The Western Springs Railway

Name: The Western Springs Railway
Address: 98 Motions Road, Western Springs, Auckland, 1022, NZ
Telephone: (09) 815-5800
Price range: $

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The Western Springs Railway

Contact information, map and directions, contact form, opening hours, services, ratings, photos, videos and announcements from The Western Springs Railway, Railroad Company, 98 Motions Road, Western Springs, Auckland.

Home of MOTAT's extensive Rail Collection, the Western Springs Railway is a heritage railway located at and operated by Auckland's Museum of Transport and Technology (MOTAT) on their Meola Road site.

21/08/2026

Meg on the Move!

F180 is all loaded up and about to head off on her next big adventure! This afternoon she was loaded on to a truck, and early tomorrow morning will be heading in to the city for the Te Waihorotiu Station ‘first look’ event. Along with one of the three-wheel hand jiggers, she will take pride of place on display outside the station where she can be seen by the thousands of visitors expected to attend the day-long event. It’s great that we can be part of Auckland Transport’s festivities celebrating the opening of the City Rail Link - a huge step forward for rail transport in Auckland that has been the subject of proposals for the best part of a century and is now a reality!

07/07/2026

Tonight we’re flanging a tube for Barclay 1270’s water tank. There are two tubes which pass through this tank- one for the steam dome and another for the funnel. The steam dome one is reusable but as seen here we’re having to remake the funnel one. This started as a normal piece of pipe, and tonight we’ve flanged both ends using a former, our wooden mallets, and plenty of heat!

02/06/2026

On the evening of Saturday 30 May MOTAT (Museum of Transport and Technology) was delighted to host the delegates from the annual Federation of Rail Organisations of New Zealand - FRONZ conference. We had 5 locomotives in steam- F180, L507, Y542, Mainline Steam's Bagnall and Bertha- as well as the Fowler traction engine. The Oberursel and Dsa223 also ran during the evening. A really fun, atmostpheric night of trains and trams was was enjoyed by all, along with workshop tours and dinner in the Aviation Hall.

On the same day we also had Unit Standard assesments for two of our firemen- Pranz Cortez and Cameron Teague- both of whom now have boiler tickets as a result! Congratulations, guys! And a big thankyou to David Maciulaitis for doing these assesments!

01/06/2026

Congratulations to our 2026 award winners - you smashed it out of the park!

The MOTAT Society Steam Locomotive Restoration Award goes to Lumsden Heritage Trust for the static restoration of D6.

The Pounamu Travel Carriage/Guards Van Restoration Award goes to Mainline Steam Heritage Trust for carriage AO 100.

The Rail Heritage Trust of New Zealand Restoration Award goes to the Dunedin Tunnels Trail Trust and Dunedin City Council for the Chain Hills Tunnel project.

The MOTAT Society Tramway Restoration Award goes to Western Springs Tramway for the restoration of Wanganui Trailer No. 21.

The NZ Safety Blackwoods Motive Power Award goes to Steam Incorporated for the restoration of DC 4375.

The KiwiRail Infrastructure Improvement Award goes to Glenbrook Vintage Railway and Gisborne City Vintage Railway: GVR for their North Yard retaining wall & siding, and GCVR for their new rail passenger loading platform.

The Glenbrook Vintage Railway Young Achiever Award goes to Pranz Cortez from MOTAT (Museum of Transport and Technology).

The Glenbrook Vintage Railway Volunteer of the Year Award goes to David Rowland from Steam Incorporated.

The Paul Dillicar Memorial Award for Innovation goes to Pounamu Tourism Group, Steam Incorporated and Canterbury Railway Society for their cooperative and innovative effort to boost additional passenger rail services in the South Island.

The Paul Heighton Memorial Award for Excellence goes to Leyton Chan of MOTAT (Museum of Transport and Technology).

Amazing work to all our winners and nominees!

27/05/2026

This Saturday evening we’re being visited by delegates from this year’s Federation of Rail Organisations of New Zealand - FRONZ conference. This visit will see our trains running after dark, and as part of these operations we will for the first time have F180 operating with a full set of oil lamps. The two headlights are both genuine ex. NZ Railways lamps and have recently been fitted with new glass flues which we’ve had made. In the cab the water gauge lamp was made for is some time ago and is based on an original lamp that was loaned to us as a template.

F180’s new lamps were completed and tested last week, as seen in these photos. Today we also prepared all the tail and side lamps for the event so we are now all set for Saturday!

In the workshop Ka941’s cab has returned from storage so we can install the corner pieces of boiler cladding, kindly donated to us by Steam Incorporated earlier this year to compliment the parts that we already had for this project.

16/05/2026

Steam Live Day Today!

We’re all steamed up and ready to go for today’s Live Day! Our dedicated team are now undertaking the final prep work on all of the locomotives, engines and boilers ready for the gates to open at 10am. The weather is perfect for a great day of steam and trains- we look forward to seeing many of you today!

12/05/2026

Steam Live Day: Sunday 17 May

This Sunday is one of the biggest Live Days of the year for our team. We’ll have all 5 steam locomotives in steam for the day- Y542, F180, L507, Bertha and the Bagnall- as well as the Fowler traction engine, the Wallis and Steevens roller, the Marshall portable engine and the Cochranette stationary boiler.

As part of our preparations for the day we have F180 in steam tonight to test the lubricator after some repairs. The locomotive is also sporting new whistle levers in the cab, replacing the later style whistle cords which were previously in use.

Come along and see us on Sunday for a fun day of steam and trains! Gates open at 10am.

18/04/2026

Train Rides Today!

It’s Live Day today and we’re all set and ready to go! Y542 and Mainline Steam’s Bagnall are in steam, as are the Fowler traction engine and the Marshall portable engine. Thankfully the rain cleared overnight so it should be a great day! We are open from now until 4pm and train running has just started. Come along and enjoy a fun day of trains and steam!

Address

98 Motions Road, Western Springs
Auckland
1022

Telephone

(09) 815-5800

Website

http://www.motat.org.nz/

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