The NZR ED class
locomotive was a type of
electric locomotive
An electric locomotive is a locomotive powered by electricity from overhead lines, a third rail or on-board energy storage such as a battery or a supercapacitor. Locomotives with on-board fuelled prime movers, such as diesel engines or ga ...
used in
Wellington
Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by m ...
,
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 List of islands of New Zealand, smaller islands. It is the ...
. They were built by
English Electric
N.º UIC: 9094 110 1449-3 (Takargo Rail)
The English Electric Company Limited (EE) was a British industrial manufacturer formed after the Armistice of 11 November 1918, armistice of World War I by amalgamating five businesses which, during t ...
and the
New Zealand Railways Department
The New Zealand Railways Department, NZR or NZGR (New Zealand Government Railways) and often known as the "Railways", was a government department charged with owning and maintaining New Zealand's railway infrastructure and operating the railway ...
(NZR) between 1938 and 1940, and hauled mainly passenger trains on the Wellington region's 1500 V DC
electrification
Electrification is the process of powering by electricity and, in many contexts, the introduction of such power by changing over from an earlier power source.
The broad meaning of the term, such as in the history of technology, economic histo ...
, and banked freight trains on the steep section between
Paekakariki and
Pukerua Bay
Pukerua Bay is a small seaside suburb at the southern end of the Kapiti Coast, New Zealand. In local government terms it is the northernmost suburb of Porirua City, in the Wellington Region. It is 12 km north of the Porirua City Centre on ...
.
The locomotives featured a unique wheel arrangement, 1-Do-2 under the
UIC classification system, and incorporated a
quill drive
A quill is a writing tool made from a moulted flight feather (preferably a primary wing-feather) of a large bird. Quills were used for writing with ink before the invention of the dip pen, the metal- nibbed pen, the fountain pen, and, eventually ...
(the only type of locomotive to do so in New Zealand) to the driving wheels.
They were found to be hard on the tracks, leading to speed restrictions on these locomotives and their replacement by
EW class locomotives on the
Johnsonville Line
The Johnsonville Branch, also known as the Johnsonville Line, is a commuter branch line railway from the main Railway Station of Wellington, New Zealand to the northern suburb of Johnsonville via Ngaio and Khandallah.
Transdev Wellingto ...
after the introduction of the EW in 1952. The E
W class was considered more suited to passenger services than the E
D and replaced them on most passenger services on other lines.
Classification
Like all other electric locomotives in New Zealand, the leading letter of the locomotive's classification is E. There are two predominant theories about how the E
D class acquired the second letter, D. The first is that it comes from the "Do" of its 1-Do-2 wheel arrangement. The second is from its original allocation to two locations, Wellington and Otira - Arthur's Pass, hence "duplicated". Official records provide no confirmation of either theory.
Introduction
New Zealand Railways purchased one E
D class locomotive in 1938 from English Electric, No. 101, for use on the newly opened
Tawa Flat deviation, which incorporated two long tunnels. This locomotive was known as "
The Sergeant" because of the three longitudinal stripes on each side of the body that were unique to this locomotive.
The tender required the supply of locomotive components for the other locomotives required, as it was thought desirable to carry out manufacture in New Zealand in NZR workshops. A further seven locomotives were assembled at the
Hutt Workshops
The Hutt Railway Workshops is a major railway engineering facility in the Lower Hutt suburb of Gracefield in the Wellington region of New Zealand's North Island. It is state-owned enterprise KiwiRail's only workshops, and was opened in 1930 ...
, and two at
Addington Workshops
The Addington Railway Workshops was a major railway workshops established in the Christchurch suburb of Addington in 1877 by the Public Works Department, and transferred in 1880 to the newly-formed New Zealand Railways Department (NZR). The wor ...
for use on the
Otira
Otira is a small township fifteen kilometres north of Arthur's Pass in the central South Island of New Zealand. It is on the northern approach to the pass, a saddle between the Otira and Bealey Rivers high in the Southern Alps. A possible meanin ...
-
Arthur's Pass
Arthur's Pass, previously called Camping Flat then Bealey Flats, and for some time officially Arthurs Pass, is a township in the Southern Alps of the South Island of New Zealand, located in the Selwyn district. It is a popular base for explorin ...
section of the
Midland Line. The two South Island locomotives were later transferred north.
Renumbering
With the introduction of the
Traffic Monitoring System
Traffic reporting is the near real-time distribution of information about road conditions such as traffic congestion, detours, and traffic collisions. The reports help drivers anticipate and avoid traffic problems. Traffic reports, especially in c ...
(TMS) in 1979, the two remaining locomotives were renumbered ED15 and ED21.
Steam boilers
Each locomotive (E
D 101 to E
D 108; not E
D 109 and E
D 110) originally had
oil-fired water-tube boilers for passenger carriage steam heaters, supplied by the
Sentinel Waggon Works
Sentinel Waggon Works Ltd was a British company based in Shrewsbury, Shropshire that made steam-powered lorries (steam wagons), railway locomotives, and later, diesel engined lorries, buses and locomotives.
History
Alley & MacLellan, Sen ...
. The boiler could supply of steam per hour at a pressure of , and the water and oil tanks had capacities of respectively, so could steam for four hours before refilling. They were shut down or removed in 1950 due to "on-going reliability problems"; air turbulence particularly in tunnels or when trains passed on double-track sections resulted in downdraughts affecting the boiler and in passenger discomfort in winter. In June 1951 the Deputy Mechanical Engineer said that the cost of fitting suitable boilers for the section from Paekakariki to Wellington was not warranted as the carriages leaving Paekakariki had residual heat, and a steam loco could pre-heat carriages before they left Wellington. In 1954-55 two boilers were installed in the Wellington station basement (and in 1958 one went to the NZR Road Services garage in Rotorua). The Chief Mechanical Engineer then wanted eight locos to have boilers for the 1955 winter, but parts were not available for the obsolete boilers and "refurbishing did not proceed". It was also found that the boilers were unreliable as the burners had been amended to be outside the normal operating specifications.
[''Shake, Rattle and Roll: The ED electric locomotives'' by David Parsons: "New Zealand Railfan", March 2017 page 51: Volume 23 No 2]
Withdrawal
With the introduction of
DA class diesel locomotives on the Paekakariki via Pukerua Bay to Wellington electrified section in 1967, eight of the class were withdrawn from service in 1969 and scrapped. The remaining two were kept in sporadic service until March 1981, when both locomotives were sold into preservation. There were plans to send them back to the Otira - Arthurs Pass section but nothing came of this. E
D 101 is preserved by the
Silver Stream Railway, while E
D 103 is preserved by the
Canterbury Railway Society
The Canterbury Railway Society is an organisation of railway enthusiasts based in the Canterbury region of New Zealand's South Island, best known for their operation of The Ferrymead Railway at the Ferrymead Heritage Park.
Beginnings
The Canter ...
.
References
Footnotes
Citations
Bibliography
*
*
External links
Photo of ED 101 at Silverstream 1995(Internet archive copy)
ED 101, c1937 with skirt (Godber photo)ED 102, 1938 (Godber photo)
New Zealand Diesel and Electric Traction - Class ED(Internet archive copy)
ED class, photo at SilverstreamED class history*
{{NZR Locomotives
English Electric locomotives
1500 V DC locomotives
Electric locomotives of New Zealand
Railway locomotives introduced in 1938
3 ft 6 in gauge locomotives of New Zealand