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.
All New Zealand's main-line locomotives run on a narrow gauge of 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm).
Early locomotives
The first locomotive in New Zealand was built by Slaughter & Co in Bristol, arrived at Ferrymead in May 1863 to work on Canterbury Provincial Railways' 5 ft 3 in gauge. It was withdrawn in 1876. The Ferrymead to Christchurch railway line was not completed until 1 December 1863, so the steam locomotive Lady Barkly, in use on Invercargill's jetty in August 1863 during construction of the Bluff branch, may have been the first locomotive in steam.
The first steam engines built in New Zealand were produced in 1872. Fraser and Tinne built an 0-4-0 in Auckland in 1872, but it was based on a Hornsby traction engine. Similarly, a steam crane was converted during construction of the Port Chalmers railway, though it could only haul about 10 tons. The first locomotive entirely built in the country was a engine for the Foxton Tramway contractor, Ashworth Crawshaw, by R. S. Sparrow & Co in Dunedin, also in 1872. It was named Palmerston. Horses had replaced Palmerston by 1874, but, in 1875, after iron had replaced wooden rails, the same branch had an A class steam locomotive built in Wellington by E.W. Mills' Lion Foundry.
Classification details
Steam locomotives were originally categorised with just a single letter, such as the "F class". When a new class was built as an enhancement of an old class, the old class's letter was re-used, followed by a superscript upper-case letter. For example, the 1906 A class was followed by the AA and AB classes.
Diesel-electric and electric locomotive classifications originally consisted of an upper-case D or E respectively followed by a second and sometimes a third (sub-class) letter. The second and third letters are sometimes represented as smaller-sized upper case (for example, as seen on many locomotive cab-side number plates).
New classes were not always given the classification that alphabetically followed that of the previous class that had most recently been acquired. For example, the DJ class was followed by the DX class followed by the DF class. If an entire class had been withdrawn from service and the classification no longer in use, it was sometimes re-used; for example, two A classes exist, one from 1873 and one from 1906.
Traffic Monitoring System
Following the introduction of the computer-based Traffic Monitoring System (TMS) and consequent renumbering, classes were identified by the two upper-case letters with the first letter remaining D or E respectively and sub-classes being indicated by a third upper-case letter, such as DAA (DA modified for hump shunting), DAR (DA with rebuilt superstructure), DFT (DF with turbo-conversion), DXR (rebuilt DX) and so on. Most diesel shunting locomotives have a three-letter classification with DS as the first two letters, following on from the original diesel-hydraulic shunting class that was known simply as the DS class.
For electric locomotives the second letter generally referred to where the locomotive was based, such as EC in Christchurch, EO in Otira and EW in Wellington. The EM class in Wellington stands for Electric Motor and the ET stands for Electric Trailer. The DM class units were an exception to this.
Most railcars were classified RM (Rail Motor), and individual classes were known by alternate names such as the Vulcan railcars of the South Island and the Wairarapa railcars that ran over the Rimutaka Incline.
List of locomotive classes
Mainline diesel locomotives
Diesel shunting locomotives
Electric locomotives
Battery electric locomotives
Electric multiple units
Wellington electric multiple units operate on 1500 V DC overhead. Auckland's electric multiple units run on 25 kV AC overhead.
Railcars
Livery: The first railcars were painted "carnation red" with a white or yellow stripe. The Silver Fern railcars appeared in stainless steel.
All railcars, unless otherwise stated, are designated RM class. Here, they are classified under their common names.
Experimental railcars included the following:
Diesel multiple units
Steam locomotives
Livery: New Zealand steam locomotives after the late 1920s were mainly completely black with red buffer beams at each end. Earlier steam locomotives were more varied in colour with polished brasswork and a contrasting lining on the cab sides and side tanks, for example the green of the F class Peveril.