Lumsden to Invercargill and return, augmented by a twice-weekly service onwards to Kingston. Traffic on the section from Lumsden to Kingston was in serious decline by 1970, but a revival in traffic came when New Zealand Railways made a surprise announcement that it would be operating a heritage train from Lumsden to Kingston re-using the "Kingston Flyer" name. Two AB class locomotives were employed to operate the train, which commenced on 21 December 1971, two months after regular steam workings had ceased. Two return trips were run a day from December to April and they proved to be wildly popular, carrying over 30,000 passengers per season. Freight was carried on the first train to Kingston and last to Lumsden. The line between Lumsden and Garston was damaged by flooding in February 1979 and the last Kingston Flyer from Garston ran not long afterwards, on 17 April. The last goods train to Kingston, hauled by DJ 1228, ran on 22 November. Official closure of the line between Lumsden and Garston came on 26 November 1979. For the next three years the Kingston Flyer ran elsewhere but in 1982 it came back to Kingston. There were initially plans to operate it all the way to Garston, but these were later changed to Fairlight and the six kilometres between Garston and Fairlight was closed. The 14 kilometres between Fairlight and Kingston is still open for the Kingston Flyer. There are proposals to relay track back to Garston as the rail corridor is still designated for rail use. South of Lumsden, the Kingston Branch was busy with trains heading to the Mossburn Branch with materials for various development schemes, the most prominent being the Manapouri hydro scheme. Once this traffic ceased the line became very quiet, with just two trains a week in its last year of existence. On 13 December 1982, the line from Makarewa to Lumsden closed, the same day as the Mossburn Branch. The 12-kilometre section from Invercargill to Makarewa remains open, incorporated into the Wairio Branch. Today The two ends of what was once considered to be a mainline remain open, while the large middle section's relics have disappeared with time and the impacts of development. For example, the triangular platform at Makarewa that once served Kingston and the Wairio Branch, as well as the large Freezing Works, disappeared sometime between 1995 and 1998. The last rails in the yard