The Canterbury Railway Society is an organisation of railway enthusiasts based in the Canterbury region of New Zealand's South Island, best known for their operation of The Ferrymead Railway at the Ferrymead Heritage Park. Beginnings The Canterbury branch of the New Zealand Railway & Locomotive Society was formed in the late 1950s. In its early years, one of its major activities was in the operation of passenger excursions on the national rail network, then operated by the New Zealand Railways Department. In that era, there were far more excursion trains than there are today, and far more railway lines in general, including the many branch lines that were closed in the 1960s and 1970s. Steam traction was used in the South Island for longer than in the North Island, and a variety of motive power could be found on any of these trains. Aside from a handful of locomotives placed on public display, little thought up to this time had been given to any serious notion of rail preservation. The catalyst proved to be the wholesale scrapping of steam traction which began in the mid 1950s and continued until 1971 when the last JA class locomotives were withdrawn from the Main South Line. In addition at this time, a large number of branch lines were closed and ripped up, and some of the earliest preservation efforts were based on these closed lines, while others took advantage of the opportunity to obtain cheap supplies of recovered rail materials for use elsewhere. The idea of becoming involved in railway preservation in New Zealand did not become a reality for any group in New Zealand until the 1960s, when New Zealand Railways accelerated the pace of dieselisation, resulting in wholesale scrapping of its steam locomotive fleet. At that time, there was a nationwide move to save railway equipment which resulted in the large-scale purchase of locomotives and rolling stock and the establishment of the major preservation sites in New Zealand. Ferrymead Railway The Ferrymead Railway has been the main project of the Canterbury branch since 1964. The railway has been established on the historical site of New Zealand's first public railway which opened in 1863 and closed in 1867. Work on the site had progressed sufficiently far by 1972 to allow train running to begin, and the railway officially opened in 1977. It was the major focus of 1988's Rail 125 commemorations, a