Tags: Locomotive.
The New Zealand E class battery-electric locomotive represented the third unique type of locomotive class to be given the E classification in New Zealand. The first was the E class of nine Double Fairlie steam locomotives of 1872-75; the second E class consisted of a Mallet compound made in 1906; and as both were no longer operated by the New Zealand Railways Department in 1923 the classification was free to be used for a third time when the small battery electric locomotive was delivered.