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KiwiRail NR 121 (Revised)

KiwiRail is a state-owned company that operates the rail network in New Zealand. It was created in July 2008, when the NZ Government bought the rail network back from Toll Holdings, who ran the network under the 'Toll Rail' brand from 2003 to 2008. At the time of KiwiRail's launch, I think Helen Clark was our prime minister.

Originally KiwiRail's livery had a horizontal colour separation, similar to the Clockwork Orange livery carried by the DX class in the 1970s. Instead of bright orange and yellow, the KR livery uses a simple combination of grey, red and yellow.

As far as I know, only seven locomotives have ever received this earlier version of the KiwiRail livery. The vast majority of the fleet now carry a version of the livery which has vertical colour seperation. My preference is the earlier version for two reasons - 1) it's quite rare and 2) I just think it looks nicer that the Mk2 livery. The few locomotives that did receive this early livery were as follows:

DC 4260
DFT 7008
DXC 5039
DXB 5097
DXB 5137
DXB 5143
DXC 5293

DXB 5143 was actually the first locomotive to receive any form of a KiwiRail livery. She was present at Wellington station for the KR unveiling on the 1st of July, 2008.

The most recent time I saw any of the aforementioned locomotives was on November 17th, 2020. On that day, I went up to the town of Huntly to see DXC 5293 on train 220.

The last time I remember seeing DFT 7008 was at Palmerston North locomotive depot in January 2017. On that day, she had several other locomotives for company. These included classmate DFT's 7104 and 7145.

As for DC 4260, well the most recent time I saw her was on February 20th, 2020. That was a day when 4260 was running the dairy shunt from Morrinsville to Waitoa.