History
These units were built for the Western Australian Government Railways (WAGR) in 1967—1968. The ADK driving units were manufactured by Commonwealth Engineering, and the ADB trailer units were manufactured at the WAGR's Midland Railway Workshops.
They were purchased along with the newer ADL/ADC class units by New Zealand Rail Limited in 1993 to replace the 56-foot carriage suburban carriage trains then used in Auckland. Later that year, they were sold by New Zealand Rail to the Auckland Regional Council (ARC). The units were credited with an increase in patronage in the Auckland system, but have a number of reliability problems due to their age.
In 2004 the ARC funded the upgrade of the entire class, which included refurbishment of the interiors of the units and the painting of the exterior in the new MAXX colour scheme. The upgrade also include mechanical improvements which would extend the useful life of these units by 10 years. After the upgrades were completed, ADK/ADB trains ran as permanent 4-car sets rather than the 2-car sets they ran as previously. All ADKs are refurbished, except ADB 773 (in use at a paintball arena) and ADK 689 (which never came to New Zealand).
Read more about this topic: NZR ADK Class
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“No cause is left but the most ancient of all, the one, in fact, that from the beginning of our history has determined the very existence of politics, the cause of freedom versus tyranny.”
—Hannah Arendt (1906–1975)
“The history of all Magazines shows plainly that those which have attained celebrity were indebted for it to articles similar in natureto Berenice—although, I grant you, far superior in style and execution. I say similar in nature. You ask me in what does this nature consist? In the ludicrous heightened into the grotesque: the fearful coloured into the horrible: the witty exaggerated into the burlesque: the singular wrought out into the strange and mystical.”
—Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849)
“The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.”
—Karl Marx (1818–1883)