The New Zealand EF class locomotive (originally Class 30) is a class of 22 25 kV AC electric locomotives that operate on the North Island Main Trunk between Palmerston North and Te Rapa (near Hamilton) in New Zealand. They are the only class of 25 kV AC locomotives to operate in New Zealand, and following the withdrawal of the EO class 1500 V DC locomotives in November 2011 from Tranz Metro service are the only electric locomotives in operation.
The EF class was built by Brush Traction in Loughborough, United Kingdom between 1986 and 1988 to run on the new electrified central section of the NIMT. The locomotives, at 3,000 kilowatts (4,000 hp), are the most powerful locomotives to operate in New Zealand, and the design of the class has been used in designing other electric locomotives overseas, including the Le Shuttle Eurotunnel Class 9 electric locomotives that operate in the Channel Tunnel between the United Kingdom and France.
Read more about New Zealand EF Class Locomotive: Background, Upgrades, Livery, Withdrawal and Disposal, EF Class Outside New Zealand, Class Register
Famous quotes containing the words zealand, class and/or locomotive:
“Teasing is universal. Anthropologists have found the same fundamental patterns of teasing among New Zealand aborigine children and inner-city kids on the playgrounds of Philadelphia.”
—Lawrence Kutner (20th century)
“We of the sinking middle class ... may sink without further struggles into the working class where we belong, and probably when we get there it will not be so dreadful as we feared, for, after all, we have nothing to lose but our aitches.”
—George Orwell (1903–1950)
“I walked on the banks of the tincan banana dock and sat down under the huge shade of a Southern Pacific locomotive to look at the sunset over the box house hills and cry.”
—Allen Ginsberg (b. 1926)