New Zealand Government Railways 2-6-2 Locomotives in New_Zealand

Class C (Locobase 5166)

Data from John Garner's comprehensive site at [] ... (October 2002). Garner says that these engines were designed for heavy shunting (i.e., switching) work on both islands. The engines had many typical American features of the day including the Butterfly firebox door (operated by air), Commonwealth cast-steel trailing truck.

Class N (Locobase 4959)

Data from [] accessed in January 2002. See also "American Engines in New Zealand", The Engineer (27 November 1885), p. 422; Charles Rous-Marten, "American Locomotives in New Zealand," Railway Engineer, Volume 14, No. 3 (March 1893), pp.78-80; and DeGolyer, Volume 12, p. 147. They were produced in October-December 1885 (works numbers (NZGR number): 7571 (30), 7573 (37), 7574 (42), 7575 (34), 7576 (27), 7579 (36)). Four more slightly different Ns were delivered in 1901; see Locobase 10775.

Built at the same time as the O-class Consolidations (Locobase 4958), these Prairies were produced in an order that was prompted by the arrival of British locomotives that proved much too heavy. Responding to an order dispatched from New Zealand on 6 December 1884 and received at Philadelphia on 14 January 1885, Baldwin produced these six 2-6-2s and the six Consolidations by April for shipment from New York on 1 May 1885. Baldwin's rapidly prepared specs noted the copper firebox and other British-style requirements and stated that the engines were to run at a maximum speed of 35 mph (56 kph) and to travel 40 miles (64 km) without stopping.

This sextet was intended as passenger power; the relatively tall drivers and the arrangement itself suggests as much. OS Nock (RWC II, plate 131) comments: "They seemed equally at home in passenger and freight service, and were many times authentically recorded at 60 mph [97 km/h]." These Ns were rated to move 600-700 tons at 20-25 mph on level track.

Railway Engineer reported that the average cost in pence per mile proved to offer "a small but decided advantage in favour of the American engines." He conceded the apples-to-anvils nature of the comparison by adding that the British engines worked over a ruling grade of 2%, and averaged 20-25 mph while the American locomotives averaged 35 mph over a 0.5% ruling grade.

NZGR's #27 was converted as a Vauclain compound engine in 1895; it was the only compound until the Wellington and Manawatu engines were absorbed in 1908.

Their fifteen-year service between Christchurch and Dunedin on the South Island was followed by North Island mail-train hauling between Wellington and Napier. The last of this sturdy class retired in 1934. A table of withdrawal dates follows:

37 November 1926

27 November 1927

36 March 1929

34 February 1933

30 August 1933

42 March 1934

Class V (Locobase 5186)

Data from John Garner's comprehensive site at [] ... (October 2002). See also Charles Rous-Marten, "The New Zealand Railways 3 ft 6 in Gauge-Their Progress and Results for 1884-Their Locomotive Practice, and New Departures in that Department", No 24575, English Mechanic and World of Science, No. 1,063 (7 August 1885), pp. 499-500; "V-Class locomotive train engines from 1885 unearthed near Lumsden", RNZ (Radio New Zealand), 4 December 2018 at []; and "Second steam locomotive removed from Oreti River", RNZ (Radio New Zealand), 28 February 2020 at [] transcripts last accessed 2 May 2021. Works numbers were 251-262 in 1885.

Writing before their delivery, Rous-Marten described the Vs as a "powerful combination" of the J and K (Locobase 1108) classes. He noted the K class 2-4-2T as the inspiration, but enlarged by fitting a middle, unflanged set of drivers. He praised the choice of an English builder who would deliver "a general English construction as to material and exterior ...preferred, owing to its superiority, chiefly as regards the materials used for the tubes, fireboxes, and wheels."

Delivered the same year as this builder's P-class 2-8-0s (Locobase 1109), these Prairies used the same cylinder, boiler, and firebox dimensions. Garner says they were delivered late and were overweight by over 12,000 lb (5,443 kg). The NZGR refused delivery and ordered ten N-class 2-6-2s from Baldwin in December 1884 (Locobase 4959).

