Help us to extend our Miniature Railway Track in Whakatane

Numerous towns and cities in New Zealand within their parks and recreational reserves have the added attraction of a working miniature railway. More often than not are run, created and financed by the local model engineering club and railway enthusiasts. The town of Whakatane is no exception. The Eastern Bay of Plenty Society of Model Engineers was founded by Dave Fitton, himself the owner & builder of two miniature steam locomotives.

The clubs main objective was to acquire space in a local recreational reserve to construct a miniature railway. After several years of fundraising and many working weekends a fully functional railway was in operation, after a grand opening in 2002. Situated in the Warren Cole reserve River Edge Miniature Railway operates along part of the beautiful Whakatane river & delights all ages. The railway has been improved over the years and the general public have been very supportive with ever increasing popularity and support from local council, general businesses and service clubs.

One of the future objectives of the club was to extend the railway to an adjacent area. The District Council allowing us this area for use if the need arose. In 2014 the club applied for resource consent to extend the railway track & consent was given. The railway track extension will almost double the length of the existing railway & will be 1.2km when completed. The first objective would be to build a bridge to take the rails over a drainage creek that divides the two areas. To date that bridge has been completed, an ambitious undertaking that has resulted in a visually pleasing addition to the landscape. The bridge is the first of three phases of the track extension. We can now commence phase two, the contouring of the area used to lay down the track and the construction of the retaining walls in some of those areas. The third phase is the laying down of a concrete bed followed by attaching the railway lines to that bed thus completing the railway extension project. Funds are now urgently needed to complete phase 2 & 3.

It perhaps should be pointed out that our train ride fee is $2, but we do cater for special needs children and adults who are provided with free concession vouchers and we also own a special needs ride car that is equipped with extra secure seating.

As part of our fund raising we cater for private mid - week running days for special occasions. We are open for running the first Sunday of the month and every Sunday during school holidays. Three to five locomotives are operating with occasional visits of locomotives from outside clubs.