In the March-April issue of the New Zealand Railways Magazine, 1931, appeared a brief description and an outline drawing of an interesting locomotive which is to be introduced on our State Railways in the near future.

The choice of such a modern type of high capacity locomotive, with the 4-8-4 wheel arrangement as based upon Whyte's Locomotive Classification System, indicates that our Designing Engineers have adopted the very latest trend of design in the locomotive world.

This new power unit marks the most important development of the orthodox type of steam locomotive designed and built by the Mechanical Engineers of the Department, and in view of the unique constructional features of the locomotive, the following facts concerning the overseas development and progress of machines of similar type, may no doubt be of interest to readers of our Magazine.

It is interesting to note that the locomotive is the first of its kind (carrying a separate tender) to be designed with four wheels under the firebox, i.e., four-wheel trailing truck, for service on New Zealand Railways.