WS 686 locomotive at Petone workshops

Despite manpower challenges and the diversion of resources to the production of military equipment, New Zealand's railway workshops continued to build locomotives, carriages and wagons throughout the First World War. The tank engine WS 686 (later WAB 686), pictured here at Petone, was built at Addington workshops, Christchurch, in 1917. Standing next to the locomotive is the well-known rail photographer Albert Percy Godber.