A/N: this goes out to @Kieron0103 and his Haven Railway story, and I thought I'd get back in the saddle of making a Thomas and Friends story again. Also, this is tied in with @Kieron0103's book 'The Beacon Railway'.
Sodor is the island of the North...
New Zealand, an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island and the South Island—and over 700 smaller islands, covering an area of 268,021 square kilometres (103,500 sq mi). New Zealand is 2,000km (1,200mi) East of Australia across the Tasman Sea and 1,000 km (600mi) South of the islands of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga. The country's varied topography and sharp mountain peaks, including the Southern Alps. New Zealand's capital city is Wellington, and its most populous city is Auckland.
After touching down in New Zealand, Mr. Franklin hailed a taxi, and he made his way over to the Museum of Transport and Technology (MOTAT), a science and technology museum in Western Springs, Auckland.
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The museum has large collections of civilian and military aircraft and other land transport vehicles. An ongoing program is in place to restore and conserve items in the collections. This work is largely managed by volunteers but, since the passing of the Museum of Transport and Technology Act in 2000, has been supported by full-time professional museum.
After explaining about what he's doing at the museum to the staff, Mr. Franklin was given access to go forth and find the locomotive he's looking for here. He looks around at the multitude of preserved aircraft: one of New Zealand's largest collections of civil and military aircraft, all with genuine New Zealand aviation pedigrees, plus a collection of over 20 electric, steam and cable trams, railway carriages, including stations, wagons and other rolling stock, trolley buses and even petrol and diesel buses.
'Have to say, there is a lot of history here and there.' Franklin thought to himself.
Eventually, after looking about the vast collection of machines and vehicles around the museum, Mr. Franklin found the machine he was looking for. There, sitting on its own on a set of tracks that lead out of the museum, is a big steam locomotive. The engine is a NZR K Class 4-8-4 tender locomotive. She has green eyes and red lips, while her body and frame is in black with red buffers. She also bears the name No. 949 in white on her buffer beam.
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