New Zealand DF Class Locomotive (1979) - Withdrawals

Withdrawals

To date no DF unit has been withdrawn permanently from service, though a number have been involved in derailments and level crossing accidents that have required repair. The most significant incident involving a DF unit was a head-on collision between DFT 7254 and DC 4202 at Waipahi in Otago in 1999, in which the driver of the DFT was killed and the locomotive suffered considerable frontal damage. The unit was repaired and returned to service renumbered as DFB 7348. DFT 7117, unlikely to be repaired following an accident north of Kaikoura in 2011, is stored at Hutt Workshops and has been used as a source of spare parts for the other locomotives.