Ab 608 & The Marlborough Flyer - January 2018 (HD)

During the summer cruise ship season of 2017 - 2018, a newly adapted tourist steam train venture between Picton & Blenheim named ‘The Marlborough Flyer’, set up by Pounamu Travel was operated using Steam Incorporated’s Ab 608 “Passchendaele” & 5 wooden carriages which had been transferred to the South Island to operate these trains over the cruise ship operating period. The Marlborough Flyer has become a massive success so far, thanks to many groups and sponsors involved including KiwiRail, RMTU, Steam Incorporated & Port Marlborough. In our video, we cover the flyer in operation during late January 2018 which sees Ab 608 tackle the infamous 1 in 37 steep gradient from Picton yard to Elevation and travelling through the valley down to Blenheim to drop off passengers. Here they travel to other attractions in Marlborough while the train continues to Vernon crossing loop to run around and head tender first for the return trip to Picton. We hope you enjoy seeing some of New Zealand’s finest action of steam power in regular use, something that may be adapted more often in the future for tourism!

[@michaelcandle1632]

Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful

[@malc334]

Great video

[@hughvane]

Good ol' Blunnim, I remember it well. Mention might have been made of the train that ran that route for many years taking school students to and from Blenheim until QCC opened in 1965. What info about the engine that hauled that train?

[@TallboyDave]

It was the only NZR locomotive to be officially named; any other engine you see with a name was either done so by a predecessor of NZR, or was named in preservation.

[@michelleroberts5472]

In 1915 when built this look was the first on world to produce 1 horsepower per 100 pound of weight

[@kerryjames7150]

Far too much water in the boiler out of Picton , do they have to blow a cylinder head to learn that half a glass is the safe water level .

[@tinypeter4745]

This is one of New Zealand’s oldest trains, Is it not?

[@TheSonic10160]

Not by a long shot, there are many older locomotives and items of rolling stock. The oldest being the 1872-built Double Fairlie E175 'Josephine' in the Dunedin settler's museum. The oldest working locomotive in the country is 1873-built F13 'Peveril'

[@turbochargedtractionproduc8073]

What’s the horn that sounds after 608’s whistle at 7:05

[@ginajones6719]

TurbochargedTraction Productions I think it was the truck u see go past

[@tinypeter4745]

Gina Jones No! It wasn’t because where the train was, it was not very far away from the freight centre so it could have been a shunters.

[@TheSonic10160]

@@tinypeter4745 Nah there aren't any shunting locomotives with horns that sound like that. That's a truck with air horns.