| Driving Wheels | 2ft 6ins |
| Weight | 16 tons |
| Boiler Pressure | 120-140psi |
| Cylinders | Outside – 9½in x 18in |
| Tractive Effort | 5,198 lbf |
This locomotive is one of 16 locomotives built in Glasgow between 1873 and 1875 that formed what were known as the little C class or original C class. This was to distinguish them from the C class of 1930.
Six locomotives were built by Dübs and ten by Neilson & Company for the New Zealand Railway (NZR).
At the time there was a need for locomotives on the expanding rail network but train sixes were small and the terrain was difficult. The initial use of the locomotives was to construct lines where the wheel arrangement of 0-4-0 and their light-weight were a particular asset.
The engines were then used to haul general freight and passenger trains on the lines once they were open. They were soon replaced by more powerful locomotives that had greater coal and water capacity.
The locomotives were found to be unstable at speeds in excess of 15mph and by 1880 all of the locomotives had been converted to a 0-4-2 wheel arrangement. At the same time the length of the locomotives frame was altered resulting in a more spacious cab. A coal bunker was added at the rear of the cab to supplement the two side bunkers
The class was numbered between C 1 and C 577. Numbering was often illogical and locomotives changed numbers multiple times, partly because the railway network consisted of many isolated sections using different numbering schemes. As the class was used all around the country, from the Kumeu-Riverhead Section north of Auckland to the under-construction Seddonville Branch in Westland, they acquired a range of numbers. Sometimes a locomotive on one section would have the same number as a locomotive on another, or when a locomotive was transferred to a new section it received a new number in line with that section’s numbering scheme. When standard nationwide numbering was introduced, numbers were modified again.
By the start of the 20th century had been sold off to operators of private industrial lines and by 1920 all had been withdrawn from the NZR.
This locomotive was built by Dübs in 1874 and was used on the NZR until 1886.
The Westport Harbour Board was created at the end of 1884. The construction of the breakwaters began in 1886 in an effort to improve the port and its access. By mid May 1892 both breakwaters were completed. During the year of 1885 a total of 78,000 tonnes of coal was shipped through Westport Harbour.
The railway at Westport was designed to connect the river port of Westport with the huge coal reserves to the north-east. In 1897 the annual tonnage of coal was 298,000 tonnes.
Three locomotives were ordered for the Westport & Mount Rochfort Railway project in January 1874. These locomotives were supplied by Dübs in Glasgow and were the same as the class C locomotives described above. The first section of the line opened to passenger traffic in 1876.
In 1886/87 the Westport Harbour Board purchased two Dübs class C locomotives from the NZR. This locomotive was one of those two – the other was works number 802.
803 was used by the Westport Harbour Board until at least 1922 by which time the Westport Harbour Board was on the verge of bankruptcy. In February 1925 it was sold to the Public Works Department for £500.
The PWD used it on Buller Gorge construction on the Stillwater to Ngākawau Line until its boiler (its original) was condemned during 1928. After useful parts were removed in 1931 permission was given for it to “be disposed of by dumping in a convenient or other manner where it will not be an eyesore to passing traffic”.
In March 1993 a group of railway enthusiasts formed the Westport Railway Preservation Society with the aim of recovering the locomotive from Buller Gorge which they did in the following year.
The Westport Railway Preservation Society is now defunct. The locomotive was moved to the New Zealand National Railway Museum in 2024.
The latter group is based in Christchurch (NZ) on the same site as The Ferrymead Railway.
Preserved Outside Britain – By Country
Preserved British Steam Locomotives 