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New Zealand Railways DA 1429

DA 1429 was built by General Motors of Canada in 1955, but didn’t enter service until January 1956. She was the 30th member of her class to be built.

The engine was 24 years old when - in 1979 - she was given a new TMS number; DA 322. Around this time she was also repainted in the International Orange livery. DA 1429 / DA 322 had a decently long service life of 31 years.

In 1987, a man named Tony Batchelor purchased DA 322 for preservation directly from New Zealand Rail. She was moved around various points in Auckland until 1997, when she was leased to Tranz Rail to help relieve a motive power shortage. 1429 was used in regular freight service around Palmerston North and Feilding until 2003, when she ended up back in Otahuhu.

Seven years later - in 2010 - DA 1429 was sold to Dean McQuoid, an Auckland-based rail preservationist. He had the locomotive moved to her new home at the Glenbrook Vintage Railway.

In June 2015, DA 1429 went on a bizarre adventure from Glenbrook to Paekakariki and back. This was when she returned DA 1410 and steam locomotive J 1234 to their old home at the Steam Incorporated depot. After this job was done, 1429 went back north on a strange one-way excursion, which had DC 4790 leading the procession. The DC - which was rebuilt from DA 1482 - was added to the train to simplify crewing arrangements.

Today DA 1429 is still housed at the GVR, but is no longer mainline certified. As far as I know the engine is still in operational condition.