A steam train, the Kingston Flyer, at Kingston, South Island, New Zealand. Kingston is a small town at the southernmost end of Lake Wakatipu. The Kingston Flyer historic railway service is closely associated with the town. It operates over a 14 kilometre long preserved section of the former Kingston Branch, which provided a rail link to Kingston for over a century, opening in 1878 and closing in 1979. In its heyday this line was considered to be one of the most important in New Zealand.