Steam Incorporated

NZR's star in transition: Ab 608 as prepared for display at the New Zealand and South Seas Exhibition at Dunedin in 1925/26. The locomotive was already ten years old, and as well as its distinctive name plates commemorating the battle of Passchendaele displays a number of other features it had recently acquired, such as Pyle National electric lighting. The cab has been extended, the Westinghouse pump is in its second position, having earlier been mounted on the smokebox, and later to move to a position through the running board above the trailing driving wheel. The loco has a mechanical lubricator, mounted on the running board, and a mechanical speedometer frame fitted adjacent to the rear driving wheel. The air pump exhausts into the smokebox, rather than behind the funnel, and the loco is yet to receive a ballast block or a Waikato spark arrester.

Picture: Alexander Turnbull Library, Albert Percy Godber Collection

Technical details:

History:

Ab 608, Passchendaele - the only steam locomotive officially given a name by the NZR in the 20th century - was the first of the class when introduced in October 1915. The Ab class went on to become the most numerous class of steam locomotive to run in New Zealand, finally totalling 151 locomotives by the late 1950s. Besides NZR's Addington works, the locomotives were built by North British Locomotive Company, Glasgow, Scotland, and A & G Price, Thames. Eleven Wab class tank locomotives built by NZR Hillside works and A & G Price were rebuilt in the 1940s and 1950s as Ab class.

Introduced to replace the A class compounds, the Ab was designed by chief draughtsman S H Jenkinson. It was a simple, superheated Pacific type, and introduced the cylindrical, Vanderbilt type tender to New Zealand. This type of tender had impressed chief mechanical engineer HH Jackson during a visit to the United States and was adopted because of its light weight and economy of construction.

In their prime the Ab class hauled all principle express trains in both islands. In time they were used on services on all main lines, and most branch lines. During testing in 1916, Ab 608 hauled a 423 ton passenger train of 20 wooden carriages the 99.5 miles from Timaru to Christchurch in 147 minutes, with a maximum speed of 60 mph.

In 1925 the minister of railways, Gordon Coates, agreed to a proposal to name a steam locomotive 'in memory of those members of the New Zealand Railways who fell in the Great War'. More than 5000 railwaymen served overseas between 1914 and 1918 (out of a total workforce of 14,000), and 447 were killed. After considering the names Somme, Le Quesnoy and Ypres, Coates chose Passchendaele.

The locomotive selected to carry the name was Ab 608. The gleaming Passchendaele was one of the stars of the show at the New Zealand and South Seas Exhibition in Dunedin in the summer of 1925-26. In 1927 it was chosen to haul the Duke and Duchess of York's royal train in the South Island (a role it had also performed, unnamed, during the Prince of Wales's tour in 1920).

The memorial nameplates fitted to the engine's flanks were removed during the Second World War. Copies of the plates were later put on display at Christchurch and Dunedin railway stations, where they have remained ever since.

Ab 608 was again exhibited at the centennial of New Zealand railways in December 1963.

The locomotive was retired in October 1967 when its boiler required heavy repairs. It was subsequently given to the New Zealand Railway and Locomotive Society Inc for preservation, arriving at Ferrymead in 1978.

In the early 1990s it was arranged for Steam Incorporated of Paekakariki to take charge of the locomotive and restore it to operating condition. After initial dismantling; it was decided to completely renew the tender body; the original being in very poor condition. Lyttelton Engineering fabricated the components of the tender body; which is currently being riveted into its complete form at the Steam Incorporated workshops. Earlier; the tender frames; which were also in poor condition; were dismantled and major components replaced with sound steel channel sections.

By late 2008 the restoration of the tender frames was complete; including operational brake gear. The locomotive has been separated into its components; with the boiler in early 2009 awaiting repairs by boilermakers; while the frames had been stripped and needlegunned.

Wheelsets for the leading truck were sent to A & G Price where the roller bearings were renewed and the tyres reprofiled. The remaining wheelsets require reprofiling when funds permit.

Ab 608, Passchendaele, on display at New Zealand Railways' centennial celebrations in Christchurch in 1963

The Passchendaele nameplate as attached to locomotive Ab 608

A 4-0-2: Ab 608 in the early stage of dismantling at Paeakakariki, shortly after the driving wheels were removed.

Cab view of Ab 608: Presumably taken at the time of the 1925 exhibition, this cab view of Ab 608 shows a number of details of the period. Above the fireman's side is the speed recorder, the fireman's seat displays an interesting set of furniture, complete with drawers, and the gauge glasses have yet to receive their now compulsory safety frames, but electric lighting now illuminates the gauge glasses and pressure gauges. Picture: Alexander Turnbull Library, Albert Percy Godber Collection

Tired relic: Ab 608 lies abandoned near Dunedin locomotive depot in the late 1960s. Picture: Ian Gilmore

Steam Incorporated worker Peter Steer inspects part of the tender frame of Ab 608 during its rebuilding. Picture: Andy Maciver

Hot riveting: The Steam Incorporated team rivet the tender running boards to the frame. Picture: Adam Orchard.

Components of the new tender body are readied for loading onto the NAK accommodation wagon preparatory to drilling rivet holes. Picture: Andy Maciver

Locomotive: Ab 608

Technical details:

History: