Withdrawal
The final F class locomotives in regular service worked as shunters into the 1960s, the last being those used to shunt the Lyttelton wharves until the arrival of the second batch of DS class 0-6-0DM diesel shunters arrived in 1953. Other members of the class survived into the 1950s after being sold to industries to operate private lines. However, by 1968 the class was extinct in NZR ownership with the exception of F 163, retained for nostalgic purposes.
The majority of the class was scrapped between the late 1940s and late 1960s as diesel traction took over their traditional duties and younger steam locomotives were cascaded down onto shunting work, which the F class excelled at. The last strongholds of the class were Southland and Lyttelton - at Lyttelton the engines shunted the wharves, while in Southland, the Southland Dairy Co-operative required an F class engine to shunt its Edendale works as these were the only engines that could pass a verandah that stood too close to the tracks for other types to be able to safely shunt the siding.
Two Greymouth engines, F 5 and F 277, were dumped at Omoto in 1957 following their withdrawal. F 277 was unique in that it had a larger cab than the standard engines; this cab was fitted by Hungerfords, a local contractor who had hired the engine at some time in service. Other than the two Greymouth engines, no more F class engines were dumped as river protection.
The last three F class engines in service were engines F 13 and F 163 in Christchurch, and F 180 at Eastown Workshops. In 1965, F 180 was named Meg Merrilies (which supposedly was the engine's original name, though this has not been verified), and donated to the Museum of Transport and Technology. F 13 and F 163 were both painted in green and named Peveril and Ivanhoe respectively, and used in 1963 for the NZR's cetenary celebrations. Neither was withdrawn until 1965, when F 163 was placed in storage at Arthur's Pass with W 192. F 13, meanwhile, was donated to the NZR&LS Canterbury Branch in 1968.
Read more about this topic: NZR F Class
Famous quotes containing the word withdrawal:
“A bizarre sensation pervades a relationship of pretense. No truth seems true. A simple morning’s greeting and response appear loaded with innuendo and fraught with implications.... Each nicety becomes more sterile and each withdrawal more permanent.”
—Maya Angelou (b. 1928)
“A separation situation is different for adults than it is for children. When we were very young children, a physical separation was interpreted as a violation of our inalienable rights....As we grew older, the withdrawal of love, whether that meant being misunderstood, mislabeled or slighted, became the separation situation we responded to.”
—Roger Gould (20th century)