To find the co-ords for the cache answer this question: “How many volts did the occupants have to beware of in the cab of DJ 3021?” Divide the answer by 100 to find X. Then do the following simple arithmetic:
S45 AB.CDE E170 FG.HIJ
AB= X multiplied by 5
CDE= X multiplied by 77
FG= X plus 1
HIJ= X multiplied by 68
Note: Remove the PLASTIC fitting on the cache to access it. Please return the log sheet into the plastic fitting to make it easier for the next cacher. BYOP.
If you are interested in brief details of the NZR DJ locomotive and how DJ 3021 ended up here then please read on. If not, then you can disregard the following as it contains no information on finding the cache:
In the late-1960s the International Monetary Fund gave New Zealand a “modernisation” loan to allow the last phase of New Zealand railway dieselization to occur (i.e. the final phasing out of steam locomotives in favour of diesel-electric units). The loan was for the purchase of a batch of locomotives specifically for the South Island. The new South Island diesels would need to be capable of operating both on heavy mainline work and on lighter duties on the many lightly-built South Island branch lines which often featured sharp line curvature and weight-restricted bridges and culverts.
After an international tender process the contract to supply the locomotives was awarded to Mitsubishi Heavy Industries of Japan which had bid a significantly lower price than any other tenderer for the supply of 55 (later increased to 64) locomotives . These would be classified by NZR as the DJ type.
The DJ locomotives would be well-suited to South Island operation. They had a relatively short length, low weight (64 tonnes) and a Bo-Bo-Bo axle configuration (meaning three separate wheel bogies of two axles each, both axles powered). This set-up gave the DJ a very low axle-loading weight and good bogie articulation and would allow them to run unrestricted over the South Island rail network. The locos were delivered over 1968-69.
They were generally considered as being well designed and built but in the first few years suffered significant problems with their Caterpillar D398 48.3litre V12 diesel engines. The eventual solution to these issues was to de-rate the power output of the D398 and modify the engine cooling systems on the locomotives to allow the Caterpillar engines to run cooler. In 1980-82 the DJs were repowered with upgraded Caterpillar D398B engines.
The DJ locos were delivered by Mitsubishi in a red livery that soon faded to almost a pink colour. All DJs were subsequently repainted in “Southerner Blue”, the only locomotives in the NZR fleet to ever run in this colour scheme.
Two DJ locos were written off and scrapped in 1973 following a serious rail crash at Balclutha.
From 1979 the DJ started to be displaced, first by new and more powerful General Motors-built DF class locomotives, and then from 1988 by even more powerful General Electric DX class locos which had been freed up from work in the North Island by the electrification of the North Island main trunk line. DJs would often be used in multiple with DF locos and the DJ remained the locomotive of choice for the Southerner passenger service (Christchurch – Invercargill) until 1990. However, in general, from the early 1980s the DJs were largely confined to branch line duties where the newer, heavier locomotives could not run.
Ironically, the closure of various South Island branch lines began around the same time that the DJ entered service. With the DJ increasingly restricted to branch line duties, and the number of such lines declining, the withdrawal of the DJ from service became inevitable. Withdrawals began in 1986 and all were gone by 1992. With some exceptions, most were scrapped. One exception was DJ 3096 which NZR retained in its “Heritage Fleet” and then later put back to work in Northland, the only DJ to have ever been operated outside of the South Island. Its light axle loading suited the Dargaville line on which it ran. This loco was finally withdrawn in 2008 and sold to Taieri Gorge Railway (TGR).
At TGR it joined five of its sisters which, after their withdrawal from NZR service in 1992, had found their way into TGR ownership in order to operate TGR’s Taieri Gorge tourist train.
And then there was DJ 3021 (pre-TMS DJ 1202), the subject of this cache.
DJ 3021 entered service with NZR in January 1968 and was withdrawn in April 1990. Instead of being scrapped the diesel engine and the electrical equipment were removed and the locomotive was placed on display at the Ranfurly station on the former Otago Central branch line. This line was closed in the same month as DJ 3021 was withdrawn from service. The old Otago Central line would become the Otago Central Rail Trail for cycling/walking from Middlemarch to Clyde while the section from Middlemarch to the Fonterra facility at Mosgiel was purchased by the Dunedin City Council and would remain in rails and be operated as a tourist train route by Taieri Gorge Railway (now renamed Dunedin Railways). The decision to place the locomotive on display in Ranfurly as, effectively, a farewell gift to the town was a reflection of the fact that the DJ had become a familiar sight in Ranfurly as the main locomotive power on the Otago Central line from 1968.
DJ 3021 was later purchased by TGR and transported to Middlemarch for storage in the old goods shed at the Middlemarch railway station. The locomotive is merely a shell with no mechanical or electrical parts remaining in its car-body. It still sits on its bogies but the electric traction motors have been removed from these. TGR holds a large stock of DJ parts and, technically, it would be possible to rebuild DJ 3021 to operating condition but whether this will ever happen is a case of wait and see.
The six DJ locos still in service with TGR (now re-named Dunedin Railways) and their dates in service with NZR are:
DJ 3096 (pre-TMS DJ 1209) Feb 1968 – Feb 2008
DJ 3107 (DJ 1210) Mar 1968 – Mar 1992
DJ 3211 (DJ 1221) June 1968 – Mar 1992
DJ 3228 (DJ 1222) June 1968 – Mar 1992
DJ 3286 (DJ 1227) Oct 1968 – July 1992
DJ 3424 (DJ 1240) Jan 1969 – July 1992
DJ trivia 1: Ironically, following problems that took a large part of its fleet of new Chinese-built Dalian DL class locos out of service in 2014-15, Kiwirail (the current name for the successor of NZR) had to hire some of their old DJ locos back from TGR to help address a critical nationwide locomotive shortage. So still life in the old dogs yet!!
DJ trivia 2: In late 2015 two Dunedin Railways DJ locomotives (DJ 3096 and DJ 3228) headed the first Royal Train to run on New Zealand rails since 1954 when the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall were conveyed by train from Mosgiel to Dunedin railway stations.
Notes for trainspotters: At various times DJ has been officially written in railway records as Dj, DJ and DJ with the J in superscript. The cache page has simply standardized on DJ. Also, all of the DJ locos were assigned two different fleet numbers during their lifetimes. This was due to renumbering of the entire NZR fleet at the time of the introduction of the TMS computerized fleet management system in the late 1970s. TGR has tended to number their DJs with their pre-TMS numbers in recent times. The cache page has standardized on post-TMS numbers.