Originally Posted by
disco man
Very good info guys very impressive locos both of them. I didn't know the H class was an Australian design very cool. I knew Australia had different rail gauges but had no idea every state was using so many different classes i may be wrong but is all the models/classes used by all the states different in design or where the same but had different names?
There were a few locomotives used by more than one state (e.g. the Commonwealth Garret) but in general each state used their own designs, either locally manufactured or imported (usually from the UK). Some were more or less standard designs from UK manufacturers, but most were designed specifically to meet local requirements.
Remember that not only did you have gauges of 5'3" and 2'6" in Victoria, 3"6" and 5'3" in SA, 3'6" in WA and Qld, 3'6" in Tas, 4'8.5" in NSW, but they alll varied in track clearance and track load capacity even where the gauges were the same.
The systems developed for nearly fifty years from the 1850s before any of them actually met, and in some states there were independent systems, not connected, within the same state.
Just to complicate matters, some states reclassified their locomotives with completely different numbers for the same bits of equipment. Then there were tender locos converted to tank and redesignated etc. All gets very complicated!
John
John
JDNSW
1986 110 County 3.9 diesel
1970 2a 109 2.25 petrol
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