Our Rural History section contains Tractors, Traction Engines and vintage Farm Machinery from across the wider Canterbury district. Most of these exhibits are in working order and can sometimes be found being used to machine and harvest the land that we lease from the Ashburton District Council’s Tinwald Domain.

You can find us at 20 Maronan Road, Tinwald, Ashburton, which is beside the Tinwald Domain, where there is plenty of parking available.

You can also type ‘The Plains Vintage Railway’ into your phone map app or click here for directions.

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