Typically, if you are trying to outrun a train, you’re not having fun, but the revived Race the Train event may change that.
On January 15, hundreds of participants are expected to take part in Race the Train, pitting the historic Kingston Flyer against runners and cyclists for the first time since 2013.
There will be a full 24-kilometre loop from Kingston to Fairlight and back, plus shorter courses for runners and cyclists, as they traverse the Around the Mountains Cycle Trail.
Event organiser Adrian Bailey said 75 per cent of the race participants would be all but beside the train track.
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The train would travel at a set pace, so about a third of participants actually beat it, but Bailey would not divulge the speed so as not give away any competitive advantages.
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There would also be 200 passengers on the train to cheer them on, Bailey said.
The Race the Train event was run in 2012 and 2013, before financial difficulties mothballed the historic locomotive.
However, new investor-owners came on board in 2019.
Fire brigade members and mechanical engineers had also worked to stop sparks from the engine starting track-side fires.
According to NZ History, The Kingston to Lumsden train line was built as part of the Great Northern Railway from Invercargill, and completed in 1878.
The original Kingston Flyer was a passenger train that ran between Gore, on the main Dunedin-Invercargill line, and Kingston, from where lake steamers provided a connection with Queenstown, the website says.
In 1971, New Zealand Railways introduced the Flyer as a tourist-focused steam train, following the withdrawal of steam locomotives from scheduled services.
The Flyer was a big part of the region’s history, Bailey said.
He expected about 500 competitors next month, a similar turn out to the previous editions.
Registrations opened last month, and now that the new Covid-19 traffic light system had given people certainty about attending and holding events, Bailey expected more entrants beyond the roughly 150 that had signed up so far.
The event would be a bright spark for the region, hard-hit by closed international borders, he said.
There are age divisions for the five, 12 and 24 kilometre events.
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