NZR Locomotives

NOTE:This section of the wiki is coloured green in the vision diagram on the Main page. This means there is at least one example of a locomotive that goes right down to the individual locomotive, in this case Locomotive F12. This is then an example that can be followed for developing the full story for every locomotive as the information is gathered.

A summary of published research

New Zealand Locomotives

The history of the locomotives used by the New Zealand Government Railways (NZR) is both intriguing and complex, particularly during the early years. This is brought out in several published works which attempt to unravel the complexities of early numbering and classification systems. This page and its sub-pages are intended to be able to be expanded to capture any level of detail desired about New Zealand railway locomotives.

As a ready reference, a summary is available on the page All NZR locomotives giving the the basic details of each locomotive operated by NZR. The extensive table for steam locomotives has been transcribed from W.G. Lloyd's Register of NZR Steam Locomotives 1863 - 1971 with the Diesel/Petrol, and Electric locomotive data being sourced from The New Zealand Railway Observer magazines and other publications from the New Zealand Railway and Locomotive Society.

The very early railway development in New Zealand was authorised by the Provincial Councils of the time, and all independent of each other, so any numbering of locomotives was also without any consideration of how things might develop in the future. It was also a period when locomotives tended to get allocated names, with some some rules around what types of locomotives received what type of name. By the time the Provincial Governments were abolished in 1876, a structure for a national railway network was already taking shape but it was not until two years later when the Railways Department and the Public Works Department were separated as two separate entities, the Railway Department in charge of running trains and the Public Works Department in charge of building railway lines (among other things), that serious thought was given to how such things as a national locomotive numbering system could be established. Given the haphazard start to railways in New Zealand, and the time that has elapsed since then, it is little wonder that understanding all the steps along the way could become a challenging task, one that was ultimately taken up by a number of different researchers.

The earliest formal publication devoted to NZR locomotives was curiously published in the U.S.A., the work of Tom McGavin, summarising the results of the work of several NZR&LS members. An address was given to Society members by Tom in 1950 and a duplicated transcript of the talk made available. An expanded version of that, with illustrations, was then published by the Railway & Locomotive Historical Society in their "Bulletin 81" in the U.S.A. The work was titled ["The Steam Locomotives of New Zealand Government Railways 1872 - 1949"]. From this came the first New Zealand publication, "Steam Locomotives of New Zealand Since 1863" (1st edition 1950) with a second revised and enlarged edition in 1961. A complete update of the material covered by these early publications resulted in a set of three new volumes, Part one by T.A. McGavin dealing with 1863 - 1900, the other two by E.J. McClare, Part two dealing with 1900 - 1930 and Part three 1930 - 1971. These booklets still provide a very handy ready reference of the various steam locomotive types used throughout NZR's history.

The first attempt to document all the steam locomotives used on New Zealand railways was carried out by Bill LLoyd, and presented in a publication "NZR Steam Locomotive Lists 1880 - 1957". This was issued by the Railway and Locomotive Society as Supplement No.5 to their quarterly publication "The New Zealand Railway Observer". This first list was however not a complete story as it used the 1880 locomotive list (issued as an appendix to the Journals of the House of Representatives) as a starting point, with no attempt to unravel and reconcile any earlier numbering systems. A further 10 years of research resulted in the publication of the first formal attempt to provide a complete register. The "Register of New Zealand Railways Steam Locomotives, published in 1974. 27 years later after much further research, an enlarged and revised edition was published in 2002. Both these edition are serious reference works, listing every locomotive of every class that worked on Government railway lines.

At the time of the centenary of New Zealand railways in 1963, a new work was published as a historical record of all classes of locomotives used by the New Zealand Government Railways, including Steam, Electric and Diesel. This was a collaborative effort by A. N. Palmer and W. W. Stewart and was titled "Cavalcade of New Zealand Locomotives" this is still a very useful reference, outlining all the locomotive types from 1863 to 1955 for the 1st edition, and to 1965 for the 2nd edition with a convenient Locomotive index and list of builders at the back.

