The N class were 12 steam locomotives that operated on the national rail network of New Zealand. They were built in three batches, including one batch of two engines for the private Wellington and Manawatu Railway Company, the WMR, by the Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1885, 1891, and 1901. Previously the N class designation had been applied between 1877 and 1879 to Lady Mordaunt, a member of the B class of 1874. Construction Despite the Long Depression of the 1880s, the young New Zealand railway network continued to expand and additional motive power was required. The New Zealand Railways Department had normally ordered locomotives from England up until this time, though it had previously bought locomotives from United States manufacturers (such as the Rogers K class), and in 1885 it placed an order with Baldwin, whose first New Zealand locomotives were the T class, to construct the six original members of the N class, which entered service between October and December 1885. Six years later the WMR required additional motive power to handle the growing traffic on their line from Wellington to Longburn, just south of Palmerston North. Its typical supplier of equipment was Baldwin, who offered the WMR a locomotive similar to the N class. The WMR ordered two such locomotives and they entered service as Nos. 9 and 10. They proved to be more efficient than the 1885 batch, and in an attempt to match these efficiencies the government converted N 27 into a Vauclain compound, but with little success. In 1901, the government ordered four similar locomotives. Subclasses Two sub-classes of the N class existed, both Baldwin Vauclain compounds built for the WMR. Nos. 14 and 15 were a heavier and more powerful version of the N class and became the NA class; Nos. 5 and 18 had wider fireboxes and became the NC class. Operation The 1885 batch operated in the Hutt Valley and the Wairarapa; the 1901 batch around Auckland. Around 1900 they were used on the Napier Express coupled with an (rather ineffectual) M class loco; the duo was called a 'en and chicken. In 1908 the WMR was nationalised and incorporated into the government's network. The two ex-WMR Ns continued to work on their home route until World War I, when they were transferred to Westland to operate the mail trains between Greymouth and Otira, making full use of their speed. In the