NZR J class (1874)

The J class were steam locomotives with the wheel arrangement of 2-6-0 that were built in 1874 to operate on the railway network of New Zealand. They should not be confused with the more famous J class of 1939. The original J class was the first class of locomotive in New Zealand to have a tender; all previous classes were tank engines.

Operation

The first batch built consisted of six locomotives and they entered service in 1874 in Canterbury, with the total amount of class members brought to a total of 32 over the subsequent years. They spread beyond Canterbury and could also be found working in Auckland, Waikato, and Hawke's Bay. The J class worked well whether it was pulling a long goods train or operating important passenger services in the early days of the Main South Line, but as traffic increased, it was superseded by more powerful locomotives and in 1917-18, four members of the class were converted to 2-6-2 tank engines to perform shunting duties in yards. By 1935, all 32 original J class locomotives had reached the end of their usefulness and were discarded, and sadly none survived to be preserved.

Surviving relics

Although none were preserved, relics of J class locomotives can still be seen to this day at sites where the New Zealand Railways Department dumped withdrawn equipment. A locomotive dump near Oamaru had five J class engines dumped there, Js 15, 82, 83, 116, and 117, although some of these locomotives have since been sucked out to sea or destroyed by the waves. This dump was also the location of W^A 120, which was one of the J's rebuilt as tank engines. Elsewhere, J 61 was dumped cylinderless at Branxholme; 2 J class boilers and tenders still exist at the Omoto Racecourse dump site; and a J class locomotive is known to have been dumped along the Midland Line between Cass and Arthur's Pass, but the loco has yet to be discovered. Although the J class remains at Oamaru are beyond restoration, hopes have been expressed that some will be preserved in their current state by either the local Oamaru museum or the Ferrymead Railway for its National Museum project as an example of dumped locomotives. It is also possible for another J to be recovered and restored to full working order, and although there have long been hopes for this to occur amongst the railfan community, so far no-one has undertaken such an endeavour.

Reference

• Heath, Eric, and Stott, Bob; Classic Steam Locomotives Of New Zealand, Grantham House, 1993