In 1926, patronage was sufficiently high to justify replacing one of the mixed trains with a dedicated passenger service between New Plymouth and Whanganui.
[1] For most of its life, the Taranaki Flyer was a carriage train hauled by steam locomotives, and when it was introduced, it took approximately 4.5 hours to complete its journey.
[2] During the 1950s, the effect of commercial airlines and private cars started to reduce patronage on New Zealand's passenger trains significantly.
Both crew survived, but the locomotive was too expensive to recover and was buried in situ, with the repaired railway embankment built directly over it.
In 2007, the Taranaki Flyer Society formed to restore the locomotive, and it was transported to the old railway goods shed at Stratford.