The New Zealand E class locomotive comprised a single Mallet
steam locomotive
A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, oil or, rarely, wood) to heat water in the locomot ...
operated by
New Zealand Railways (NZR) from 1906 until 1917. Classified as E 66 and nicknamed Pearson's Dream after its designer, it was an experimental
Mallet locomotive
The Mallet locomotive is a type of articulated steam railway locomotive, invented by the Swiss engineer Anatole Mallet (1837–1919).
The front of the locomotive articulated on a bogie. The compound steam system fed steam at boiler pressure ...
designed to work on the
Rimutaka Incline
The Rimutaka Incline was a , gauge railway line on an average grade of 1-in-15 using the Fell system between Summit and Cross Creek stations on the Wairarapa side of the original Wairarapa Line in the Wairarapa district of New Zealand. The t ...
. The "E" classification was previously used by the
Double Fairlie
A Fairlie is a type of articulated steam locomotive that has the driving wheels on bogies. The locomotive may be double-ended (a double Fairlie) or single ended (a single Fairlie). Fairlies are most famously associated with the Ffestiniog ...
E class of 1872-75, but the classification was free as they had all been withdrawn by the time E 66 entered service. After the withdrawal of E 66, "E" was again re-used on the
battery-electric E class of 1922. It was the only Mallet locomotive to operate for the NZR
Origin and design
The Rimutaka Incline opened in 1878, connecting
Wellington
Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by me ...
with the
Wairarapa
The Wairarapa (; ), a geographical region of New Zealand, lies in the south-eastern corner of the North Island, east of metropolitan Wellington and south-west of the Hawke's Bay Region. It is lightly populated, having several rural service ...
region, and with the completion of the
Wairarapa Line
The Wairarapa Line is a secondary railway line in the south-east of the North Island of New Zealand. The line runs for , connects the capital city Wellington with the Palmerston North - Gisborne Line at Woodville, via Lower Hutt, Upper Hutt ...
in December 1897, it provided NZR's main link to the north as the west coast route was then privately owned by the
Wellington and Manawatu Railway Company
The Wellington and Manawatu Railway Company (WMR or W&MR) was a private railway company that built, owned and operated the Wellington-Manawatu railway line between Thorndon in Wellington, the capital of New Zealand, and Longburn, near Palmers ...
(WMR). Six special
Fell
A fell (from Old Norse ''fell'', ''fjall'', "mountain"Falk and Torp (2006:161).) is a high and barren landscape feature, such as a mountain or Moorland, moor-covered hill. The term is most often employed in Fennoscandia, Iceland, the Isle o ...
locomotives, the
H class, worked the Incline, but after 1897, traffic increases necessitated additional motive power. Initially, two members of the
B class were converted from
tender locomotive
A tender or coal-car (US only) is a special rail vehicle hauled by a steam locomotive containing its fuel (wood, coal, oil or torrefied biomass) and water. Steam locomotives consume large quantities of water compared to the quantity of fuel, so ...
s into
tank locomotive
A tank locomotive or tank engine is a steam locomotive that carries its water in one or more on-board water tanks, instead of a more traditional tender. Most tank engines also have bunkers (or fuel tanks) to hold fuel; in a tender-tank locom ...
s and reclassified as the
WE class;
W 192 was also transferred to assist on the Incline. These locomotives proved to be more expensive to operate and used more fuel than the H class.
[W. N. Cameron, ''Rimutaka Incline: Extracts from "A Line of Railway"'' (Wellington: New Zealand Railway and Locomotive Society, 1992)'', 83.] However, they were considered successful enough by the Chief Mechanical Engineer
A. L. Beattie that he authorised his Chief Draughtsman, G. A. Pearson, to design another, more powerful locomotive to work the Incline.
To meet Beattie's requirements, Pearson designed E 66 as a Mallet articulated locomotive with a wheel arrangement of
2-6-6-0
Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives by wheel arrangement, is a locomotive with one pair of unpowered leading wheels, followed by two sets of three pairs of powered driving wheels and no trailing wheels. The whe ...
T under the
Whyte notation
Whyte notation is a classification method for steam locomotives, and some internal combustion locomotives and electric locomotives, by wheel arrangement. It was devised by Frederick Methvan Whyte, and came into use in the early twentieth ce ...
system. Its cylinders were placed at each end instead of one wheelset behind the other allowing one set to be driving forward at all times. It was a
Vauclain compound
The Vauclain compound was a type of compound steam locomotive that was briefly popular circa 1900. Developed at the Baldwin Locomotive Works, it featured two pistons moving in parallel, driving a common crosshead and controlled by a common valve ...
, re-using materials left over from an unsuccessful experiment in the 1890s on
N 27. This compounding encouraged the use of a then remarkably high boiler pressure, 200 psi, which in turn caused the use of a
corrugated furnace {{Cat main, Glossary of boiler terminology
Components
Circuit Component may refer to:
•Are devices that perform functions when they are connected in a circuit.
