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 K class locomotive 925 at Paekakariki in 1935. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The NZR K class of 1932 was a class of mixed traffic 4-8-4 steam locomotives built by the New Zealand Railways Department (NZR) that operated on New Zealand's railway network. [1] The locomotives were developed following the failure of the G class Garratt locomotives. The class should not be confused with the much earlier K class of 1877-78, the first American-built engines to arrive in New Zealand.
The three G class locomotives were introduced by NZR in response to increased tonnages, especially on the mountainous, demanding North Island Main Trunk Railway. However, various faults led to their swift withdrawal from service and NZR still needed a large and powerful type of locomotive. It decided to develop a conventional rather than articulated locomotive, to avoid a repeat of the G class failure.
Initially conceived as a 4-8-2 locomotive, the K class was to be at least 50% more powerful than the AB class, and due to New Zealand's narrow gauge track and limited loading gauge, the power had to be very carefully compressed into an area smaller than would usually be used for such a locomotive. [1]
Constructed at Hutt Workshops, the class utilised plate frames, partial mechanical lubrication, Franklin butterfly Firehole doors, and roller bearings on all but the trailing bogie. The class had a distinctive appearance when first outshopped, with a pressed smokebox front and the headlight jutting out forward of the top of the smokebox. This latter feature was soon changed at the insistence of one of the Railway’s Board of Management – instead, it was sunken flush into the smokebox, which required some modification and changed the aesthetic look of the class quite markedly.
K 919 was given an ACFI feedwater heater system as a trial, a feature that was continued on the subsequent KA and KB classes.
Upon entering service the class were used on heavy freight and express passenger trains. The K class were best known for spectacular running on the mountainous parts of the North Island Main Trunk in the central North Island and on the Marton - New Plymouth Line around Wanganui. In particular, they took over from the X class locomotives which had been used particularly on the Raurimu Spiral.
While generally reliable, trouble at first was encountered with the long-travel Walschaerts valve gear, and with the plate frames. While the valve gear problems were largely solved by reducing travel from the original 8 inches to 7+1⁄4 inches, the plate frames continued to crack especially in the region of the firebox. While many repairs were undertaken to fix the frames, this problem was only solved by replacing the frame with the new design constructed for the KA and KB classes. This was only done as the replacement was required; as a result not all of the class received the new frames.
After the Second World War, a coal shortage occurred and NZR converted a large number of locomotives to oil burning. The K class were a prime candidate due to the large size of the grate. The conversion process was concurrent with that of the KA class.
As time went on members of the K class gained improvements and additions from the KA class, and some locomotives had the Westinghouse cross-compound pump added in place of the original twin single-stage pumps.
In 1954, mainline dieselisation began and progressively displaced the K class, especially as the DA class locomotives introduced from 1955. Some of the class were rebuilt with new frames in 1955-57 but most of the class were in storage by 1961 and the decision was made that year the class would receive no more A-grade overhauls, other than K 911. The withdrawal of the class began in 1964, and all members exited service by 1967. Three of the class were retained by Hutt Workshops for use as stationary boilers, replacing three Garratt boilers from the G class. These three heavily stripped members of the class lasted in such use service until 1988 when they were auctioned off.
K 900 was donated to MOTAT, and prior to being delivered to the MOTAT site, it was put on display outside Sims Pacific Metals until 1975 when it was replaced by DF 1301. It was then transported to the main MOTAT site and placed at the rail pavilion in the company of AB 832, F 180 Meg Merrilies, J 1236, WW 491, and diesel-electric locomotive DA 1400. It has remained on display at MOTAT since then, initially in the open but later under a shelter roof.
Physically, K 900 retains its original boiler, tender and plate frame, the latter showing evidence of extensive welding repairs due to the weak nature of the original construction. It appears much as it was when withdrawn, with the recessed K-style headlight, but with a KA style funnel and a cross-compound pump with twin air reservoirs mounted under the front compressor shields. Sometime between 2014 and 2018 K 900 was relocated to the workshop at the Western Springs Railway, and is currently undergoing preservation work. There have been plans to restore K 900 to working order but so far none have come to be.
NZR converted three locomotives - 911, 917, and 921 - in 1967 for use as stationary boilers at Hutt Workshops. They continued in this use until 1988 when the boiler house was removed and the hulks were auctioned off. Ian Welch of the Mainline Steam Heritage Trust purchased K 911, the most complete of the hulks, while Steam Incorporated purchased K 917, paired with the tender from K 928, as a potential spare boiler for KA 945. No buyer was found for K 921, which had been paired with the tender from KA 939, and it was later scrapped although the tender and inner firebox, and other parts, including driving wheels, were acquired by Steam Incorporated.
