A & G Price

A & G Price Limited is an engineering firm and locomotive manufacturer in Thames, New Zealand, established in 1868. In 2004 a precision formed yacht keel division was formed to make the Maximus canting keel. The firm currently has 135 employees.

A & G Price and railways

A & G Price was the largest New Zealand non-railways locomotive manufacturer, both in terms of output and in terms of supply of rolling stock to the New Zealand Government Railways and other firms.

Price manufactured 22 carriages and wagons in the early 1870s, and manufactured two locomotives in the 1880s for private industry, the first being a 0-4-0ST Saddle Tank type locomotive. The Thames Branch railway line opened in 1898, and Price won a tender to make locomotives for the NZR in 1903 and 1906 (Wright page 106). Later in the 1950s and 1960s they manufactured a number of diesel shunting locomotives for the NZR, the NZR TR class, and some for private users.

In 1990 A & G Price regauged 24 of the Silver Star carriages to metre gauge (1000 mm) for running in Malaysia Singapore and Thailand as the Eastern and Oriental Express.

Locomotive types designed & built by A & G Price

Incomplete List

• 1885 0-4-0ST type (1)
• W^F (15)
• A (50)
• 1912 16-wheeler 0-4-4-4-4-0T type (4), similar to the Johnston 16-wheeler
• 1912 Price C 0-4-4-0T type (2), similar to the Climax A Type
• 1912 Price D 0-4-4-0T type (1), a smaller lighter version of the Price C
• A^B (20)
• B^B (30)
• W^AB (8)
• 1923 Price E 0-4-4-0T type (4), similar to the Climax B Type
• 1924 Price Ca 0-4-4-0T type (1), a Price C but with Heisler style bogies
• 1925 Price Cb 0-4-4-0T type (4), an updated version of the Price C
• 1926 Price Ar 0-4-4-0T type (1), a Meyer_locomotive type
• 1927 Price Cba 0-4-4-0T type (1), an improved developent of the Ca and Cb types
• 1937 Price E 0-4-4-0T type (1), an improved version of the previous E type
• 1939 Price Rail Tractor (10), a small petrol-mechanical design
• 1943 Price V 0-4-4-0T type (1), similar to the Heisler_locomotive
• Price Model 1 through Model 22, various diesel types, many of which were supplied to the NZR
• Price Rail Tractor (1), last locomotive constructed, for yard use at A & G Price.

Preserved locomotives

Incomplete list

• A 423 Te Awamutu Locomotive Museum (now Glenbrook Vintage Railway)
• A 428 Weka Pass Railway
• A^B 699 Pleasant Point Railway
• B^B 144 Mainline Steam, Auckland
• W^AB 800 Te Awamutu Locomotive Museum (now at Glenbrook Vintage Railway)
• W^F 393 Ferrymead Railway
• TR 170 (TR 724 TMS) Wairarapa Railway Restoration Society (Stored offsite)
• Diesel-mechanicals 2ft gauge ex-Ohai Mines one at the Blenheim Riverside Railway, another at Totara Springs Christian Camp railway

References

• Lloyd, W. G. Register of New Zealand Railways Steam Locomotives 1863-1971 (2nd edition 2002) ISBN 0-9582072-1-6
• Wright, Matthew Rails Across New Zealand (2003, Whitcoulls NZ) ISBN 1-877327-14-X

External links

• A & G Price website