New Zealand DE class locomotive
The New Zealand DE class locomotive is a New Zealand class of shunting diesel-electric locomotives. The New Zealand Railways intended to replace steam locomotives for shunting duties with this class. They are physically similar to the Tasmanian Government Railways X class, which were also of English Electric design. Introduction. Although NZR intended to use the class as a heavy transfer shunter, four of the Ds were used in pairs (each locomotive crewed) on 1953—1954 Royal Train tour when Queen Elizabeth II visited New Zealand. The Ds was trialled for use on suburban passenger trains  in Auckland and Wellington as well as on lesser regional passenger services and branch line freight. The class was also the first to use the new Murupara Branch; for construction then for log trains on the still unsettled track bed. This has given the D class an unofficial status of the first mainline diesel-electric locomotive in NZR service, a title correctly applied to another English Electric class, the D class of 1954. The class was initially based in the North Island, but four of the class were sent to the South Island in 1981. The class was slowly dispersed  to secondary yards on the New Zealand network, such as Napier, Dunedin and Invercargill. In the early 1980s, two DE class members received English Electric 6SRKT Mk 2 engines (which were fitted to the DG class locomotives). Withdrawal and Preservation. As part of the New Zealand Railways Corporation plan to reduce the number of first-generation diesels in the late 1980s, a number of the class were scrapped or sold for preservation. Seven D class locomotives have survived out of the original fifteen. All have operated in preservation at least once time: