It may have only been a short journey for the little green and red Plant engine, from Cowra's Rail Heritage Centre to the station, but it represented a much longer journey for the Lachlan Valley Rail Society (LVR).

Some of the society's engines and carriages have been stranded at the Cowra Locomotive Depot since the Cowra to Blayney rail line was closed.

The line was first closed in late 1999 after the loss of a bridge near Holmwood in a fire.

It was reopened in April 2000 but between 2007 and 2009 it was progressively suspended from service.

The Planet shunting engine, one of only two operational in NSW, has an interesting history.

Originally owned by the Metropolitan Board of Water Supply and Sewerage at Ryde the Planet engine made its way to Cowra in the early 1980s.

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"It was used to basically drive coal to the boilers that did all the pumping to get water around Sydney," Mr Jackson said.

The Metropolitan Board had two Planet engines, one of which was also used on the construction site of Warragamba Dam.

Mr Jackson said the other working Planet is owned by Richmond Vale Railway Museum.

"In our hands the Planet has been fully overhauled," he said.

"We'll use it to continue shunting around our site, to run shuttles down to the station and we can use it to go to Holmwood if we can get Holmwood open."

When Holmwood does open the Planet will share this honour with another locomotive at the Heritage centre and LVR's steam engine, Rosie.

"Plus we're going to truck rail motors out (to Cowra) shortly," Mr Jackson said.

"Last weekend was the first step, we have a long way to go but it was certainly worth celebrating on the platform for the first time in 13 years."

To get this far LVR has had to replace around 400 sleepers between the Rail Heritage Centre and the station platform, replace three sets of points and slew the track so that trains can travel directly between the two sites.

Donations to LVTR are always welcome and can be made here

If you would like to help out as a volunteer and become a member you can do so here

Saturday also gave LVR members a chance to publicly pay tribute to one of its former members, Kurt Shubert who passed away recently.

"Kurt was a Cowra driver and was one of the first locomotive drivers locally that volunteered to the LVR," society chairman Ross Jackson said.