Silverstream Sunday

It can be a little tricky planning visits to the volunteer-run heritage railways in New Zealand during a short-ish trip to NZ as many have limited opening hours, nevertheless it is worth persevering as these are usually rather wonderful set-ups. On this occasion, I was lucky that my last minute trip happened to coincide with the operating days for the Silverstream Railway (usually the first and third Sundays of the month, plus selected public holidays).

You can reach Silverstream Railway easily enough by train from Wellington, even when is a little bit of bustitution involved (rail replacement buses were running between Wellington and Petone on the day of my visit). The heritage railway was an easy 20 minute walk from Silverstream railway station via County Lane and the Hutt River Trail. On the way I stopped at the railway bridge over the Hutt river, taking shots of the morning passenger service on the Wairarapa Line to Masterton topped and tailed by KiwiRail diesel-electric locos (7064 and 7145) and the regular Matangi multiple units used on the the Hutt Valley Line.

RM30 railcar at the Silverstream Railway

The heritage railway uses the old alignment of the railway line to Upper Hutt, completed in 1875, which used to cross the Hutt River via a wooden trestle bridge. As this bridge was unsuitable for electrification a new bridge was built further upriver. The redundant section of line was closed in November 1954 and remained out of use until the 1970s, when the Silver Stream Railway purchased the old line. The first heritage train to operate on the rebuilt line ran on 31st December 1978, but the full 1.5km extent of the present line was not reached until 1986.

On the day of my visit the volunteers were running diesel railcar RM30 (named Aotea after the Maori waka) which was built at the Hutt Railway Workshops in Lower Hutt in 1938 (one of six railcars in this class). It retired in 1972 and was purchased by the Silverstream Railway later that year.

I enjoyed a ride up the line and back again which was short and sweet, with a glimpse of their other locos along the way (such as diesel electric loco DE580 built by English Electric at Preston in 1951). There is no station at the other end and it is not usually possible to visit the workshops/storage facilities, but there are a couple of small exhibition spaces to visit (one a preserved NZR workman’s hut and the other with a modest display about the railway). I stayed for around an hour.

Thank you to all the volunteers that made my visit to the Silverstream Railway such a delight. Also a pleasure to unexpectedly meet up with some fellow photographers from the FarRail tour to Sri Lanka in 2020. It really is a small world sometimes…

Silver Stream Railway are currently facing a threat from a proposal to develop a transport and infrastructure corridor through the nature reserve that runs alongside the railway. More information on the threat is detailed on the Silverstream Spur: Always a reserve, never a road. campaign page.

Gallery from the Upper Hutt/Wairarapa Lines