brackets is the distance from Invercargill): Grasmere (3 km) Waikiwi (4 km) Lorneville (7 km) Linds Bridge (10 km) Makarewa (12 km) Ryal Bush (15 km) Wilson's Crossing (18 km) Lochiel (23 km) Thomsons (26 km) Gap Road (29 km) Winton (30 km) Lady Barkly (35 km) Limehills (37 km) Ords (39 km) Centre Bush (41 km) Pukearuhe (45 km) Kauana (46 km) Benmore (51 km) Dipton (58 km) Caroline (66 km) Josephville (72 km) Lumsden (79 km) Lowther (89 km) Five Rivers (93 km) Eyre Creek (98 km) Parawa (105 km) Athol (110 km) Nokomai (118 km) Garston (120 km) Fairlight (126 km) Kingston (140 km) Junctions Three stations on the Kingston Branch were junctions with other lines: Makarewa: Tuatapere (Orawia) Branch (along which was the junction with the Wairio Branch) Winton: Hedgehope (Browns) Branch Lumsden: Waimea Plains Railway to the Main South Line in Gore Mossburn Branch Operation In the early days of the line, trains operated six days a week, with a return service to Kingston and another in the afternoon as far as Lumsden. When the Waimea Plains Railway opened, it was privately owned and competed with the Kingston Branch, and this, along with the effects of the Long Depression, meant services were reduced to operating on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays only for three years. In 1883, the daily trains were back, and when the Waimea Plains Railway was purchased and incorporated into the national network, services were further re-organised. Besides the daily "mixed" services that carried both passengers and freight, five passenger expresses a week ran from Kingston: two used the whole line to Invercargill, while three left it in Lumsden to travel through the Waimea Plains. These passenger services were the first "Kingston Flyer". When reviews of all of New Zealand's branch railways were conducted in 1930 and 1952, the Kingston route was considered a mainline and therefore not assessed. After a railcar service was briefly considered in the 1930s, regular passenger services were cancelled, though seasonal excursions and holiday trains ran for another two decades. The last one ran in Easter 1957, and passenger trains were a very rare sight on the Kingston line in the 1960s. Not long before the seasonal excursions ended, so did another service: the Friday mixed train between Invercargill and Lumsden ceased running in November 1956. The line then settled into a pattern of daily freight trains from