New locomotives rolled out

The first of the new railway locomotive engines imported into New Zealand for more than 30 years were unloaded from the Beluga Foresight vessel at the Port of Tauranga on Sunday morning.


The new trains were unwrapped on Sunday.

The locomotives were imported from China and arrived at the Port of Tauranga at 3.30 on Friday afternoon.
The six locomotives will be moved from the port to the Norske Skog marshalling yard in Mount Maunganui on Sunday.
Kiwirail project manager Scott Murray says the new locomotives will be inspected and tested on Monday in preparation for a tow to Te Rapa on Tuesday, where they will be commissioned.
The trains are scheduled to leave Mount Maunganui at 6am on Tuesday and arrive at Te Rapa at 12.30pm.


Trucks brought the trains to the Norske Skog site to be unloaded.

The remaining 14 in the NZ$80 million purchase are due early next year and will also be deployed around the North Island.
The double-cab DLs have a 2700kW or 3619hp engines with similar pulling power to the 4000hp EF electric locomotives built in 1988 for the electrified sections of the North Island Main Trunk Line.
Scott says the new locomotives are the most powerful diesel locomotives in New Zealand.
'We expect them to be running from Auckland to the Bay of Plenty by the end of the year.”
The official launching of the new locomotives is in Hamilton December 10; the first train unwrapped was blessed at the marshalling site at 11.20am.




Kiwirail project manager Scott Murray and DLoco chief designer Cong Maoye overseeing the unloading.



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3 comments

Great News

Posted on 21-11-2010 13:31 | By bringa

Trains are such a better way of transporting goods. Less wear and tear by trucks on the roads, less road crashes involving trucks, trains employ more people and give off less carbon emissions for the same amount of cargo transported by trucks. There is also the potential for these deisel trains to be run by some sort of biodiesel.


Onya bringa!

Posted on 22-11-2010 15:50 | By tibs

Such a better way to get to Te Rapa in 6.5 hours! It's probably safer for people to run them than some sort of biofuel. Yes, they're much safer, indeed. In the last month I've seen two de-coupled trains on the line, at Papamoa, near the Kairua Rd crossing and at Pah Rd, near Rangiuru again with half the train on one side of the crossing and the other half on the other side. Also, how about the log trains, where the loads aren't lashed to the carriages at all. Only the "shorts" get a binder around them, still not attaching them to the carriage. Do you remember a few months ago when there was a derailment at Te Maunga and the logs rolled into the housemovers yard? I wonder if people were to start from scratch, whether it would be possible to even build and run a rail network in the safety conscious age we live in? Trucks would be safe if they ran on a one way road with no other traffic, like trains do. No hills or tight corners. Most truck accidents are caused by other things than trucks.


New trains

Posted on 22-11-2010 16:00 | By Aster

Good to see new engines arriving. A great pity that the Railways Workshops proposal to build these engines in NZ didn't gain any traction. $80 million spent locally - now that would have brought in many jobs for Kiwis, as well as providing a great boost to the economy!


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