The Wellington and Manawatu Railway Trust is a railway preservation society based in Christchurch, New Zealand. It possesses the only recovered remains of a locomotive that operated on the Wellington and Manawatu Railway (No. 9, later N 453 under government ownership), and it aims to restore the engine to full operational condition so that it may haul heritage trains on New Zealand's national rail network. It also owns a refrigerated freight wagon, and although the wagon itself was never used by the WMR, it is similar in style to wagons that were in fact used on the WMR and the society's objective is to restore it so that it is a historically accurate version of one of the WMR wagons.
Many old locomotives have been restored in New Zealand, but none have WMR heritage, and no other organisations possess any unrestored parts of ex-WMR locomotives, making the Wellington and Manawatu Railway Trust unique amongst the world railway preservation movement. In 2003, it recovered the remnants of No. 9 from where it had been dumped near Arthur's Pass and restoration of both the engine and refrigerated wagon is ongoing. In 1974, the remains of K 88 were recovered from the Oreti River in Southland and the locomotive was fully restored to operational condition on the Plains Vintage Railway in 1981 and further locomotives have been similarly recovered and restored, so while the Wellington and Manawatu Railway Trust's goal is highly ambitious, there is a historical precedent of successful restoration.
See also
External link
 | This New Zealand rail-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |