After yesterdays blog I did a bit of detective work to see what I could find out about the old English Electric multiple units used on the Wellington commuter network.
English Electric unit with second refit colour scheme change.
The first consignment were ordered in 1936 and delivered 2 years later solely for the electrified Johnsonville line. It wasn’t until 1942 and 1946 more units were ordered for the Hutt Valley and Porirua lines. These arrived in stages up until 1954.
First major modification with the single headlight changed to twin lights. A Ganz-Mavag unit in the background with the first change in colour scheme.
The vehicles that have found their way into preservation are all from the 1949-54 batches. Three 2 car units and 1 three car set are genuinely preserved but a further 8 trailer units have been bought for other more unusual purposes. The fire service bought one as a fire fighting training module and the SAS bought 2 for anti terrorist training. The remainder are in Nelson (3) and the Hibiscus Coast (2) as accommodation units. The latter 2 apparently being in a sad state of repairs.
English Electric unit as built. I believe they originally had a silver stripe along the side.
Now on to one of our new Matangi electric units I am off to Wellington.
2 comments:
Derek,
If I remember correctly NZR complained for years that they missed one shipment after the ship they were being transported in was sunk at the beginning of WW2?
That could well be true and I seem to recall hearing something of this many moons ago. A lot of shipping was lost between 39 and 45.
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