With the rail preservation movement well under way by the late 1960s, many ex-VR locomotives were sold to local councils for display in municipal parks or near railway stations. The K had a further advantage over other classes in this respect: because VR offered the locomotives for the price of their scrap value (plus the cost of freight to their eventual destination), the relatively lightweight K represented a comparatively cheap locomotive purchase. The large number of preserved K class locomotives is in stark contrast to the fate of VR's remaining fleet of 73 larger, heavier N class locomotives, all of which (other than the one example retained for display at the ARHS Railway Museum) were scrapped.