KiwiRail has welcomed the arrival of two more DM class locomotives at Lyttelton Port, bringing the fleet currently in the South Island from two to four.
Built by rollingstock manufacturer Stadler in Valencia, Spain, the locomotives form part of a larger order of 66 new DMs in total.
These will be used for freight transport as well as Great Journeys New Zealand trips and will gradually replace the ageing DX fleet, which is 48 years old, on average, and expensive to maintain.
The first two DM locomotives have passed certification and completed their 5000-kilometre trial running period in August. They are now hauling freight across the South Island.
These DMs had to undergo rigorous testing so problems could be ironed out before the rest of the locomotives are shipped to New Zealand.
Tests during the seven-month testing phase for the DM locomotives included tuning up the traction and braking systems, checking the performance of the locomotives with a load, and checking the compatibility of the DMs with legacy locomotives in the fleet.
Justin Young, mechanical engineer at KiwiRail, said: “It’s really easy to fix two locomotives while they’re in New Zealand, but it starts to become a challenge when there’s up to ten locomotives at once.”
Stadler made several upgrades to the prototype DMs based on lessons learned during testing, such as changes to the traction system for better hauling performance and engine cooling improvements.
Rectifications were also made to the likes of anti-climbers, cab doors, vigilance software behaviour and engine mounting.
Borja Rozalén Valcuende, Project Technical Leader in Design and Development Engineering at Stadler, said it was at times challenging to achieve KiwiRail’s expectations, but he is proud of the final product.
“The locomotives’ performance is going to be great here on the KiwiRail network,” he said. “Working with KiwiRail has been fantastic. The facilities are great, the help we have been receiving from KiwiRail is great, and I think we have built a very good and strong thing together.”
The DMs will continue to arrive in batches until late 2026.
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