Jane Sutherland has lived in Kingston for 12 years. For seven of those years she has been designing her own clothing range, Jane Sutherland.
She said having the historic Flyer off the rails since 2009 had been a sad situation for the town and she wanted to mark the train's relaunch by opening her local garage store.
"It's fantastic it has been bought. It's going to be great for the community.
"I want to open up the workshop in time to tie in with the train."
Mrs Sutherland started her label by making jewellery from her Kingston home. As time passed, she threw clothing into the mix, and found it soon became popular.
Her label is now in stores all around the country, including shopping hubs Auckland and Wellington, along with Christchurch, Dunedin, Wanaka, Queenstown and Invercargill.
This makes a fine change for the girl who worked at the Lorneville freezing works before heading to Perth and finally residing in Kingston, a town of about 220 people.
The Jane Sutherland brand is full of directional pieces and appeals to those from their late 20s right through, she said.
Mrs Sutherland works from a studio in her garage and plans to open this up to the public at the same time as the steam train because she realises how special it is to the entire Kingston community.
The 41-year-old said it could be quite difficult working from such a quiet town, as the materials and equipment were sold only in the bigger cities.
Keeping things at ground level, Mrs Sutherland has her two machinists based in another tiny town, Edendale.
She said the best thing about working from home was being able to spend time with her 2-year-old son, Victor.
Mrs Sutherland will be buying a family pass for Victor to have his first ride on the Flyer in October.
