A silver gelatin dry plate glass negative in landscape format.

Country Always

Caring for Country

A Corner of the Empire

The Garden Palace

Sepia photograph of the Technological Museum and a cow in the foreground

The Holding Pen

The Agricultural Hall

Sepia photograph of the Technological College and Museum in Broken Hill

Regional Networks

Across New South Wales

A Museum of Doing

Technological Museum

Black and white photograph of man walking through eucalyptus plantation

Expanding Stories

Evolution of the Castle Hill site from botanical research station to Museum Discovery Centre

Colour photograph of red corrugated iron building from a high vantage point

Transforming the Tramsheds

Powerhouse Stage 1 and the Harwood Building

A Symbol in Time

Sydney Observatory

Powerhouse Museum, Stage 2 exterior from high angle, city skyline in background

Ongoing Transformations

Powerhouse Ultimo

Blurred image from film with museum object number

Applied Arts and Sciences

Defining the terms in the 21st century

Powerhouse Renewal

Locomotive No. 1 – On the Move

One of the most significant objects in the Museum's collection

Two people standing next to a cow in a field of cows.

Powerhouse Food: Producers

Across Western Sydney24 Aug 2024 — 25 Jul 2025
Five people dressed in white sit on the floor around black pots and surrounded by black pots.

Sydney Design Week

Across Sydney13—19 Sep
Shadows cast by the Powerhouse Parramatta exoskeleton on concrete

Exoskeleton

Powerhouse Parramatta

A woman stands on stage in front of a large audience. She has her left hand raised in the air and a microphone in her right hand. The audience are holding their phones up recording the woman.

Blak Powerhouse

Powerhouse x We Are Warriors

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Stories

Locomotive No. 1 – On the Move

One of the most significant objects in the Museum's collection

Locomotive No.1 hauled the first passenger train in New South Wales on the line between Sydney and Parramatta in 1855. It is one of the most significant objects in the Powerhouse Collection relating to the history of New South Wales and has been in the museum's possession for well over a century.

It was designed by James McConnell and built in England by Robert Stephenson and Co of Newcastle-on-Tyne. Locomotive No.1 is significant in British railway history as it is a very rare surviving McConnell-designed goods express locomotive of the early 1850s and believed to be the only example of its type in the world.

After it was retired it went to a railway workshop in Eveleigh, called The Rotten Row, where old engines were stored awaiting reconstruction or final condemnation. It was later refitted with parts of other engines of its class and gifted to the museum on 8 May 1884 by the Commissioner for Railways Sydney.

Locomotive No.1 was initially displayed in the Agricultural Hall in the Domain behind Sydney Hospital. In 1893 it was then housed in a small building behind the museum’s second home in Harris Street Ultimo (the current TAFE NSW site across the road from Powerhouse Ultimo).

Photograph depicting Locomotive No.1

In the late 1970s it underwent an extensive restoration and conservation program. When its parts were stripped down, cleaned and polished the individually stamped numbers revealed they were predominantly Locomotive No.1 parts.

The Second Class Carriage was found derelict after it had been transformed into a workman’s van in 1961. It was totally restored as a second class carriage for static display.

From 1988 to 2024 Locomotive No.1 and tender were displayed with 1st, 2nd, and 3rd class carriages in a permanent exhibition at Powerhouse Ultimo.

The exhibition consisted of four separate Powerhouse Collection objects, which while displayed together, were acquired separately.

On 18 July 2024 Locomotive No.1, tender and carriages were relocated to Powerhouse Castle Hill where they will be exhibited until works are complete at Ultimo.