A 1920s vintage weekend is planned for Wanganui at the end of April.
The Whanganui Riverboat Centre is joining with the Wellington's Mainline Steam Heritage Trust, which will bring its vintage steam locomotive Ab663 on a public excursion to Wanganui on April 27 and 28.
The theme of the two-days will be the 1920s, and passengers will be encouraged to dress for the occasion, with the best-attired refunded their ticket. Riverboat Centre's director Grant Collie said steam trains played an important part in the development of Wanganui in the early 20th century, when the southern terminus of the North Island Main Trunk Railway from Auckland was at Taumarunui. Travellers wanting to go further south towards Wellington had a two-day journey on the Whanganui River on a number of Hatrick's riverboats, which began operating from the late 1800s.
Ab class locomotives regularly took passengers from Wanganui, south towards Wellington from 1915, when the first of the class was built in the Addington Railway Workshops in Christchurch. The Ab663 was built in the same workshops in 1917 and gained distinction in transporting the Prince of Wales during part of his 1920 tour of New Zealand.
A number of local trips along Wanganui tracks previously used by trains have been planned, including a trip along the Castlecliff branch.