The museum is owned by an incorporated society, the National Railway Museum of New Zealand Incorporated.[3] The society is a registered charity.[4] Alan Spooner is the current president of the society.[4]
To raise funds, the NRM runs its own bookshop, mainly selling books and magazines relating to railway topics in New Zealand.[5]
The museum owns one electric locomotive from Wellington, one electric multiple unit also from Wellington and three wagons with a leased diesel shunter. The museum will display other NZR and bush locomotives from the Canterbury Railway Society. The museum will also display other rolling stock including a turntable from Auckland and any other suitable railway material. The museum is under construction with the turntable in place.[2] An NZR C class (1873), rescued from a dump in Buller Gorge,[6] was moved from the Westport Railway Preservation Society to NZRM in 2024.[7]
