Volunteering with us.

We operate to the public Sundays, weather permitting, from 11 am.

Have you ever been to our little club and thought, ‘Man this is cool’ or ‘I’d like to help out here’…….Well, now is your chance!!!!.

We are looking for Volunteers to join our not for profit group of enthusiasts.

You don’t have to be mechanically minded, or have to own a train. Just have a willingness to help a great little community group.

We have Volunteers who range from Engineers to Accountants and University Students and a Florist.  Duties include; Clipping Tickets, Driving Trains, Helping out with maintenance and making lunches for members, being Guard on a train or just helping out at our regular working bees/days.

We will take you through our driver licensing program which will enable you to drive the three club owned engines. from there you will gain the necessary skills and competency to become a skilled and safe driver. In time, if you wish, you can learn to drive some of the steam locomotives that many club members own and are more than willing to teach new members on.

The driver licensing is split into 3 parts:

• Guard duties: This allows you to perform “End Of Train guard protection”. This is the first step in the licensing system.

• Electric and Petrol (Internal Combustion):This is the next step in the licensing programme. This will let you drive ALL the club owned loc’s. If you purchase/build a locomotive of this type you will be able to drive it/club owned locos at any track in New Zealand so long as you present your licence. This licence consists of 2 parts/stages:
  1. Provisional: Enables you to drive by yourself without passengers or with passengers but under direct supervision.
  2. Full: No restrictions within licence class

• Steam: This is the highest licence qualification you can get, and is often considered the hardest and longest to get. This is only because you need to be seen as completely competent on the previous classes before starting to learn to drive steam. You can only get your steam licence once you have received your full Guards and Electric/IC licences. Again, this licence consists of 2 parts/stages:
  1. Provisional: Enables you to drive by yourself without passengers or with passengers but under direct supervision.
  2. Full: No restrictions within licence class

As an active member you can enjoy our large collection of DVD’s and Magazines and monthly newsletter, Special “Member and their families” only days, free rides for family, interesting talks at our General Meetings, and the ability for you to be able to learn to drive and build trains and travel the country to associated clubs and be welcomed there.

There are lots of ways to find out more, if you think you might be interested in joining as a regular member, come along to one of our Sunday running days and talk to one of us (we wont bite) about joining, visit the ticket office or send a message to our Facebook page to find out more.