#4379
New Zealand DF class locomotive
🇨🇦 Canada ·built by General Motors Diesel· from 1979· class of 30 New Zealand diesel-electric locomotives
1 photo from Wikimedia Commons · credits & licences
- 1. DFT KiwiRail: David Oakley· CC BY-SA 3.0 nz
what is it?
The New Zealand DF class locomotive of 1979 is a class of 30 Co-Co diesel-electric locomotives built by General Motors Diesel of Canada between 1979 and 1981. Between 1992 and 1997, all the locomotives were rebuilt as the DFT class, a turbocharged version of the DF. The class should not be confused with the English Electric NZR DF class of 1954; as all of the old DF locomotives had been retired by mid-1975, the "DF" classification was free to be re-used.
who runs it
base stats
Bars compare against all trains: 600 km/h (maglev), 1,700 seats; power, weight and number built on a log scale up to 20 MW, 1,000 t and 20,000 built.
fun facts
- First built 47 years ago, in 1979.
- 1.8 MW is about 21 family cars (~85 kW each) flat out.
- Weighs about as much as 14 African elephants (~6 t each).
- 16.7 m long: about 4 cars parked nose to tail.
- Served for 2 years (1979–1981).
diesel locomotive: A diesel engine on board drives the wheels, usually through a generator (diesel-electric).
spec sheet
- built
- 1979–1981
- in service from
- 1979
- retired
- 1981
- status
- in service
- number built
- 30
- kind
- Diesel-electric
- traction
- diesel
- origin
- 🇨🇦 Canada
- builders
- General Motors Diesel
- operators
- New Zealand Railways Department, New Zealand Railways Corporation, KiwiRail
- top speed
- 113 km/h
- power
- 1.8 MW
- gauge
- 1,067 mm Cape gauge
- wheel arrangement
- Co′Co′
- length
- 16.7 m
- weight
- 86.4 t
From the Wikipedia infobox and Wikidata. Blank means the sources don't say.
Sources: Wikidata Q7015297, Wikipedia: New Zealand DF class locomotive (1979) (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-25.