When K1 was the repatriated by the builders in 1947, it was the first example of a locomotive imported for preservation - almost 20 years before P.C. Allen (now at Leighton Buzzard) started the fashion. It is known that Beyer Peacock intended to restore the engine to working order and run it within their Gorton Works, and workers from the toolroom were given the task of looking after the loco; however it remains unclear how much work was actually done. It is believed that significant work was done on the motion, but otherwise was restricted to cosmetic work, perhaps once it became known that the boiler needed much more than just a retube.

The loco was offered on loan to the Narrow Gauge Railway Museum (at the Talyllyn Railway) in 1961, but the NGRM could not meet Beyer Peacock's requirement that K1 should be kept under cover; however the NGRM did take the Beyer Peacock 18" gauge works shunter Dot. As Beyer Peacock's business was coming to a close, they made contact in late 1965 with contacts at the Ffestiniog Railway, which led to the FR's purchase of K1 in 1966; the loco was moved to Portmadoc. It has been pointed out that it would prove somewhat prophetic that the loco was reassembled on the Harbour Station siding (since lifted) that was all that remained of the link line to the Welsh Highland! It was known at the time that K1 was too tall and too wide for use on the FR, though for some time the membership was encouraged to believe it would be cut down in height, and somehow reduced in width (in fact the large low pressure cylinders make this impossible), so it could be used on the FR. After display at Harbour Station, followed by years of storage under a tarpaulin in Glan y Mor yard, K1 was loaned to the National Railway Museum at York in 1976, and cosmetically restored in a distinctive "photographic grey" livery. In this high-profile location, K1 became known to many thousands of visitors.