The Dunedin machinery dealers W. Rietveld Limited were contracted by New Zealand Railways in 1983 to scrap the re-cabbed DG class locomotives, which were then stored at Dunedin. These locomotives were largely unserviceable due to mechanical failures or had been laid up with the arrival of more modern motive power. Several of these locomotives had been lifted by NZR in order to gain access to their EE 525 traction motors, which had been sold to the National Federation of Railway Societies for distribution to other groups who owned DG class locomotives.