museum before heading back to Wellington. Dunedin Railways From October 2012 to June 2019, RM24 was leased to Dunedin Railways for excursions, tours and charters around the South Island. After the lease expired, the railcar was handed back to KiwiRail in June 2019. At the same time, RM18 and RM30 were stored at the Otahuhu passenger maintenance depot. Upgrades During October 2008, RM30 was taken to the Wellington Passenger Depot for extensive refurbishment. This work included the stripping of the interior in the passenger saloons, allowing corrosion repairs to be carried out. New thermal, noise deadening insulation was added. The interiors now have new carpet and refurbished seats. Each seat bay now also has a power socket for passenger use. Tables have been added with mahogany veneer, echoing the new timber-featured ceiling with ash and mahogany from sustainable forestry. Lighting was upgraded to modern energy-efficient standards, including individual reading lights in the new coat racks. Also fitted were large, triple glazed windows, to give a more panoramic view. No significant mechanical work is believed to have been undertaken. The two other railcars were refurbished in 2009. In February 2015, RM30 was refurbished for a second time. New seats, a new engine and the power bogie from RM18 were fitted. RM18 was out of service at this time, owing to a lack of spare parts, and never returned to service. RM30 was tested on a mainline run from Otahuhu on 11 February 2015. In 2019, all three railcars were transferred to Dunedin for evaluation at the Hillside Workshops. RM30 has corrosion in the steel frames around window openings. Accidents On 18 August 1981, half of the first and second sets derailed and rolled north of Waiouru when the northbound service was descending curves. Passengers reported that the railcar had been travelling quickly over this section of the journey and the speed around curves just before the derailment had been concerning. The subsequent enquiry found that many of the speed restriction boards for the curves in the area were missing or misleading; a full audit of speed restrictions across the entire rail network was one of the enquiry outcomes. Four people were killed and another 16 injured. The railcars were replaced by the "Blue Fern" on Wednesdays for three years until May 1984, to allow the two remaining railcar sets to be serviced while the damaged set was being repaired. In 1989