Every little boy loves a train set. Doug Machin was no exception but now as a 'big boy' has gone one better. He has just had a full size locomotive delivered to his machinery yard.

The TL 153 class locomotive now calls the Dalby Machinery Centre yard on the corner of the Warrego Highway and Winton Street its forever home.

Owner Doug Machin said he always liked trains and particularly liked the TL153.

“My grandfather came out here in the 1950s and was station master at Macalister,” Mr Machin said.

The TL 153 was one of only five EMD G12 class diesel locomotives built by Clyde Engineering at Granville NSW for the Kowloon Canton Railway in Hong Kong.

Numbers 51 and 52 were built in 1955 then 53, 54 and 55 in 1957.

In 2004 KCR 51 was restored and placed into the Hong Kong Railway Museum.

The following year TL 153 was one of four EMD G12 locomotives purchased second hand and repatriated by CFCL Australia for use as lease units.

It was fully refurbished at Goulburn in 2007 and sent to Adelaide where it was used as a shunt engine at Islington workshops.

It was returned to Goulburn in 2011 and again refurbished. It was used as a shunt engine until it went into storage in 2013 not expected to see service again.

The locomotive was transported to Dalby by road arriving on Thursday morning.

Two cranes were put in position on Thursday afternoon then two more arrived on Friday to complete the lift off the truck and put the locomotive in position on tracks along the Winton Street fence.

Mr Machin said the yard is on the first intersection in town.“Everyone will know it as the yard where the train is,” he said. Mr Machin said he would put bump stops at either ends of the train and track ballast under the tracks. The train will be sign written with the DMC colours and remain on display.