BLENHEIM, New Zealand – New Zealand Railways built the locomotive Passchendaele in 1915 at its Addington Workshops in Christchurch.
The steamer entered service in October 1915 and is dedicated to the “memory of those members of the New Zealand Railways who fell in the Great War.”
Of the 100,000 New Zealanders who fought in World War I, about 5 percent worked on the railroad. Of those 5,000 railway workers, 444 were killed.
The locomotive was named for the Battle of Passchendaele, also known as the Third Battle of Ypres. Today, the locomotive runs as part of the Marlborough Flyer heritage steam train between Picton and Blenheim.
