NZR WF class

NZR WF class
Power type Steam
Designer A. L. Beattie
Builder NZR Addington Workshops, Christchurch (10)
NZR Hillside Workshops, Dunedin (16)
A & G Price, Thames (15)
Serial number 59 - 68, 74 - 79, 84 - 93 (NZR)
1 - 12, 121 - 123 (A & G Price)
Build date 1904 - 1908, 1928
Configuration 2-6-4 T
Driver diameter 45 in (1.1 m)
Wheelbase 27 ft 0 in (8.23 m)
Length 34 ft 2 in (10.41 m)
Weight on drivers 26.9 long tons (27.3 t)
Locomotive weight 43.7 long tons (44.4 t)
Fuel type Coal
Fuel capacity 2.2 long tons (2.2 t)
Water capacity 950 imp gal (4,300 L)
Boiler pressure 200 psi (1,400 kPa)
Firegrate area 15.4 square feet (1.43 m2)
Heating surface:
Total
729 square feet (67.7 m2)
Cylinders Two
Cylinder size 14 in × 22 in (36 cm × 56 cm)
Tractive effort 15,330 lbf (68.2 kN)
Number in class 41
Number 62, 379 - 398, 400 - 405, 430 - 438, 467 - 468, 842 - 844
First run 20 December 1904
Last run March 1968
Retired May 1954 - March 1968
Preserved Three
Current owner Steam Incorporated, Canterbury Railway Society, Nelson Railway Society
Disposition 29 scrapped
8 sold to Tasmania (withdrawn)
4 preserved

The NZR WF class were steam locomotives designed, built and used by New Zealand Railways Department. Their wheel arrangement is described by the Whyte notation 2-6-4T and the first members of the class entered service in 1904. The locomotives were tank engines designed by the Railways Department's Chief Mechanical Engineer A. L. Beattie, and were mainly built for suburban duties such as those between Christchurch and Lyttelton. They also saw main-line service in the Taranaki region, but most of the class members were assigned to branch line and local services throughout the country. Two were experimentally converted to oil burners in 1909-1910. The tests were satisfactory, but as coal was much cheaper than oil at the time, no further conversions took place.

There were 41 in the class; built by Addington Workshops (10), Hillside Workshops (16), and A & G Price of Thames (15).

Eight of the locomotives were sold to the Tasmanian Government Railways between 1939 and 1944 and classified as the DS class.

The C class of 1930 is a tender locomotive variant of the WF class.

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