A visiting steam train is stirring the memories of some Dunedin people and creating new memories for others.
The 67-year-old locomotive Ja 1240, also known as Jessica, is making a visit home to Dunedin this weekend.
The engine was built at Hillside Workshops in 1947 and was used on passenger and goods trains between Dunedin and Christchurch, before being transferred to Christchurch in the early 1950s.
It was one of a series of Ja class locomotives built at Hillside and used by New Zealand Railways until the early 1970s. It was restored between 2007 and 2012 by its Wellington owner, Ian Walsh, and resides these days in Christchurch.
Dunedin Railways (formerly Taieri Gorge Railway) train manager Allan Boyer said the company arranged for the train to stay on in Dunedin an extra week after it was used for a scene in the film The Light between Oceans, so the public could have the opportunity to have a ride.
Among the about 800 people who took one of five return trips to Sawyers Bay yesterday, were some old hands at steam trains and some newbies.
Laurel Corbishley, who took the train with family including great-granddaughter Amber-Rose Bray (6), who had never been on a train before, said it was just like it used to be when people travelled by train all the time to Invercargill or Christchurch.
She also had a particular connection to Ja 1240, as her brother Donald Meek (86), who was unable to make the trip, had been a boilermaker at Hillside and helped build it.
Amber-Rose said her first train trip was ''awesome'', the steam was ''cool'', the tunnel was ''the coolest'', but the return trip was ''a bit squeaky''.
Someone else who noticed the squeak was former train driver Bob Reid (88), of Mosgiel, who drove for New Zealand Railways from 1942-82. He recalled driving the Ja 1240 when it was a new train and called it ''a marvellous engine''.
''It rode well, it pulled well, it steamed well. It was a real credit to Hillside.''
Missing a leg these days and unable to climb up into the engine for the inspection, he was happy to watch the locomotive from the Dunedin Railway Station platform yesterday and marvel at the interest in it.
''In our day, they were just the workhorses. People didn't take much notice of the steam engines then, but they do now.''
Ja 1240 will do another five trips to Sawyers Bay today.