V-class engines trickled onto the NZGR from 1885 to 1890 as over the next few years, the builder trimmed much of the overage. Apparently, this surgery created a weak section of frame just behind the cylinders.

Regardless of any shortcoming, the class remained in service into the 1920s with the first withdrawn in 1925 and the last in the early 1930s. After a unfruitful attempt by Tony Bachelor to restore V class locomotives recovered in 1999, the Lumsden Heritage Trust sought to recover the V 126-V 127, which had been dumped at the junction of the Mararoa and Waiau Rivers in 1927.

extracted V 127 from the Oreti River after a six-year program. V 126 emerged on 26 February 2020 using improved techniques.

Class W (Locobase 5187)

Data from John Garner's comprehensive site at [] ... (October 2002).

This pair were the first two locomotives to be designed by the NZGR and was based on the J-class 2-6-0Ts. Quite successful, they steamed, little changed, for more than 70 years.

Class Wa (Locobase 5188)

Data from John Garner's comprehensive site at [] ... (October 2002). See also Zeitschrift des Architecten und Ingenieur-Vereins, Vol XXXIX, No 1 (1893), p. 96.

These were conversions of J-class 2-6-0s and were operated mostly as switchers. The first 8 conversions had slide valves and a single-crosshead guide while the last 3 had piston valves and a double-crosshead slide guide.

Class Wb (Locobase 4960)

Data from Hugh McCracken's Baldwin Steam in New Zealand website ([], last accessed on 30 August 2008 February 2015 (first in October 2002). See also "Ten Wheeler for New Zealand", Railway and Locomotive Engineering, February 1899, pp. 99, 103; and DeGolyer, Volume 21, p. 237,. Works numbers were 16166-16177.

This sturdy class of Prairie tanks supported the growing commuter traffic out of Wellington. According to Hugh McCracken's history of locomotives 292 and 299, 7 Wbs replaced the Double Fairlies in service that required them to negotiated very tight (5-chain) radius curves and scale grades of nearly 3% (1 in 35). Their bunker capacity proved a limiting factor given their 40-45 lb/mile coal consumption rate.

The original specs contained a clear stricture against busting weight limits Weight on the drivers was LIMITED [all caps in the original] to 60,300 lb (27,351 kg) and a MAXIMUM weight for the loaded engine of 85,100 lb (38,600 kg). No axle would bear more than 20,100 lb (9,117 kg). As our specs show,

Ultimately the seven commuters joined the other Wbs in coal-traffic service on the Westport Section. On that line, they were rated at 700 tons. In the mid-1920s, four of the engines (292, 298-300) received new, 200-psi boilers.

The table shows the works number order and NZGR engine number.

297 16166

298 16167

295 16168

296 16169

294 16170

291 16171

292 16172

290 16173

293 16174

299 16175

300 16176

301 16177

They were delivered in January-May 1899. At first, McCracken says, 9 of the 12 served the Wellington, Napier, and New Plymouth line and 2 went to Westport, which was isolated from the rest of the South Island's railway network. By World War One, Westport operated 6 and Whangei held the other 6. As traffic demands overwhelmed this small design's capacity, most were retired in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Four of the six on the Westport line were given new boilers and carried on in short-haul coal traffic into the mid-1950s. See table of retirements.

301 March 1928

290 January 1929

295 October 1929

296 August 1931

291 December 1931

297 October 1932

293 December 1932

294 May 1935

298 September 1955

300 October 1955

292 January 1957

299 January 1957

Two of the twelve--292 and 299--were retrieved by volunteers at the Rimutaka Incline Railway 50 years after they'd been dumped a river to stabilize banks in Seddonville in 1958 and 1960. The two locomotives arrived at Maymorn in August 2008 (a "snowy" morning in the Southern Hemisphere) in pieces, "frames and boilers eing the largest recognisable portions" according to the Rimutaka Incline website. (Project details were available at b[], last accessed 6 February 2015.)

By 2013, the railway had developed computer-aided design (CAD) drawings of the 299's cab and by December 2014, the rebuild of Wb 299 was "well under way."