The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 3, Issue 9 (January 1, 1929)
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The custom (once followed in New Zealand) of christening locomotives with distinctive names, has much to commend it and is gaining in popular favour on the big railway systems overseas. The interesting names by which a number of our early locomotives were known are the subject of the following article—compiled from information received from Mr. H. Buxton, late Chief Traffic Manager of the N.Z.R.
The naming of the locomotive “Passchendaele,” pictured in the August number of the “New Zealand Railways Magazine,” recalls the fact that in the early days of our railways some of the locomotives had more or less appropriate names. It was stated by a recent writer that the English custom of giving names to the engines working the principal passenger trains had its origin in the naming of stage coaches. This is probably correct. However, the first stage coach which reached New Zealand (by way of America and Australia), did not bring with it any system of nomenclature, though it is interesting to note that, before the advent of tramways in the Dominion, the ‘buses plying in the streets of the cities had names.