Subscribe to download
New Zealand Railways DB 1000

The DB is a locomotive that’s very similar to her big sister, the DA. Only 17 of these engines were built between 1965 and 1966, with all engines being built by General Motors at their London, Ontario plant. The class was the NZ version of GM’s standard G8 model, and were ordered by New Zealand Railways because they needed a lighter version of the DA to work on secondary routes where the track couldn’t take the weight of a DA. One such line was the old East Coast Main Trunk, which ran from Morrinsville to Tauranga via Te Aroha, Paeroa, the Karangahake Gorge and Waihi.

Although the DA and DB looked similar, the latter had a noticeable ‘downward hump’ on the running board plating just above the fuel tank (the DA’s never had this feature). Besides that the DB was 13 tonnes lighter and less powerful than the DA (only 950 horsepower as opposed to 1,425hp) and only had an eight-cylinder V8 engine instead of the twelve-cylinder V12 engines in the DA’s.

Towards the end of the 1970’s, NZR decided to rebuild most of the DB class in a similar manner to the DA - DC programme. 10 DB’s were rebuilt by Clyde Engineering in Australia, with the rebuilds being classified as DBR. This implied that the DB rebuilds were less substantial than the DC’s. In both cases the short-hoods were lowered to improve visibility for the driver, and the DBR’s were given GM 8-645C engines (they previously had GM 8-567C engines). Two DBR’s were scrapped in 2008, while the remaining 8 remained in service into the 2010’s. The last DBR to be withdrawn was DBR 1226 (rebuilt from DB 1010), which went in April 2017. Thankfully DBR’s 1254 and 1295 have been preserved by the Glenbrook Vintage Railway. Meanwhile the remaining 6 are now in storage at the Steam Incorporated depot in Paekakariki.

As for the remaining seven unrebuilt DB’s, none of them survived into preservation. In the case of DB 1000 - that’s the subject of this re-skin - she was renumbered to DB 1018 in 1978. Unlike her classmates 1082 and 1099, 1018 never received the International Orange livery; instead she just had I.O. style numbers painted on each side of the long hood.

DB 1018 remained in service right up until February 1989, when she was withdrawn from service. Sadly this engine - along with the other six unrebuilt DB’s - didn’t survive into preservation.

If you have a livery request for me, you may leave it in the comments. However, I will only accept your request if I like the idea. I always like it when people ask me to make liveries based on engines/companies I've never heard of, as was the case with the Sierra Northern GP7u.

And another thing, you MUST word it as a question, preferably without the word 'please' as I find it a bit cringe-worthy. One last thing, you HAVE to use proper punctuation, unlike some idiots I've seen who don't use punctuation and still think they can get a request done. You know who you are).

(I hate it when people don't bother to read these rules and just say something like "make (insert livery idea here)". Again, you know who you are, and you've got some nerve thinking you can disregard the rules and still get a request through).

(If you do not get the rules right first time, your request will be denied).