Taieri Gorge Railway has been forced to take the unusual step of towing the company's Dunedin Silver Fern railcar with a locomotive after the luxury railway vehicle broke down last week.
The railcar runs regular short trips north of Dunedin over-looking the Pacific Ocean and Blueskin Bay and is occasionally used for special trips from Dunedin to Invercargill, Oamaru or Christchurch.
Taieri Gorge Railway operations manager Grant Craig said the railcar broke down during a trip to Christchurch last week, and had to be towed back to Dunedin.
But because the company had continuing commitments which included ferrying passengers from cruise ships at Port Chalmers to Dunedin, there had been no time to fix it.
He said the engine was so tightly packed in, it was hard to gain access to fix it without dismantling much of the train itself.
''Until we get a chance to fix the motor, we are just hauling it with a locomotive at the moment.''
Mr Craig said he had no idea why the Caterpillar V12 had failed, and the cause would not be known until the engine was taken apart in the company's Dunedin workshop.
''We hope to have it running again by Friday,'' he said.