As if to formally close off the Steam era, in 2011, Sean Miller published an extensive work titled "The NZR Steam Locomotive". This beautifully presented reference work covers each locomotive type, including a short section on unclassified locos, steam railcars etc. It has many fine illustrations but does lack some details you would expect to be able to find in such a well presented publications.

During the early 1960's, Peter Dyer was busy compiling data on the Public Works Department steam locomotives, a more challenging task given the dearth of early records that existed. He subsequently published a booklet in 1966 titled "Steam Locomotives of the New Zealand Public Works Department".

While the focus of the above publications has really been on steam locomotives, soon after Tom McGavin's first publications he started producing what became a series of booklets reviewing all the motive power that was in use by NZR. While the titles varied a bit, they seemed to settle on "NZR Locomotives and Railcars" with a new issue every few years between 1953 and 1990. Among those issues there were also one publication called "NZR Locomotives", a Railmac publication from 1981, and two more extensive 'pocket' books compiled by Geoffrey Churchman from 1988 and 1992. These smaller format books listed all operating locomotives in New Zealand and grouped by NZR, Industrial and Museum.There was also a 1980 publication by E. J. McClare dedicated to diesels titled "New Zealand railways Diesels". In 2002 David Parsons published a book titled New Zealand Motive Power 2002 that reviewed each class of locomotive in use at that time. This was followed up with an updated version in 2018, so altogether there is a pretty comprehensive record of all railway motive power in New Zealand.

Locomotive Classification

The study of locomotive classification attempts to come to an understanding of why particular locomotive groups received the classification letters they ended up with, and why particular numbers were allocated to particular locomotives, at particular times. This is perhaps not too important to the general rail-fan, but a fascinating conundrum to the serious researcher. Three people in particular have tackled the classification and numbering issues in detail. Bill Lloyd in the two issues of Register of New Zealand Railway Steam Locomotives, Gerald Petrie with three publications; the first looking at boiler records, which resulted in the publication of "New Zealand Steam Locomotives by Official Number" (i.e. boiler number). This was followed 3 years later by "In the Beginning", a detailed look at all locomotive data between 1863 and 1877 in an attempt to unravel many of the mysteries that surrounded certain old locomotives. Then in 2007 a detailed analysis of all available data relating to the early numbering of New Zealand Railways locomotives "Locomotive Numbering from 1890 back to 1863 - The Evidence". This is a fully documented research effort with scanned copies of all early documents found to support the conclusions reached. Sean Millar made locomotive classification his particular challenge and in 2001 he published a slightly controversial book titled "From A to Y excluding I", which was his first interpretation on researching locomotive classification and included some speculation where no hard evidence could be sourced, and yet a conclusion wanted to be reached. This was followed in 2018 by a new work, "Classifying New Zealand's Locomotives" being a more serious look at the classification issue and includes the diesel and electric locomotives. A more comprehensive look at this topic as it relates to New Zealand, can be found on the Locomotive Classification page in this wiki.

Locomotive Types

A locomotive's 'Type' is a label given to describe what kind of locomotive it is, usually based on it's wheel arrangement, and this can be described in a number of different ways. For steam locomotives, the system commonly used in New Zealand is known at the Whyte System where a sequence of numbers, separated by dashes, denotes the wheel arrangement e.g. 4-6-2. Appended to this code can be a series of letters to signify that it is not a Tender engine but a Tank engine and then what kind of tank arrangement. Apart from the number/letter code, some steam locomotives also had names for the particular type of wheel arrangement e.g. 4-6-2 was also known as a 'Pacific'. There is a second system, used primarily in Europe, therefore known as the Continental System, and it caters for steam, diesel and electric locomotives within the one system. Here in New Zealand we use that system for defining our diesel and electric locomotives, so we need to understand two systems to be able to record the wheel arrangement of any locomotive in New Zealand. A more detailed look at this topic can be found on the NZR Locomotive Types page in this wiki.

There is of course much more published material available, particularly articles in periodicals like the Observer, Railfan, and others, however these tend to look at individual locomotive classes rather than the collection as a whole. it is hoped that descriptions of these articles too will eventually be included in this wiki to help researchers locate all relevant material quickly.

