NEW LOCOMOTIVES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23859, 13 July 1939, Page 8

NEW LOCOMOTIVES

BUILDING PROGRAMME FIRST OF SERIES COMPLETED HUH RAILWAY WORKSHOPS (Special to Daily Times) WELLINGTON, July 12. A new class of powerful express and freight locomotive will be familiar soon on certain main lines in the North Island. “Ka945,” the first of a new series of 35 similar locomotives now under construction for general utility purposes, was completed recently at the Hutt Valley Railway Workships and is expected to take up regular running this weeek.

The new engine is an improvement on the present K class and is similar in design, but differs in appearance because of the smoke stack domes and other auxiliary equipment carried on the boiler being hidden by protective sheathing. The locomotive is thus semi-streamlined The new engine will be operated on freight services as a preliminary to the more important work of hauling express trains. The second of the " K ” class is expected to leave the workshops in about three weeks’ time and succeeding ones at sixweekly intervals. With the exception that it Is not fitted with a “booster” power unit driving the trailing bogie, which automatically cuts in and adds to the pulling capacity of the engine on heavy gradients, the “Ka class is identical to the “Kb,” a group of which is now under construction at the Hillside Workshops, Dunedin, for use on the Christchurch-Arthur’s Pass section. The first of six “ Kb’s ” has already been completed and placed in service.

As indicated recently by the Minister of Railways (Mr D. G. Sullivan), the present workshops programme in New Zealand includes the building of more than 50 locomotives. It is hoped to complete these engines within the next 18 months. In addition “J ” class locomotives are on order in England, and it is expected that the first will be landed in the Dominion within the next six weeks. The “J ” is a general utility type, larger than the “Ab” but less powerful than the “ K.” In appearance it is semistreamlined. The “J ” class, incidentally, will be operated on North and South Island lines.

The second of the series of seven locomotives for use between Wellington and Paekakariki when the section is electrified has also been completed at the Hutt workshops. Three electric engines are now attached to the locomotive depot at Wellington. The traffic during the Centenial celebrations is expected to be very heavy and the motive power branch of New Zealand Railways is being augmented already to cope with the rush.

The general manager (Mr G. H. Mackley) stated that with 85 fewer engines during the 1938-39 financial year, compared with 1930, the deoartment met a substantial increase in train and locomotive mileage. The increase in train mileage was 1,129,950, and because this mileage was still increasing it was necessary to increase the number of locomotives in service.