Our steam locomotive Josephine is a highlight for many visitors, young and old alike.
Josephine began her career on the Dunedin-Port Chalmers Railway – one of two Double Fairlie locomotives brought from England to operate the railway in 1872.
She went on to work at various other locations throughout the country, before being sent to the scrap yard 45 years later. She avoided the scrap heap, however, and, since the latter half of the 1920s, has been on display at the Museum.
Initially exposed to the elements on the lawn outside, a campaign to save Josephine in the late 1960s restored her and moved her indoors. One of only a handful of surviving Double Fairlies left in the world, Josephine is a much-loved icon of the Museum.
