Steam Trains and Engines

The first railway in New Zealand, opened in 1863 between Christchurch and Ferrymead, was built to a gauge of 5 ft. 3 in., and eventually 75 miles of broad-gauge line were in use. After 1876, however, the General Government acquired all the country's railways, including those provincial lines already built to 3 ft. 6 in. gauge, to which the broad gauge was soon converted.

In 1932 the C.M.E. of the Government Railways, Mr. P. R. Angus, built the first of his celebrated ' K ' class 4-8-4s. These fine locomotives, however, weighed over ninety tons and could operate only over the main lines; to provide equivalent power on the lightly laid secondary lines, therefore, there appeared in 1939 the ' J ' class 4-8-2 engines, weighing only 69 tons but developing 25,000-lb tractive effort, thanks to their 200-lb, boiler pressure and 18 in. x 26 in cylinders. The first forty locomotives, built by North British, were stream lined but this was later removed.

So satisfactory were these 4-8-2s that thirty-five similar engines, classed ' Ja,' were built at Hillside shops in 1946, and in 1951 North British supplied sixteen more, New Zealand's last steam locomotives. Able to haul 400-ton passenger trains at speeds up to 50 m.p.h., and 800-ton freight trains, the ' J ' class engines are used in both North and South Islands while most of the ' Ja ' class, of which No 1284 is seen here on freight, are in South Island.