In engineering, science, and technology Generic systems
* System componen ...
for strength. This also provided a clear space below the boiler, allowing room for the rear power bogie. The restricted grate area of such a furnace though may have been the cause of some of the steaming problems. The locomotive also used other surplus materials, such as modified
F class wheels. The locomotive was built at the
Petone Railway Workshops in the
Hutt Valley
The Hutt Valley (or 'The Hutt') is the large area of fairly flat land in the Hutt River valley in the Wellington region of New Zealand. Like the river that flows through it, it takes its name from Sir William Hutt, a director of the New Zeala ...
under Pearson's direct supervision and entered service on 23 February 1906.
Rimutaka Incline service
In a trial between
Upper Hutt railway station
Upper Hutt railway station is a suburban railway station serving central Upper Hutt, New Zealand. The station is on the Wairarapa Line, north of Wellington, and is served by Transdev Wellington on behalf of the Greater Wellington Regional C ...
and
Summit railway station, the non-Incline portion of the route over the
Rimutaka Range
The Remutaka Range (spelled Rimutaka Range before 2017) is the southernmost range of a mountain chain in the lower North Island of New Zealand. The chain continues north into the Tararua, then Ruahine Ranges, running parallel with the east co ...
, E 66 successfully hauled forty-five wagons up the 1 in 35 grade. This was the equivalent of a load that would have required two
WF class locomotives. The locomotive soon began work on the Incline as intended and was based at
Cross Creek railway station
Cross Creek railway station was the base of operations for the Rimutaka Incline, a Fell railway over the Remutaka Ranges, and part of the original Wairarapa Line between Upper Hutt and Featherston in the Wellington region of New Zealand's Nor ...
at the foot of the Incline. It was rated to haul up to 80
ton
Ton is the name of any one of several units of measure. It has a long history and has acquired several meanings and uses.
Mainly it describes units of weight. Confusion can arise because ''ton'' can mean
* the long ton, which is 2,240 pounds
...
s on the Incline, 15 tons higher than the maximum permitted of the H class, and in a trial it successfully hauled 103 tons from Cross Creek up to Summit. However, it was much more costly to operate than the H class and thus ran only two-thirds the annual mileage of the H locomotives. E 66 consumed 167 pounds of coal per mile, while an H class used 117 pounds, and its operating cost was 54.10 pence per mile compared to 37.73 pence for an H. Furthermore, E 66's crews complained of excessive heat in the cab, especially through tunnels,
and firemen had to wear heat-resistant asbestos pants due to the excessive heat.
Transfer and withdrawal
In December 1908, the WMR was purchased by NZR and its
Wellington - Manawatu Line
Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by me ...
was incorporated into the national network as part of the
North Island Main Trunk Railway
The North Island Main Trunk (NIMT) is the main railway line in the North Island of New Zealand, connecting the capital city Wellington with the country's largest city, Auckland. The line is long, built to the New Zealand rail gauge of and ser ...
(NIMT). Most traffic from beyond the Wairarapa was re-routed via the old WMR route as it was quicker and did not include the time-consuming Incline. Accordingly, by 1909, traffic over the Incline was in decline and primarily served the Wairarapa. The traffic volumes thus became manageable for the H locomotives alone, and E 66 was transferred from Cross Creek to Wellington despite its moderate success on the Incline. The NIMT contained a steeply graded section between Wellington and
Johnsonville (now truncated as the
Johnsonville Branch
The Johnsonville Branch, also known as the Johnsonville Line, is a commuter branch line railway from the main Railway Station of Wellington, New Zealand to the northern suburb of Johnsonville via Ngaio and Khandallah.
Transdev Wellington ...
due to the
Tawa Flat deviation) and E 66 was used to
bank
A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital markets.
Because ...
trains over this route. However, it had not been designed for this work and became unpopular with crews. Due to these problems, it did not meet the designer's ambitions and thus acquired the "Pearson's Dream" nickname.
Due to its unpopularity in Wellington and increasing tonnages over the Incline due to
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, E 66 was transferred back to Cross Creek in 1916. However, it was only in steam 23 days that year, sometimes for works trains rather than revenue service, and operated over a distance of just 478 miles. In May 1917, it was withdrawn from service, stored, and then dismantled. Its boiler was transferred to Auckland for use as a depot wash-out boiler and used in this capacity until 1931 when it was condemned and dumped. The locomotive thus did not survive to be preserved. It was still recalled as a ''hated locomotive'' in 1955 at a Cross Creek reunion.
[ ]
References
Footnotes
Citations
Bibliography
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External links
NZR Steam page on E 66
{{NZR Locomotives
Individual locomotives of New Zealand
E class (1906)
2-6-6-0 locomotives
Mallet locomotives
Scrapped locomotives
Railway locomotives introduced in 1906