Tables of NZ Locomotive Classes

Steam Locomotives

Steam Locomotives - Imperial units

Class	Originally	Type	No Built	Builder	Start Year	End Year	Weight	Tractive Effort	Boiler Pres	Drivers	Cylinders	Length
A		0-4-0T	12	Dubs	1874/5	1906	11	3,072	120	30	2/ 8 x 15	17'-11"
			2	Yorkshire	1875
A		0-4-0T	3	Mills	1875	1885	8	3,413	100	24	2/ 8 x 16	16'-6"
A		0-4-0ST	2	Shanks	1876	1882	10	3,004	110	30	2/ 8 x 16	unknown
A		4-6-2	8	Addington	1906-8	1969	76.5	17,000	225	54	2/ 12 x 22 + 2/ 19 x 22	57'-2"
			50	Price	1907-14
Aa		4-6-2	10	Baldwin	1915	1957	88.5	21,580	170	49	2/ 18 x 24	58'-5"
Ab		4-6-2	38	Addington	1915-24	1969	84.7	20,030	180	54	2/ 17 x 26	62'-5"
			83	North British
			20	Price
	ex Wab		11	Hillside
Ab	ex A class	4-6-2	1	Addington	1915	1969	77	20,030	180	54	2/ 17 x 26	56'-10"
Ad	ex A class	4-6-2	30	reclassification	1910	1915	80.55	20,060	190	54	2/ 18 x 22	57'-2"
B		0-4-4-0T	2	Avonside	1874	1896	28	6,912	130	39	4/ 9 x 16	31'-2"
B		4-8-0	4	Sharp Stewart	1899	1967	65	18,662	175	42.25	2/ 16 x 22	51'-9"
			6	Addington
Ba		4-8-0	10	Addington	1911	1969	69.4	18,550	175	42.5	2/ 16 x 22	52'-3"
Bb		4-8-0	30	Price	1915	1968	69	20,940	175	42.5	2/ 17 x 22	52'-8"
Bc		2-8-2	1	Baldwin	1908	1927	71.4	16,080	200	43	2/11.5 x 20 + 2/19 x 20	55'-7"
C		0-4-0ST	10	Neilson	1874	1879	15.7	5,198	120	30	2/ 9.5 x 18	21'-3"
			6	Dubs	1875
C	ex C 0-4-0ST	0-4-2ST	16	reclassification	1879	1922	15.7	5,198	120	30	2/ 9.5 x 18	21'-3"
C		2-6-2	12	Hutt	1930	1968	66.5	15,330	200	45	2/ 14 x 22	54'-6"
			12	Hillside
D		2-4-0T	17	Neilson	1874	1927	14.7	4,693	130	36	2/ 9.5 x 18	21'-6"
			5	Dubs
			11	Scott
D		0-4-0T	1	Clayton	1930	1936	25.7	5,600	300	42	4/ 7 x 10	22'-4"
E	Ex D&PCR	0-4-4-0T	2	Vulcan	1873	1899	28	8,320	130	45	4/ 10 x 18	32'-10"
E		0-4-4-0T	6	Avonside	1875	1899	34	9,600	130	39	4/ 10 x 18	34'-2"
E		2-6-6-0T	1	Petone	1906	1917	65.8	24,200	200	36.5	4/ 9.5 x 18 + 4/16 x 18	39'-9"
F		0-6-0ST	26	Avonside	1873	1964	19.2	5,733	130	36	2/ 10.5 x 18	32'-4"
			1	Black Hawthorn	1874
			21	Dubs	1878-84
			12	Neilson	1872-88
			12	Stephenson	1885-6
			5	Yorkshire	1874
			11	Vulcan	1875-87
Fa	ex F class	0-6-0T	5	Addington	1892	1943	24	9,090	160	36.5	2/ 12 x 18	23'-4"
			3	Newmarket
			4	Petone
Fa	13 ex Fb class	0-6-2T	12	reclassification	1905	1943	29.3	9,090	160	36.5	2/ 12 x 18	27'-1"
			6	Addington	1902-3
	ex F class		1	Westport
Fb	ex Fa 0-6-0	0-6-2T	13	conversion	1900-5	1905	29.3	9,090	160	36.5	2/ 12 x 18	27'-1"
			1	Newmarket
