numbers declined sharply and the Railways Department looked to cancel its services on the Kingston Branch. That occurred on 4 October 1937, bringing an end to the regular Flyers. Until 17 September 1945, an abbreviated service continued to operate across the Waimea Plain to the Kingston Branch junction in Lumsden. Then, on both lines, the service was replaced by buses operated by the New Zealand Railways Road Services. That was not the end of the Flyers. The timetables retained a 'runs as required' Kingston Flyer, which typically operated at peak holiday periods between Gore and sometimes Dunedin to Kingston. For many years, those expresses and excursions operated in conjunction with steamers on Lake Wakatipu, to provide the primary access to Queenstown. Patronage was initially heavy, but it declined through the 1950s. 1956 was the last year when Flyers ran each way in the same day, and the final Flyer operated during the 1957 Easter holiday period. Revitalisation In 1971, New Zealand Railways announced that it was going to recommence operating a service named the Kingston Flyer as a heritage service. The last use of steam on a regularly scheduled revenue service in New Zealand was on 26 October 1971, and the new Kingston Flyer began operating two months later on 21 December. It utilised the section of the Kingston Branch between Lumsden and Kingston and proved wildly popular. From 1971 until 1979 it operated every summer through to the Easter holiday period and carried over 30,000 people annually. Flooding damage to the line between Lumsden and Garston meant that the last Kingston to Invercargill flyer ran on 17 April 1979 and the damaged section of track in question was formally closed in November of that year. For the next three years, the Kingston Flyer operated from Invercargill to Bluff and Wairio, albeit less successfully. In 1982, the Kingston Flyer was returned by NZR to Kingston before the remaining line now part of the Mossburn Branch was closed and removed. The initial intention was to utilise the remaining 20 kilometres of track between Garston and Kingston, but the decision was made to end the line in Fairlight and the additional six kilometres to Garston were closed. Although the original Flyers had typically been operated by locomotives of the Rogers K and V classes, two AB class 4-6-2 locomotives, AB 778 and AB 795 were restored specifically for the Kingston Flyer. The