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During the 1890's the Climax Manufacturing Company,
Corry, Pennsylvania started production of one of the most versatile and unique
locomotives to be built for the logging industry. The locomotives were double
bogie and built on disused freight wagons, with a small 3 cylinder marine
engine mounted in the cab, the boiler consisted of part vertical, part horizontal
construction, this type of boiler became known as a "T" boiler. These models
of locomotives were given the first letter available and became the Climax
type "A". One of the class "A" Climax's was used in New Zealand by the Taupo
Totara Timber Company, after serving the Taupo Totara Timber Co, for many
years and after a few different owners the Class A was put out to pasture
and scrapped in the late 1950's. 
In 1892 Climax patented their Class "B", this was a major improvement of
the Class "A", as it had a larger fuel capacity and could pull larger loads.
The Class "B" had inclined cylinders driving a central drive shaft, through
a series of bevel gears; this shaft then drove all the wheels of the locomotive.
In total there were over 1000 class "B" Climax's sold world-wide, with the majority being sold in North America. The Climax "B" was available with a number of options, the main one being either tapered or full wagon top boilers, examples of these two options came to New Zealand with 522 having a full wagon top boiler, and 1203, 1317, & 1650 all having tapered. Along with boiler types Climax's were available in different weights.
It is interesting to mention that Climax's Worldwide averaged 43 years active service. After this point most Climax's suffered a similar problem, the main frame would crack and cause the locomotive to take on an interesting angle. Most NZ Climax's which had this happen, were patched up in the bush tramways workshop. The problem that caused the frame cracking was the use of inclined cylinders. These caused the locomotives to harmonic, or pound the rails and put huge stresses on the main frame. Today in New Zealand there are four preserved Climax's out of the original seven that came. The Climax's to come to NZ were all of the "B" class except for the class "A" owned by the Taupo Totara Timber Co, as mentioned above. The largest user of Climax's in NZ was Ellis & Burnand who at one time owned four Climax's; Numbers 522, 898, 1203 & 1650, of these four, three are preserved. |