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NZR Blue DX 5304 (Revised)

When the DJ class first appeared - from 1968 onwards - they were painted in a livery that was called 'Nippon Pink'. In the late 1970s, most of the class were repainted in a livery similar to International Orange, except that the orange/red was replaced by blue. The short-hood remained all-yellow. A select few DJ's also received another variant of the livery, where the cabsides, roof and running board were also blue. However, when I was looking on the inter-webs for photographs of DJ's, I came across one of DJ 3165 double-heading with a DG. This photograph showed 3165 in an unusual version of the standard blue livery - yellow and black stripes on the front, with the rest of the short-hood being light grey. I then got the idea to make a reskin of this livery for Rolling Line. And the rest, as they say, is history.

More recently I've found a photograph of a 2nd DJ in this unusual variant of NZ Rail blue. This one is DJ 3597, although the picture was taken back when she had her original number - DJ 1255.

As usual, the number carried by this reskin is that of a real-life DX. In this case, DXC 5304.

5304 was built by General Electric in 1975, entering service in February 1976. The locomotive was originally numbered as DX 2628, and - as with all the other DX's - the first livery she carried was the distinctive Clockwork Orange. In 1984 the engine was repainted into the International Orange livery, being one of the many DX's that retained Clockwork Orange into the 1980's. She stayed in this livery until 1997, when she was repainted in Tranz Rail blue. Back in 1978, DX 2628 was renumbered as 5304, as part of the introduction of the Traffic Monitoring System.

The locomotive remained in Tranz Rail blue until August 2010. By this time, the era of rail privatisation in New Zealand was over, as the government re-acquired the railways in July 2008. In August 2010, DX 5304 was sent to Hutt Workshops for a large number of modifications. These included (but are not limited to) - a repaint in the KiwiRail livery, a new cab and installation of General Electric's 'Brightstar' engine management system. The engine was also reclassified as DXC 5304. The DXC subclass is found exclusively in the South Island, and they are all fitted with the distinctive air-intakes or 'chutes'. These are used to aid crew ventilation in the Otira Tunnel.

Today DXC 5304 is still going strong at 45 years old, and doesn't look set to retire any time soon.

The original version of this reskin features somewhat prominently in two Frantic's videos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVIJ2gb00I8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4a51aLTH9Io