The Fell Locomotive Museum in Featherston preserves a rare piece of New Zealand railway engineering: the Fell system used to haul trains over the steep Rimutaka Incline. Its centrepiece is the only surviving Fell locomotive, a machine built for a line where ordinary adhesion was not enough.
This is a compact museum, but it tells a strong story about travel across the Wairarapa before the modern tunnel. Railway enthusiasts should make time for it; casual visitors can still appreciate how much engineering was needed to connect Wellington with the interior.