@@user-xg3ks8jx9s The NZ engines are actually not South African engines at all, apart from one single class of engine. NZ engines started out as British built ones by Baldwin, a competitor of Stephenson in the famous trials. It was he that actually first laid our original route, and some 040 and 060 engines, two each of which are still in running condition, and can be seen on excursions today, 200 years after construction. NZ started designing and building our own engines, starting with the AB class, which were first made during WW1. This engine was one of two final classes totally NZ designed and constructed in the 1930's. The other class, of course, being the Ka class. The biggest engines to ever operate on NZ rails, and it is these two classes that first had the Baker valve gear from the US, in a rare technological exchange. The Ka class was first built in 1940, incidentally at the same time the Big Boy was being built, after a Garratt articulated locomotive was brought here from South Africa to test if the class could operate in NZ, especially over the Raurimu Spiral. This section of the main trunk line needed three engines to haul trains over at that time, and sometimes as much as five in slippery conditions. The Garratt turned out to be a total failure here, and so the Ka class was first mooted, which when built could haul trains over the Spiral with one engine in any weather condition, with volcanic and cyclone conditions being the exceptions.
No, these were strong enough to haul trains with no issues. The Ka class, by comparison, were initially built to handle the Raurimu Spiral, which is why they are far larger locomotives. No locomotive until this class could handle that part of the mainline without extra locomotives stationed at that section of the line.
The J class locomotives were built by North British Railway works and used as multipurpose freight and passenger hauling in NZ from the 1940s. Several derivatives were built however only 3 exist today, this one is called Joanne and from what I remember sometimes operates excursion runs down the country
Alex Travis They do not fit to the age of the steam locomotive. (Very modern, one would expect such windows on modern high speed trains, not behind the steam engine).
@@railfilm They're not intended to fit the loco, heritage carriages don't just spring up from nowhere. Purchasing these and tidying them up gave them a presentable fleet to use for excursions. For a heritage focus, you look to Steam Incorporated - who operate similar era locos and have a large heritage carriage fleet.
Believe it or not, those passenger cars are roughly the same age as the locomotive. They operated in various refurbished forms on many NZ routes for 60+ years. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NZR_56-foot_carriage
The engine you are referring to is an NZR Ka Class locomotive which is a different class of locomotive as the steam locomotive in this video. As this one is an Ex-NZR J Class locomotive and this one was converted to an oil burner from a coal burner in preservation to complete the entire J class family tree.
@@gamerfan8445 Algd, no need to apologise. They are of a similar size but a good trick to remember about the two classes is a J/Ja/Jb have a Vanderbilt tender which is the one you see hear and a K/Ka/Kb have a square, boxy tender.
