Three thousand people will ride the locomotive 3801 between Albury and Gerogery over Saturday, Sunday and Monday in its second stint of rides for the public after a decade-long restoration.

Transport Heritage NSW rail operations manager Daniel Page said the 3801 was last in Albury in 2006 and had been undergoing restoration since 2009 at the Chullora Railway workshop in Sydney.

"It's its second public weekend - we did a big relaunch in Sydney and this its launch into regional NSW," he said.

"It had a major boiler refurbishment and a ground-up rebuild that was funded by the NSW government.

"It was very intentional to come to Albury; we knew we'd get a great reception."

Mr Page said the locomotive was tested on the line to Albury after it was built in 1943.

"Straight out of the workshop, it worked for a month continuously to Albury and back - for a month they tested it on the Albury Express and they were satisfied," he said.

"It was delivered in the midst of the turmoil of World War Two and boosted public morale.

"It was special at that time because it was a pretty serious technological leap forward for the country's rail system.

"It changed rail travel for decades, because it enabled faster express trains to operate over longer distances.

"It's appropriate that this is now its first journey after restoration, because we're really recreating history from 80 years ago."

The 38 class were able to haul more carriages and were the last steam engines built in NSW for passenger operations.

A total of 30 were built and the 3801 is the only streamlined steam locomotive to survive in NSW.

"Two things make them very famous - it's got that sleek, green appearance with the streamlined nose cone - it doesn't look like other steam engines," Mr Page said.

"The second thing is that it's the most widely traveled engine in Australia; it's been to every mainland state and capital city.

"It's done that since the 1970s through the bicentenary in 1988.

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"We're now continuing that tradition of taking steam trains to regional New South Wales for the benefit of local communities.

"We've had people from all over NSW contacting us; there is a huge amount of public affection for this locomotive."

A series of 80-minute train rides across Saturday, Sunday and Monday are booked out.

The 3801 and its crew will depart for Junee on Monday afternoon.