The Addington Railway Workshops was a major railway workshops established in the Christchurch suburb of Addington in 1877 by the Public Works Department, and transferred in 1880 to the newly formed New Zealand Railways Department (NZR). The workshops closed in 1990.
Addington Railway Workshops were opened in 1877 to overhaul and construct railway equipment, and to assemble locomotives being imported from England. In 1889, the workshops were responsible for building the first locomotive to be built by NZR, W 192, and continued to build locomotives up to the early 1920s. As well as railway work, Addington also undertook contract work such as the manufacture of gold dredge components; during the First World War, the workshops produced military equipment including aeroplane components.
During the 1920s, Addington was re-geared to manufacture and overhaul rolling stock, although it continued to carry out limited overhauls on steam locomotives and the EC and EO class electric locomotives. Limited locomotive construction resumed in 1962 with the construction of the DSC class centre-cab shunting locomotives. Addington also assembled the Mitsubishi DSA and DSB class diesel-hydraulic shunting locomotives in 1967-68 and four of the five Toshiba DSJ class centre-cab shunters in 1984.
Due to the rationalisation of the New Zealand Railways Corporation following deregulation in 1981, Addington Workshops closed on 14 December 1990. The site was cleared with the exception of the former water tower; due to changes in freight handling the Main North Line was realigned across the former works entrance, while a new Christchurch Railway Station was opened on this site along the realigned stretch of track on 5 April 1993, replacing the former Christchurch railway station on Moorhouse Avenue in central Christchurch.
The remainder of the site was sold to Ngāi Tahu for redevelopment as a shopping centre, named Tower Junction after the former workshops water tower. The Addington Water Tower is registered with Heritage New Zealand as a Category I heritage building, registration number 5390. [1]
The New Zealand F class was the first important class of steam locomotive built to operate on New Zealand's railway network after the national gauge of 3 ft 6 in was adopted. The first locomotives built for the new gauge railways were two E class double Fairlies for the Dunedin and Port Chalmers Railway Company. The F class was the first class ordered by the central government, and between 1872 and 1888, a total of eighty-eight members of the class were constructed.
The NZR AB class was a class of 4-6-2 Pacific tender steam locomotive that operated on New Zealand's national railway system for New Zealand Railways (NZR). Originally an improvement on the 1906 A class, 141 were built between 1915 and 1927 by NZR's Addington Workshops, A & G Price of Thames, New Zealand, and North British Locomotive Company, making the AB class the largest class of steam locomotives ever to run in New Zealand. An additional eleven were rebuilt from the tank version of the AB – the WAB class – between 1947 and 1957. Two North British-made locomotives were lost in the wreck of the SS Wiltshire in May 1922.
Locomotives of New Zealand is a complete list of all locomotive classes that operate or have operated in New Zealand's railway network. It does not include locomotives used on bush tramways.
The NZR B class of 1899 was a class of steam locomotives that operated on New Zealand's national rail network. An earlier B class of Double Fairlies had entered service in 1874, but as they had departed from the ownership of the New Zealand Railways (NZR) by the end of 1896, the B classification was free to be re-used. Despite early difficulties, they were amongst NZR's most influential designs.
The NZR C class consisted of twenty-four steam locomotives built to perform shunting duties on New Zealand's national rail network. It is sometimes known as the big C class to differentiate it from the C class of 1873.
The Glenbrook Vintage Railway (GVR) is a heritage steam railway in Glenbrook, New Zealand.
The New Zealand EW class locomotive was a type of electric locomotive used in Wellington, New Zealand. The classification "EW" was due to their being electric locomotives allocated to Wellington. For two decades until the advent of the DX class they were the most powerful locomotives in New Zealand.
The New Zealand DA class locomotive were a class of diesel-electric mainline locomotives operated on the New Zealand railway system between 1955 and 1989. Consisting of 146 locomotives, it was the most numerous class to ever operate in New Zealand, with five more than the AB class steam locomotive.
The New Zealand DG and DH class were classes of forty-two diesel-electric locomotives operated on New Zealand's rail network between 1955 and 1983.
The NZR WF class were steam locomotives designed, built and used by New Zealand Railways (NZR). Their wheel arrangement is described by the Whyte notation 2-6-4T and the first members of the class entered service in 1904. The locomotives were tank engines designed by the Railways Department's Chief Mechanical Engineer A. L. Beattie, and were mainly built for suburban duties such as those between Christchurch and Lyttelton. They also saw main-line service in the Taranaki region, but most of the class members were assigned to branch line and local services throughout the country. Two were experimentally converted to oil burners in 1909-1910. The tests were satisfactory, but as coal was much cheaper than oil at the time, no further conversions took place.
The New Zealand DSG class is a type of diesel-electric shunting locomotive used in New Zealand. The class shares a central cab design with the smaller DSC class shunting locomotive, and is twin-engined. Meanwhile, the very similarly designed, single-engined DSJ class, has a cab that is offset from the centre.
The New Zealand DSJ class is a class of diesel-electric shunting locomotive used on the New Zealand rail network. The class has a very similar overall design to the DSG class, but is instead single-engined, has a cab that is offset from the centre and is both shorter and lighter than its twin-engined counterpart.
The New Zealand DSC class locomotive is a heavy shunting locomotive used throughout New Zealand. The class was built in seven batches, the first 18 locomotives being built by British Thomson-Houston of the United Kingdom, with the remainder being built by New Zealand Railways (NZR).
The NZR W class consisted of two steam locomotives built at the Addington Railway Workshops in Christchurch, New Zealand by the New Zealand Railways Department (NZR). They were the first locomotives to be built by NZR.
The New Zealand TR class locomotive is a type of diesel shunting locomotives built by many different manufacturers. Defined as "shunting tractors" or "rail tractors" by KiwiRail and its predecessors, they are classified "TR" for tractor as a result. Many of these locomotives have been withdrawn, but some are still in service. The first locomotive of this class was built by NZR in 1924. The most powerful were Japanese-built Hitachi TRs, with 138 kW Cummins engines.
The East Town Railway Workshops were a major manufacturing, maintenance and repair facility of the New Zealand Railways Department (NZR) located by the Marton - New Plymouth Line in the city of Wanganui in New Zealand's North Island. Output included not only rolling stock but also tools, equipment, huts, furniture and tarpaulins. It was a prodigious facility, and one of the larger employers in the city. Its name is sometimes formatted as Eastown or Easttown.
Otahuhu Railway Workshops were a major rolling stock construction, maintenance and repair facility operated by the New Zealand Railways Department (NZR), in the south Auckland suburb of Ōtāhuhu in New Zealand's North Island. The workshops were opened in 1928 and were closed in 1992 as part of a rationalisation of workshop facilities throughout the country.
The Diesel Traction Group (DTG) is the Christchurch-based operator of a fleet of ex-New Zealand Railways Department diesel-electric locomotives. The fleet represents a full collection of New Zealand locomotive classes built by the English Electric Company and is a historically significant collection of early New Zealand diesel traction. All of the DTG's locomotives are owned by individual members through the sale of shareholdings.
The NZR DS class locomotive is a type of 16 diesel shunting locomotives built by the Vulcan Foundry and supplied by the Drewry Car Co from 1949–1955, for New Zealand Railways (NZR).
The NZR DSA class locomotive was a type of 0-6-0DM diesel-mechanical locomotives built by three different manufacturers: W. G. Bagnall, Hunslet, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, and Vulcan Foundry for the Drewry Car Co. They were built between 1953 and 1967.
