Some Early Engines.

When the General Government (after the passing of the famous Public Works Act of 1870) commenced the construction of railways of the standard (3ft. 6in.) gauge, the engines for the Canterbury lines were, in like manner, known officially by numbers. The engines were not then classed as at present, but in some cases the letters NGB or NGT (as a description of the subsequent G and J classes), were painted on the buffers in addition to the distinguishing numbers. The photograph of the opening of the Waimate Branch, reproduced in a former issue of the Magazine (August, 1927), shows engine No. 13 of the (subsequent) old A class.

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When (in anticipation of the completion of the South Island main lines), the Hurunui-Bluff section was placed under one management, the locomotive numbers in use up to that time were superseded by a general renumbering and classification—commencing from Invercargill. F1, F2, M3, M4, C5, D6, and so on, up to K97, the latter locomotive being stationed at Christchurch. This original numbering has not been preserved, as when the engines were sold or transferred to other sections, their numbers were allotted to others. In consequence of this re-allocation of numbers it is, unfortunately, not now possible to identify the old locomotives. (For example, on the South Island Main Lines, three different engines have had the number 51.)