Oamaru locomotive dump was created in New Zealand so that obsolete locomotives and rolling stock could be used to stabilize loose ground where rivers and the coast were eroding the ground where the railway lines were built. This was done at a time when scrap steel was an uneconomic proposition. It was located on the coastline in the North Otago town of Oamaru to stabilise land used by New Zealand Railways for their freight yards. Here the coastline of the Pacific Ocean pounded heavily against the land causing major erosion.