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DSJ 4060 (March 2020 State)

(Based on the real DSJ 4060 as she looked on March 24th, 2020).

DSJ 4060 is one of the more interesting locomotives we have in New Zealand. She is part of a class of just five engines, and all of which were built by Toshiba of Japan between 1983 and 1985. Only the first member of the class - DSJ 4004 - was assembled in Japan, while the rest - 4017, 4032, 4045 and 4060 - were assembled at Addington Workshops in Christchurch. DSJ 4060 was the last of her class to enter service, doing so in November 1985.

The DSJ is a bizarre class, partly because of how few of them were built. They are very similar to the DSG class, but there were only five DSJ's built compared to 24 DSG's. The DSJ's have only 1 engine instead of 2, and they were also shorter at one end, which resulted in the cab being off-centre. In fact, one end of the DSJ is the same length as one DSG bonnet. Because the DSJ's have no second engine, they do not have a radiator grille at the No. 2 end.

When the DSJ's first entered service, they were all out-shopped in the International Orange livery, which is often referred to by the nickname 'Fruit Salad'. The class was designed for similar shunting duties to their bigger DSG counterparts, and have gone on to work in both the North and South Islands.

DSJ 4060 was initially used to shunt wagons around in the yard at Picton; a job that is now carried out by DSJ's 4004 and 4017. In December 1994 - nine years after entering service - 4060 was sent to Hutt Workshops in Wellington for a repaint. Her new livery was Tranz Rail blue, but I can-not find any photographs of 4060 when she was in this livery.

What I have been able to find out is that the locomotive has stayed in service well into the 21st century. In May 2006, she was one of three DSJ's to be re-painted in the hideous Toll Rail livery. Unlike DSG 3046, which has the radiator grille on both ends (and therefore couldn't have the curved stripes), DSJ's 4004, 4032 and 4060 did receive the ugly curved stripes on the No. 2 end, which is the one without an engine under the bonnet.

In the years since her Toll Rail re-paint, DSJ 4060 has spent almost all of her time based in the Waikato area, which is convenient-ish for me as Hamilton is only 75 minutes drive away for me. 4060 has remained in the Toll Rail livery even after KiwiRail came along in July 2008. The only change to her livery has been the swapping out of Toll Rail logos with KiwiRail stickers.

As stated earlier, this re-skin is specifically based on how DSJ 4060 looked when I saw her on March 24th, 2020. I went over to Te Awamutu because I knew KiwiRail typically has a DSJ based there to shunt wagons at the Fonterra plant. And that's exactly what I saw 4060 doing. It was also the first time I had ever seen a DSJ moving under her own power.