The New Zealand X class was a pioneering class of eighteen

4-8-2 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents the wheel arrangement of four leading wheels, eight powered and coupled driving wheels and two trailing wheels. This type of steam locomotive is commonly known ...

steam locomotive A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, oil or, rarely, wood) to heat water in the loco ...

s built for

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) and designed by A. L. Beattie that operated on the

national rail network In United States railroading, the term national rail network, sometimes termed "U.S. rail network", refers to the entire network of interconnected standard gauge A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gaug ...

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 ...

. In 1908, a heavy and powerful locomotive was required to haul traffic on the newly completed mountainous central section of the

North Island Main Trunk Railway The North Island Main Trunk (NIMT) is the main railway line in the North Island of New Zealand, connecting the capital city Wellington with the country's largest city, Auckland. The line is long, built to the New Zealand rail gauge of and ser ...

, and as a logical progression of the

4-6-2 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents the wheel arrangement of four leading wheels on two axles, six powered and coupled driving wheels on three axles and two trailing wheels on one axle. The loco ...

Q class design, the

wheel arrangement was created for the X class.

Overview

When the first X was completed in 1908 at NZR's

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 ...

Christchurch Christchurch ( ; mi, Ōtautahi) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. Christchurch lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula on Pegasus Bay. The Avon Rive ...

, it was the very first 4-8-2 tender locomotive built in the world. The 4-8-2 design went on to be popular in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

and was nicknamed the "Mountain" type; one theory suggests this name stems from the mountainous terrain that inspired the X's design, while another suggests the

Chesapeake and Ohio Railway The Chesapeake and Ohio Railway was a Class I railroad formed in 1869 in Virginia from several smaller Virginia railroads begun in the 19th century. Led by industrialist Collis P. Huntington, it reached from Virginia's capital city of Richmond ...

first coined the name in reference to its 4-8-2s of 1911 that were built to operate in the

Allegheny Mountains The Allegheny Mountain Range (; also spelled Alleghany or Allegany), informally the Alleghenies, is part of the vast Appalachian Mountain Range of the Eastern United States and Canada and posed a significant barrier to land travel in less devel ...

. The X class were restricted to the 93 miles (153 km) Taumarunui to Taihape section for some years, as the track north and south was 53 lb/yd (26.3 kg/m) rather than 70 lb/yd (34.8 kg/m); and their trains were restricted to 25 mph (40 km/hr) for passenger trains or 20 mph (40 km/hr) for goods trains; a source of frustration to general manager Hiley who would have liked to run them over the entire NIMT (they had had to be partially dismantled for their initial journey to Taihape). The X class initially operated as the freight counterpart of the passenger A class, but they struggled to operate at speeds higher than 50 km/h (30 mph). They were built as de Glehn

compound locomotive A compound locomotive is a steam locomotive which is powered by a compound engine, a type of steam engine where steam is expanded in two or more stages. The locomotive was only one application of compounding. Two and three stages were used in sh ...

s, but during the 1940s, most of the class were converted to simple, superheated locomotives. This increased their power but did not prolong their lives and most were officially withdrawn from service on 2 March 1957, though a few had been taken out of service earlier and two were sold to the Ohai Railway Board (ORB) in 1946 that operated a private industrial line at the end of the

Wairio Branch The Ohai Line, formerly known as the Ohai Industrial Line and previously the Wairio Branch and the Ohai Railway Board's line, is a 54.5 km branch line railway in Southland, New Zealand. It opened in 1882 and is one of two remaining branch ...

Preservation

When the ORB introduced diesel locomotives in 1968, X 442 was donated to the

New Zealand Railway and Locomotive Society The New Zealand Railway and Locomotive Society Inc is a society of railway enthusiasts, based 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 ...

, and it was eventually stored at Ferrymead in Christchurch. In 2002 X 442 was relocated to the

Feilding and District Steam Rail Society The Feilding and District Steam Rail Society, also known as Feilding Steam Rail, is a railway preservation society located in Feilding in the Manawatu region of New Zealand. The society has restored or is restoring a number of locomotives and wa ...

depot in Feilding. Two X class boilers are held by Mainline Steam.

References

Citations

Bibliography

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External links

New Zealand Railways Steam Locomotives - Class X

with a new superheated boiler c1928] {{NZR Locomotives Steam locomotives of New Zealand, X class 4-8-2 locomotives Compound locomotives 3 ft 6 in gauge locomotives of New Zealand Railway locomotives introduced in 1908 2′D1′ h4v locomotives 2′D1′ h4 locomotives