DA1431 comes to town

on monday afternoon, 1957-built DA1431 brought a private charter tour to town for two nights. many were scrapped or converted to DC's. this DA is one of two certified for mainline use, and is under ownership of a preservation group.

here are a couple of pics i got of her.

at the yard where she was stored for two nights. this isnt the normal yard, but she had to be here due to shunt movements in the main yard in town.


she was towed from the next town by a modern DC, because kiwirail dont like driving locos "long hood forward". coaches ferried the passengers to a hotel for their stay.

she was taken into town after arrival so she could be turned to face the right way for departure, which will be tomorrow morning.
on the old turntable.


they turned the DC as well, which i missed as i wanted to get back across town and not get held up at the various crossings. the DC took her back over the bridge, and then waited to pair up for the afternoon freight train.


coming back over the bridge under her own power. i nearly missed this shot due to the sun location. i couldnt see anything for the most part.


a roster was drawn up of local club members to run security on her against vandals. i was on tonight for a few hours.


a rather atmospheric shot. thats the moon to the left. not sure what the other floaty stuff is, but its not snow. cold, but not that cold!


she heads north tomorrow morning, and will come through again on saturday. i hope to see her leave tomorrow, but not sure if i will get there or not.

[Super]

Very cool day trip for you Sunhuntin, thanks for sharing. The DA looks beautifully weathered just like it was a model....LOL....its models that are weathered to look like this.

Curious as to why they don't like to run "long hood forward". Is this for all loco's or just the DA? Could it just be a viability concern?

Very cool loco as far as more modern loco's go At least it has some personality to it. I suspect the long hood thing is another of those misguided 'health and safety' things. Have to say it looks a lot like some of the Japanese diesels or one of our old British diesels (type 20 if i recall - although I may be wrong )



UPDATE: No not wrong, above is a pic

cheers, super. yes, its supposedly to do with visibility, though a friend who actually drives for kiwirail says the DA has good visibility both directions, but i think coming to crossings may be tricky as the bulk of the loco gets there before you do.
it was actually very clean, cleaner than the last time i saw it.

nigels, im not sure where the design came from. its very similar to the australian flat top T class [thanks, ucwepn] as well.
in your pic, is that facing front or back? with the DA, that would be backwards.

[Super]

cheers, super. yes, its supposedly to do with visibility, though a friend who actually drives for kiwirail says the DA has good visibility both directions, but i think coming to crossings may be tricky as the bulk of the loco gets there before you do.
it was actually very clean, cleaner than the last time i saw it.

Well that certainly makes sense about the visibility. I have been researching a lot lately about weathering model trains and your KiwiRail is exactly what a lot of the experienced modelers do.

---

or one of our old British diesels (type 20 if i recall - although I may be wrong )

That is one beautiful Diesel Nigels. The long hoods of these diesels reminds me of a time when cars were big and had really long hoods.

[Ucwepn]

Ahhh very nice! Did some digging and it turns out DA1430 onwards was built in Australia by GM EMD just like our very own VR T class although the T is Broad gauge 5ft 3inch while the DA is narrow gauge 3foot 6inch hehe.

   

nigels, im not sure where the design came from. its very similar to the australian flat top T class [thanks, ucwepn] as well.
in your pic, is that facing front or back? with the DA, that would be backwards.

Officially that is the nose or front of the class 20,

in practice though, class 20's very rarely worked alone as single engines, they were a little underpowered and were generally connected in a 'nose to nose' configuration. This gave much better visibility for the driver when travelling in either direction, it also had the pulling power of x2 locomotives. When they were paired nose to nose, plugs and leads would connect the two locos so they could both be controlled by a single driver,

thanks, tramp. they quite often double up diesels like that here, though most look like the kiwirail one in my first photo. the latest engine, the DL, doesnt have a bulbous cab as such, more stream-lined.
the one that was towing the DA hooked up with a freight consist, and i was told they went elephant style which is quite unusual. they normally go back to back, like the one in your photo.