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Toll Rail DXB 5379 (Revised)

(This is a yet another upgrade of an old re-skin, this time coming with more accurate shades of green and yellow).

DX 5379 is one of the younger members of the DX class. That's not to say she is young though, as she was built by General Electric in 1976 and entered service in March of that year. As you can probably guess at this point, the engine was first outshopped in the Clockwork Orange, and originally had the number 2634.

DX 2634 was renumbered as DX 5379 in 1978, as part of the roll-out of the Traffic Monitoring System. She retained the Clockwork Orange livery until 1985, when she was repainted in the now-classic International Orange. Towards the end of the 1980s, the engine's cab was modified to have one large front window instead of two smaller ones. This was done to improve the driver's visibility, as single-man crews were introduced at the same time.

Curiously DX 5379 was one of the few DX's that did not receive Tranz Rail blue. She retained International Orange right up until 2003, when she became the first locomotive to be repainted in the Toll Rail livery. TR was a short-lived company that operated the New Zealand rail network from 2003 to 2008. They were owned by a company called Toll Holdings, hence the Toll Rail name.

The Toll Rail livery has become known amongst New Zealand railfans as the 'Corn Cob' livery. In my opinion, this was one of the ugliest livery NZ has ever seen. The shades of green and yellow were really off, and the curved stripes on the ends of the locomotives completed ruined their appearance. Fortunately there are no more mainline engines in TollRail colours, only six shunters (DH 2839, DSC's 2462 and 2720, DSJ's 4032 and 4060 and TR 845). The last mainline locomotive to carry this livery was DXC 5356.

DX 5379 wasn't initially fitted with the distinctive air chutes or air-intakes which are now fitted to all members of the DXC subclass. The engine was fitted with the chutes and reclassified as DXB 5379 in late 2005. I have only found one photograph to prove the reclassification to DXB. The chutes are used to aid crew ventilation when the locomotives are running through the Otira Tunnel, which is on the line from Christchurch to Greymouth in the South Island.

In 2008, Toll Rail ceased to be. The rail network was re-acquired by the New Zealand government, who re-branded it as KiwiRail on the 1st of July, 2008. DXB 5379 was reclassified as a DXC soon after.

Some time later, the locomotive was repainted in the KiwiRail livery. She was in this condition when I saw her at Christchurch's Middleton depot in November 2018. As of December 2020, DXC 5379 is still going strong at 44 years old, and can be found operating in the South Island.