G		4-4-0ST	4	Black Hawthorn	1875	1919	18.2	5,733	130	36	4/ 10.5 x 18	24'-3"
G		4-6-2+2-6-4	3	Beyer Peacock	1929	1937	145.8	51,584	200	57	6/ 16.5 x 24	84'-4"
G	ex G class	4-6-2	6	Hillside	1937	1956	98.5	25,792	200	57	3/ 16.5 x 24	64'-6"
H		0-4-2T	4	Avonside	1877	1956	34	19,510	130	32 + 23.5	2/14 x 16 + 2/12 x 14	24'-1"
			2	Neilson	1886		36
J		2-6-0	6	Avonside	1875-76	1935	38	9,707	130	42	2/ 14 x 20	41' 1"
			4	Dubs	1879
			5	Neilson	1880
			5	Stephenson	1880
			12	Vulcan	1883-85
J		4-8-2	40	North British	1939	1971	109	24,960	200	54	2/ 18 x 26	67'-0"
Ja		4-8-2	35	Hillside	1946-56	1971	109.45	24,960	200	54	2/ 18 x 26	67'-0"
			16	North British	1952
Jb	Ex J class	4-8-2	12	reclassification	1948	1971	108.9	24,960	200	54	2/ 18 x 26	67'-0"
K		2-4-2	8	Rogers	1878	1927	42.5	6,240	130	48	2/ 12 x 20	45'-7"
K		4-8-4	30	Hutt	1932	1967	135.6	30,815	200	54	2/ 20 x 26	69'-8"
Ka		4-8-4	25	Hutt	1939	1967	145.9	30,815	200	54	2/ 20 x 26	69'-8"
			10	Hillside
Kb		4-8-4	6	Hillside	1939	1969	147.7	30815/36815	200	54/36	2/ 20 x 26 + 2/ 7 x 10	69'-8"
L		2-4-0T	10	Avonside	1878	1903	18.5	5,733	130	36	2/ 10.5 x 18	24'-1"
L	ex L(Av)	4-4-2T	2	Neilson	1899	1939	31.5	7,806	160	42.5	2/ 12 x 18	29'-9"
			1	Hillside	1900
			1	Petone
L	ex L (Av)	4-4-0T	2	Newmarket	1900-02	1939	26.6	7,806	160	42.5	2/ 12 x 18	26'-2"
			1	Petone
La		4-4-2T	3	Petone	1903	1939	31.5	7,806	160	42.5	2/ 12 x 18	29'-9"
La		4-4-0T	5	Nasmyth	1895	1928	25	6,451	140	45	2/ 12 x 18	26'-2"
M		0-6-0T	4	Hunslet	1876	1928	27.7	10,240	160	42	2/ 12.25 x 20	25'-5"
N		2-6-2	6	Baldwin	1885	1934	45.2	9,551	130	49	2/ 15 x 20	49'-2
	ex WMR		2		1895		50.8	10,285	140			50'-2'
			4		1901		54.2	14,660	200			48'-11"
Na	ex WMR	2-6-2	1	Baldwin	1894/1908	1929	54.5	9,700	180	49	2/ 10 x 20 + 2/ 17 x 20	50'-10"
			1		1897/1908	1929	57.1	10,800	200			50'-5"
Nc	ex WMR	2-6-2	1	Baldwin	1902/1908	1931	65.1	10,800	200	49	2/ 10 x 20 + 2/ 17 x 21	54'-10"
			1		1904/1908		63.3					52'-2"
O		2-8-0	6	Baldwin	1885	1922	45.5	11,700	130	36	2/ 15 x 18	46'-3"
Oa	ex WMR	2-8-0	1	Baldwin	1894/1908	1929	57.4	13,600	180	43	2/ 11 x 20 + 2/ 18 x 20	51'-8"
Ob	ex WMR	2-8-0	2	Baldwin	1888/1908	1931	57.6	15,717	165	43	2/ 16 x 20	51'-3"
Oc	ex WMR	2-8-0	1	Baldwin	1897/1908	1930	62.8	15,110	200	43	2/ 11 x 20 + 2/ 18 x 20	51'-8"
P		0-6-0T	2	Davidson/Hunslet	1876	1885	12	3,328	130	28	2/ 8 x 14	20'-1"
P		2-8-0	10	Nasmyth	1886	1930	52.2	11,415	130	41	2/ 15 x 20	50'-7"
Q	ex R&AFR	2-4-4T	2	Rogers	1879	1901	29	4,719	130	48	2/ 11 x 18	35'-4"
