NZR BC class

The BC class comprised a single steam locomotive that operated on New Zealand's national rail network. Built for the Wellington and Manawatu Railway (WMR) and classified simply as No.17, it passed into the ownership of the New Zealand Railways Department (NZR) when the government purchased the WMR in December 1908, and it was then that it acquired the BC classification as BC 463.[2]

NZR BC class
BC class steam locomotive, NZR number 463. Godber Collection, Alexander Turnbull Library.[1]
Type and origin
Power typeSteam
BuilderBaldwin Locomotive Works
Serial number19796
Build date1901
Total produced1
Specifications
Configuration:
​
 • Whyte2-8-2
 • UIC1'D1'
Gauge3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm)
Driver dia.43 in (1.092 m)
Length55 ft 7 in (16.94 m)
Total weight71.4 long tons (72.5 t; 80.0 short tons)
Fuel typeCoal
Fuel capacity4.0 long tons (4.1 t; 4.5 short tons)
Water cap.1,660 imperial gallons (7,500 L; 1,990 US gal)
Firebox:
 • Firegrate area		25 sq ft (2.3 m2)
Boiler pressure200 lbf/in2 (1.38 MPa)
Heating surface1,477 sq ft (137.2 m2)
Cylinders4 (2 HP, 2 LP)
Cylinder sizeHP 11.5 in × 20 in (292 mm × 508 mm)
LP 19 in × 20 in (483 mm × 508 mm)
Performance figures
Tractive effort16,080 lbf (71.53 kN)
Career
OperatorsWellington and Manawatu Railway, New Zealand Government Railways
NumbersWMR 17, NZR 463
WithdrawnMarch 1927

Introduction

The WMR ordered No.17 from the Baldwin Locomotive Works. It entered service on 10 June 1902 and was at the time the most powerful locomotive to operate in the country. No.17 was the only 2-8-2 "Mikado" to run in New Zealand. It was a Vauclain compound, and its trailing truck bore similarities to the Q class, the world's first 4-6-2 "Pacific" type then under construction by Baldwin for NZR.[3]

The locomotive was designed to haul trains on the WMR's steep main line between Wellington and Paekākāriki, and it proved capable of hauling a 280-ton freight train up the steep grades. This line became the southern portion of the North Island Main Trunk Railway when acquired by NZR in 1908.

Withdrawal

No.17/BC 463 worked this line its entire life. It operated for nearly two decades in NZR's ownership until it was withdrawn on 31 March 1927 along with fellow surviving WMR locomotives when NZR adopted a rapid locomotive standardisation plan in the 1920s.[3] It did not survive to be preserved. A decade after it was withdrawn, the steepest section of its former line was bypassed by the Tawa Flat deviation and became the Johnsonville Branch.

See also

References
  1. "Bc class steam locomotive, New Zealand Railways number 463 (2-8-2)". National Library of New Zealand. Retrieved 20 March 2019.
  2. "Class BC". New Zealand Steam. Retrieved 20 March 2019.
  3. Palmer & Stewart 1965, p. 96.

Bibliography
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