Locomotives

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K88 "Washington"

The NZR bought eight of these locomotives in the 1870's. They were built by Rogers, of Patterson New Jersey and gave excellent service, finally being written off in the 1920's. This one was buried in a riverbank for about fifty years, before being dug up and restored to steam. They are a 2-4-2 tender locomotive. This wheel arrangement was later named "Columbia" after a loco which appeared at the Columbia exhibition, but Rogers called it a Hudson Double Ender. These locos were very successful and greatly influenced the type of locomotives used in New Zealand for the rest of the steam era. The first two bore names when they arrived, "Washington" and "Lincoln", but there was enough fuss made about buying engines from the rebel colonies and so the names did not last long. Neither did the bells, but in restoration both the name and the bell have returned. The crosshead feedpump has not been restored, perhaps wisely in view of the poor reliability of such pumps. The problem was that they were controlled by throttling the suction side, which causes cavitation and so is very hard on the pump. Curiously the Americans persisted in controlling pumps in this way for about 50 years, from the 1830's until injectors started to take over.

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Ab Class Pacific

The Ab class locomotives were very successful Pacifics. Many of these locomotives were built, by a variety of makers, and several have survived in preservation. They were the mainstay of branchline work until the last days of steam.

Incidently the name "Pacific" refers to the 4-6-2 wheel arrangement and was named because the first Pacifics made (by Baldwins) were ordered by New Zealand.

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Dubs "A" Class

The little Dubs 0-4-0 shunters performed many years of useful service, both for the New Zealand Government railways, and later in private ownership. This one is in the livery of Canterbury Frozen Meats.

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K945 The K series were designed as general purpose (passenger and freight) locomotives. They served until the last days of steam. The design packed about as much power as could be squeezed into the loading gauge short of going to an articulated design. The wheel layout was 4-8-4 One of my favourite steam memories is seeing two of the Kb variant pulling a coal train up the grade to Otira station in the Southern Alps. Later that afternoon I rode around the turning triangle at Otira on the footplate of one of the pair. The Kb had a booster engine built into the trailing bogie.