Q		4-6-2	13	Baldwin	1901	1957	72.1	18,340	200	49	2/ 16 x 22	55'-4"
R		0-6-4T	18	Avonside	1879	1936	30	6,936	130	36	2/12.25 x 16	31'-3"
S		0-4-0T	1	Hughes	1876	1886	10	3,391	110	30	2/ 8.5 x 16	unknown
S		0-6-4T	7	Avonside	1882	1927	36	7,705	130	36.5	2/ 13 x 16	33'
T		2-8-0	6	Baldwin	1880	1928	42.2	11,700	130	36	2/ 15 x 18	44'-10"
U		4-6-0	9	Addington	1894	1959	61.5	12,136	160	54	2/ 16 x 20	50'
U		4-6-0	10	Baldwin	1898	1902	57.2	14,591	175	49	2/ 16 x 20	49'-6"
Ua		4-6-0	6	Sharp Stewart	1899	1937	62.2	14,591	175	49	2/ 16 x 20	49'-3"
Ub	ex U (Baldwin)	4-6-0	10	reclassification	1902	1928	57.2	14,591	175	49	2/ 16 x 20	49'-6"
			10	Baldwin	1901	1957	58.3	16,670	200			49'-2"
Ub		4-6-0	1	Brooks	1901	1933	63.6	18,340	200	49	2/ 16 x 22	49'-5"
Ub		4-6-0	1	Richmond	1902	1933	59.6	16,510	180	49	2/ 16 x 22	48'-4"
Uc		4-6-0	10	Sharp Stewart	1901	1959	62.6	18,340	200	49	2/ 16 x 22	49'-6"
Ud	ex WMR	4-6-0	2	Baldwin	1908	1930	66.8	15,280	185	58	2/ 16.5 x 22	51'-6"
V		2-6-2	10	Nasmyth	1885/6	1927	51.2	9,551	130	49	2/ 15 x 20	48'-9"
	ex WMR		3		1885	1927	52.3	10,285	140
W		2-6-2T	2	Addington	1889	1959	37.2	12,888	150	36.5	2/ 14 x 20	29'-5"
Wa		2-6-2T	5	Addington	1892	1962	37.2	12,623	160	39.75	2/ 14 x 20	29'-4"
			6	Hillside	1898
Wa	ex J class	2-6-2T	1	Petone	1917	1932	38.7	11,806	160	42.5	2/ 14 x 20	30'-6"
			2	Newmarket	1918	1933
			1	Hillside	1919	1936
Wab		2-6-4T	1	Addington	1918	1963	71.5	22,260	200	54	2/ 17 x 26	44'-5"
			10	Hillside	1923-7
			3	Price	1923-7
	ex Ws class		16	reclassification	1932-5
Wb	ex Wa	2-6-2T	12	reclassification	1899	1957	40.7	13,412	170	39.75	2/ 14 x 20	32'-9"
Wd	ex Wa	2-6-4T	18	Baldwin	1901	1936	43.7	15,780	200	39.75	2/ 14 x 20	34'-9"
We	ex B (Sharp)	4-6-4T	1	Addington	1902	1969	55.2	19,080	180	42.5	2/ 16 x 22	35'-9"
			2	Hillside
Wf		2-6-4T	10	Addington	1904	1969	43.7	15,330	200	45	2/ 14 x 22	34'-2"
			16	Hillside
			15	Price
Wg		4-6-4T	20	Hillside	1910	1956	50	15,330	200	45	2/ 14 x 22	36'-10"
Wh	ex WMR	2-6-2T	3	Manning Wardle	1884-6	1927	32.9	7,846	140	37	2/ 12 x 18	29'-6"
Wj	ex WMR	2-8-4T	1	Baldwin	1908	1927	53.6	21,510	200	43	2/ 17 x 20	37'-2"
Ws		2-6-4T	1	Addington	1917	1932-5	71.5	22,260	200	54	2/ 17 x 26	44'5"
			10	Hillside	1923-7
			5	Price	1923-7
Ww		4-6-4T	50	Hillside	1913	1969	51.5	16,910	180	45	2/ 15.5 x 22	37'
	ex Wg class		10	Hutt	1940
			4	Hutt	1950-2
X		4-8-2	18	Addington	1909	1957	94/95.15	29,500	230/215	45	2/ 13.5 x 22 + 2/ 22 x 22	56'-10"
Y	ex PWD	0-6-0T	3	Hunslet	1938	1958	25.8	10,816	160	40	2/ 13 x 20	22'-11"

