The Railway Enthusiasts Society Incorporated (known by its acronym RES) is a New Zealand railway enthusiast society formed on 17 July 1958. RES formed the Glenbrook Vintage Railway (GVR) in 1968, with GVR now forming a separate charitable trust. Objectives The RES objectives are as follows: To foster an intelligent interest in railways and in their operation and development generally. To facilitate the exchange between railway enthusiasts of information concerning the history, development, design, construction and operation of railways in New Zealand and elsewhere. To encourage the preservation of private and public collections of railway photographs, films, literature and equipment. To publish, print, distribute and authorise periodicals, books, magazines and other printed matter on topics of railway interest or related to the Society's activities. To arrange trips, tours and excursions to places of railway or general interest. The Railway Enthusiasts Society incorporates the Glenbrook Vintage Railway. Excursions and tours 1960s Over the years since its formation, the Society has grown its reputation, both within the rail industry and publicly, by operating excursions to places of interest, both railway related and non-railway related. The earliest excursions saw extra carriages attached to regular passenger train services throughout both the North Island and South Island. The Society has also operated its own private charter train services for larger trips, an activity it still does to this day. Some excursions have achieved legendary status, particularly by the rail heritage sector. Many members remember earlier trips such as the 19th century tank locomotive "Meg Merriles" (a member of the F class) running trips to Swanson and Drury, C class locomotives double-heading services to Meremere and the mid-winter trips down the North Island Main Trunk. Probably the most memorable excursion of this period was three 4-8-2 JA class locomotives triple-heading an 18 carriage train from Auckland to Hamilton in 1964 – a feat which, to date, has not been repeated on New Zealand's national rail network with steam traction. The Society replicated this operation with classic 1950s DA class diesel locomotives (the specific class members were 1410, 1429 and 1431), on the Auckland – Mt Maunganui "Seatrain" 2000 trip and Auckland – Whangarei "Waves & Wheels" trip in 2001. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the end of steam traction provided the opportunity to run locomotives from their bases at the time, to Auckland, for preservation as part of the Society's Glenbrook Vintage Railway project.