This wasn’t an excursion, but the regular passenger train from Wellington to Palmerston North.  Today’s Capital Connection doesn’t operate on weekends.

The train would have been hauled by an electric locomotive as far as Paekakariki and the steamer attached there.  This practice ceased in 1967 when the Paekakariki depot closed and diesel locomotives hauled trains all the way.  Keith Magnussen pic(?)