Diesel-Electric Locomotives

NZR began its journey to dieselisation in 1952 with the arrival of the first De Class diesel-electric locomotives from the firm English Electric in Great Britain (makers No's 1739 - 1753). They were allocated to Auckland and Wellington for use as heavy shunters in the first phase of eliminating steam from shunting services. Their size was such that they were also suited to lighter Mainline work, though the first diesel locomotives specifically ordered for mainline duties were of the Df Class also from English Electric, 10 of which entered service in 1954 and allocated to Auckland. Over the next three years these were followed by 31 Dg Class from English Electric, allocated to Wellington, Frankton and Auckland, 40 Da Class from General Electric and built in Canada (15), USA (15) and Australia (10), all allocated to Auckland, and finally 11 Dh Class allocated to Dunedin. A total of 107 new locomotives in four years. This was however just the start, as it took another 15 years to eliminate the last of the steam locomotives from the South Island, which did not occur until 1971.

While the De Class was introduced principally as a heavy shunter doing a little main line work, an earlier example of diesel motive power had been introduced to Wellington in the form of 4 Ds Class shunters, which had entered service in 1949 already. A further 12 examples for the South Island entered service in 1953 and 1955. By 1957, soon after the manufacture of the last steam locomotive in New Zealand, a further 70 shunt loco's had been imported, all from Britain. These were of Dsa Class(45) and Dsb Class (25). A final batch of 18 imported shunt locomotives were commissioned during 1959 and these were of Dsc Class.

As Steam continued to be phased out during the 1960's, additional diesel powered loco's were acquired. Mainline motive power continued to be imported, with the most significant orders being for 106 additional Da Class locomotives (from GM Canada) for the North Island, bringing the total to 141, and 64 Dj Class locomotives from Mitsubishi in Japan for the South Island. There were also and order of 17 Db Classlocomotives from GM Canada, for the North Island and 5 Di Class from English Electric (Australia) allocated to Frankton.

During this period the shunting requirements were supplemented by a further 12 Dsa Classengines, and 3 Dsb Class, all from Mitsubishi in Japan, while Addington and Hillside Workshops built an additional 26 Dsc Class engines each.

This completed the transition from steam to Diesel, but by now some of the early diesel engines were nearing their end of life and the chosen way forward was to import 48 Dx Class locomotives from General Electric (USA), with a whopping 2750 Hp, large by New Zealand standards. These became the mainstay for the North Island allowing some smaller loco's to be transferred to the South and the oldest units to be retired. Economic constraints also played their part resulting in major overhauls and conversions of several classes and the details of these will be covered under the pages for each locomotive class.

One major factor that allowed significant reallocation of locomotive resources was the electrification of the central part of the NIMT and the introduction of 22 Class 30 electric locomotives. These displaced around 30 Dx Class locos for use elsewhere in the network with 18 of them being transferred to the South Island.

Main Line Locomotives

The Table below records the major statistics for each class of mainline diesel locomotive used in New Zealand, with the 'class-letters' forming a link to the wiki page for that class