[3] The Land Transport Safety Authority (now NZTA) would not allow Give Way signs and reinstating bells and lights had been reported as costing over $250,000 per crossing (almost the purchase price of the entire line in 1999) making installation unlikely for foreseeable future.

[5] This has allowed trains to return to the entire branch line (and a proposed loop at the former Sentry Hill station site).

In 2019 the society entered into a lease to the Lepperton railway sidings (but not the main line and loop) which will allow locomotives to switch ends of the train.

As part of this agreement, the society has built a new linking track to bypass the Kiwirails network which is under Centralised Traffic Control.

[6] The Waitara Railway Preservation Society owns a number of diesel shunting locomotives, either operational or awaiting restoration.