The Plains Vintage Railway & Historical Museum

We house an extensive collection of exhibits from yester-year – from rural history to rail, homewares and much more.  

Onsite and available for hire, is the Waterton Church and Function Room.

Our Public Open Days are a great Hertiage Experience for all the family to enjoy.

All day rides on our trains, free classic games and activities for the children, working machinery displays and much more.

About Us

The story of The Plains Vintage Railway and Historical Museum begins nearly 130 years ago, in May 1878. It was in this year that the first section of the branch line railway that would in time become the 'Mt Somers Branch' and later, operating on the first approximately 3 kilometres - to the old Frasers Road railway crossing - The Plains Railway was laid. The branch was different from a great many of the other branch-line railways built by the New Zealand Government Railways at the time, in that its sole purpose was not the opening up of the land for agricultural activities, but instead for the cartage of lignite coal and lime from deposits behind Mt Somers - an extinct volcano, on the edge of the Southern Alps.

Step into the past and experience the charm of Mid Canterbury’s rich history.