It was announced in 2013 that K 911 will be the next major restoration project at Mainline Steam's Wellington depot at Plimmerton. K 911 retained its cylinders and was noted shortly after purchase in 1998 at their temporary Gracefield depot as having been stripped down for an overhaul. This was put on hold prior to the move to Plimmerton, at which point the boiler was lowered back onto the overhauled frames for storage. Some of its parts were borrowed for use on KA 942, then under restoration at the Glenbrook Vintage Railway in South Auckland.
K 917 has been stored at Steam Incorporated's Paekakariki depot since its arrival in 2001. It is heavily stripped and comprises the driving wheels, replacement 'heavy' frame from the 1950s, boiler and smokebox, and the tender from K 928.
Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, 4-8-4 represents the wheel arrangement of four leading wheels on two axles, eight powered and coupled driving wheels on four axles and four trailing wheels on two axles. The type was first used by the Northern Pacific Railway, and initially named the Northern Pacific, but railfans and railroad employees have shortened the name since its introduction. It is most-commonly known as a Northern.
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.
The New Zealand DJ class locomotive is a type of diesel-electric locomotive in service on the New Zealand rail network. The class were built by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and introduced from 1968 to 1969 for the New Zealand Railways Department (NZR) with a modernisation loan from the World Bank to replace steam locomotives in the South Island, where all of the class members worked most of their lives. Nine of the locomotives remain in use, mainly with Dunedin Railways.
The Wellington and Manawatu Railway Trust is a charitable trust based in Wellington, New Zealand, and is actively restoring former Wellington and Manawatu Railway locomotive No.9, to full working order.
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 NZR JA class were a type of 4-8-2 steam locomotive used on the New Zealand railway network. The class was built in two batches, the first batch was built at Dunedin's Hillside Workshops between 1946 and 1956 and the second batch by the North British Locomotive Works in 1951. To distinguish between the batches, locomotives are identified by their maker.
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 NZR G class was a type of Garratt steam locomotive used in New Zealand, later rebuilt as Pacific type locomotives. They were the only Garratt type steam locomotives ever used by the New Zealand Railways (NZR). They were ordered to deal with traffic growth over the heavy gradients of the North Island Main Trunk (NIMT) and to do away with the use of banking engines on steep grades. They were one of the few Garratt designs to employ six cylinders. A mechanical stoker was used to feed coal into the locomotive.
The NZR KA class of 1939 was a class of mixed traffic 4-8-4 steam locomotives that operated on New Zealand's railway network. They were built after the success of the K class to meet the increasing traffic demands of the New Zealand Railways Department. The locomotives first appeared with distinctive streamlining, mainly to hide their ACFI feedwater heater systems.
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 NZR J class steam locomotives were a type of 4-8-2 steam locomotive built for the New Zealand Railways Department (NZR) and used on the New Zealand railway network. Built by the North British Locomotive Works, although designed to work on the lighter secondary lines the class was frequently used on mainline express passenger trains as well as freight. The class first appeared in distinctive streamlining, which was later removed from 1947 onwards for maintenance reasons. The class should not be confused with the earlier 1874 J class. Three J class lasted until the end of steam-hauled services on 26 October 1971, three locomotives of the forty built have been preserved.
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 NZR KB class of 1939 was a class of six mixed traffic steam locomotives built for New Zealand Railways Department (NZR), that operated on New Zealand's railway network. After the success of the K class, the KB class were built to meet the increasing traffic demands on the Midland Line in the South Island. The locomotives had a wheel arrangement of 4-8-4 and first appeared with distinctive streamlining, mainly to hide their ACFI feedwater systems.
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 K class was a branch line steam locomotive that ran on Victorian Railways in Australia from 1922 to 1979. Although its design was entirely conventional and its specifications unremarkable, the K class was in practice a remarkably versatile and dependable locomotive. It went on to outlast every other class of steam locomotive in regular service on the VR, and no fewer than 21 examples of the 53 originally built have survived into preservation.
The New Zealand V class steam locomotive was used on New Zealand's railway network from 1885 onwards. They were operated by New Zealand Government Railways and the Wellington and Manawatu Railway Company.
The NZR U class, the first tender locomotives built in New Zealand, were a class of 4-6-0 Ten Wheeler locomotive designed to the requirements of Mr T. F. Rotherham and built at NZR Addington between 1894 and 1903. They were amongst NZRs' longest lived tender engines.
The New Zealand WW class was a class of 4-6-4T tank locomotives that operated on the New Zealand national railway network. They were built for New Zealand Railways Department (NZR), and were the final development of the six-coupled tank engine in New Zealand, the penultimate class of tank locomotives to be built for NZR, and the first class of tank locomotives to be built with superheaters.
