Anyway, here is one of my favourites: DX5120.
I like her as I spent half of my loco pass in her cab, running W(h)anganui - Whareroa with train 544 2 days running earlier this year. Sure, she was old and scungy and kept having arguments over the dynamics with 5074 behind, but it was a real experience riding in a virtually unmodified Phase 1 DX when most of her brethren had been updated with all the mod cons. That she turned up at all on the milk trains was a real suprise to a lot of people. Foibles? Well, Drew could probably fill in a few, but from the left side of the cab....well, my seat didnt adjust properly and the arm rest was broken, and when ever the dynamics went on (and after 5074 had given up arguing), I got a nice warm gust of air through the open window from the dynamic vent behind the cab. But on a warm summers day, there isnt anything quite like sitting in a DX cab with your feet up and the front door open.....
Anyway, I spent the next few months waiting for the right moment to photograph her in all her TranzRail Blue glory, but then things...happened. And she was sent to Hutt Shops, then got caught up in the DXB rebuild program.
I just so happened to be at Hutt Shops last Friday for work, so took the chance to see how she was getting on....and with the help of a suitably located ladder and platform ("Just checking the network junction box up there..."), got this:
I dearsay she'll be out soon, so again I'll be able to get the warm fuzzies seeing her at the depot from my morning train....what a geek.
3 comments:
Some of the old chooks sure are an adventure to operate. (rain coming in round the windows and front door, bits not working, out of water etc etc...)
The old "E" type unrebuilt phase one units had lots of inter-operability issues when coupled to a DXB / DXC fitted with Brightstar, and it wasnt long untill the edict was sent forth that no E type shall run with brightstar equipped locos.
But there is nothing quite like it on a stinking hot summers day wandering through the valleys with the front door open, the bark of a 7FDL wafting through the cab... (along with all the bee's, flys, and bugs)
Drew
And I believe that when shes released, she'll look just as good as all the other Dx rebuilds, in that quite striking new colour scheme!!!!
The new livery does seem very well suited to that class.
I'm an ex-Queenslander so its always nice to admire locos from anywhere that recognises that the true standard gauge is three foot six.
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