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Disposition	29 scrapped 8 sold to Tasmania (withdrawn) 4 preserved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 W^F 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 W^F class.^{[citation needed]}

External links

• NZ Steam locomotives: W^F class