the last locomotive to traverse the south gippsland main line before its closure was steam locomotive k190 operated by steamrail victoria. it returned to steamrail victoria's base at newport on 29 april 1998, after it was leased to the south gippsland tourist railway (sgtr) in december 1996. the south gippsland tourist railway had first loaned the locomotive during the summer of 1995-1996. the locomotive again returned for the summer of 1996-1997. k190 was leased to the south gippsland tourist railway on 7 december 1996, when steamrail victoria operated another steam special to leongatha. diesel loco t345 was also loaned to the tourist railway at the time, and was part of the train from newport workshops. k183 double-headed with k190 to nyora, with t345 attached to the special. k190 and t345 were detached at nyora station. shortly afterwards k183 journeyed solo to leongatha. k190 followed to leongatha with a consist of the tourist railway's carriages. t342, t345 and the derm rm55 combined for a saturday tourist railway service. later, k183 returned to newport workshops with the steamrail victoria train. however, steam locomotives d3639 and k183 combined for the last steam excursion to traverse the south gippsland rail line on 25 september 1997. during this time d3.639, along with k190, were both on loan to the south gippsland tourist railway.