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Toll Rail DXB 5172 (Revised)

DXB 5172 (now a DXC) was built in 1975 by General Electric, and entered service in December of that year. She was originally numbered as 2615, and was part of the 49-strong DX class. Or rather, 48-strong, since one (DX 2639) was scrapped in 1977 after a nasty accident.

When she was brand-new, DX 2615 carried the distinctive Clockwork Orange livery, which was exclusive to the DX class. In 1978, she was re-numbered as DX 5172 to comply with the new Traffic Monitoring System. Interestingly 5172 was one of the many DX's that retained Clockwork Orange into the 1980s, not being repainted into the International Orange livery until 1985. A few years later, the entire DX class had their two-piece cab windows replaced with a large single-piece window. This was done to improve driver visibility, especially since single-man crewing was introduced in the 1980s.

DX 5172 spent most of her early years running in the North Island, being sent to the South Island in the late 1990s. She was repainted into Tranz Rail blue in 1996. As with most of the class, 5172 was also fitted with the distinctive air chutes for operation through the Otira Tunnel.

5172 was unlucky enough to be repainted in the notorious Toll Rail livery in October 2005. At the same time, she was reclassified as DXB 5172. I only found one photograph of the engine in Toll Rail colours, which was taken in 2007. After KiwiRail came along in 2008 - and took over from Toll Rail - DXB 5172 was reclassified as DXC 5172, and she remains a DXC today.

For around three years after KiwiRail was launched, DXC 5172 retained the Toll Rail livery (albeit with KiwiRail patches). She was finally repainted in the KiwiRail livery in late 2011, and retains this livery today. As with the rest of the DX class, 5172 is now running in the South Island. I have only seen this engine once, and that was in Wellington one day in July 2015. Any DX in the North Island is now an extremely rare sight these days.