In October 1875 three Dubs C Class locomotives were landed from the brig "Hannah Broomfield" in Westport for New Zealand Railways. In 1887 New Zealand Railways sold this locomotive to the Westport Harbour Board and it became their number 236. In 1925 the loco was sold again. This time to the Public Works Department who used it on the construction of the Railway through the Buller Gorge to Inangahua.

The original boiler of the locomotive was condemned in 1928 and the locomotive was later dumped in the Buller Gorge at Te Kuha as erosion protection along with two ballast wagons, a fate that has befallen other locomotives around the world. After nearly 60 years in the Gorge the locomotive was recovered by the Westport Railway Preservation Society in 1994. Now, with the dissolution of that group, the ownership of C 236 has been officially transferred to the National Railway Museum of New Zealand.