New Zealand DX class locomotive
class of 49 New Zealand diesel locomotives
The New Zealand DX class locomotive is a type of diesel-electric locomotive that currently operates on New Zealand's national railway network. There are 49 of the locomotives and all are owned by KiwiRail. They have a Co-Co wheel arrangement.
Built by GE Transportation in Erie, Pennsylvania, United States, they were introduced to New Zealand between 1972 and 1976. The class is based on the General Electric U26C model, a narrow-gauge version of the GE U23C model, which in itself is a V12 version of the 16V GE U30C.
The locomotives are regarded as one of the most successful purchases in NZR's history. They have seen several upgrades since their introduction and three sub-classes now exist: the DXB, DXC and DXR. In 2025, it was announced that 46 of the locomotives had been sold to a South African purchaser, Traxtion. The first eight locomotives arrived in South Africa in July 2026. The final DX class locomotives are planned to be withdrawn by June 2027.
Introduction
The DX class was introduced in response to a requirement for a more powerful locomotive to handle traffic on the North Island Main Trunk (NIMT). Before their introduction, the heaviest freight and passenger trains on the line required two members of the 1,060-kilowatt (1,420 hp) DA class to haul them.
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This entry incorporates text from “New Zealand DX class locomotive” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.