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Our next locomotive class is the Eo class of 1968. Built by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in Japan and shipped to New Zealand to replace the ailing Eos of 1923, which were failing to keep pace with increasing tonnages in the Otria tunnel, and had since the 1940s, been run in triple sets.
Between 1968 and 1997, the locomotives pulled trains through the Otira tunnel as even diesels couldn't pull a train through it without choking the engines and drivers.
In 1997 however, a class of diesels was refitted to be capable of running through the tunnel, thus ending the Eo's use. However they weren't scrapped, and were placed into storage at Ferrymead.
In 2008, three of the locomotives were refurbished and returned to service, pulling passenger trains in Wellington before the arrival of new EMUs. In 2011 when the EMUs arrived, four of the class, including the two unrefurbished ones, were scrapped, with one given to the NRM.
In this picture, the locomotive that escaped to preservation is EO 45, in the centre.
