The 2350 class were a class of diesel locomotive built by

English Electric N.º UIC: 9094 110 1449-3 (Takargo Rail) The English Electric Company Limited (EE) was a British industrial manufacturer formed after the Armistice of 11 November 1918, armistice of World War I by amalgamating five businesses which, during th ...

Rocklea Rocklea is a suburb in the City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. In the , Rocklea had a population of 1,595 people. Geography Rocklea is located 9 kilometres south of the city. The west of the suburb is bordered by the Oxley Creek. The ...

for

Queensland Rail Queensland Rail (QR) is a railway operator in Queensland, Australia. Owned by the Queensland Government, it operates local and long-distance passenger services, as well as owning and maintaining approximately 6,600 kilometres of track and relate ...

ways in 1973–1974. All were later sold to

AN Tasrail AN Tasrail was an Australian railway operator that operated the Tasmanian rail network from March 1978 until November 2004. Originally a subsidiary of the Federal Government's Australian National, it was sold to Australian Transport Network (A ...

History

The 2350 class was built for use on the Blackwater and Moura coal lines and based at

Gladstone William Ewart Gladstone ( ; 29 December 1809 – 19 May 1898) was a British statesman and Liberal politician. In a career lasting over 60 years, he served for 12 years as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, spread over four non-conse ...

. The class became surplus following electrification of the coal lines and in 1987 were all sold to

where they all entered service as the ZB class.ZB Class
Rail Tasmania They were very similar to the Tasrail Za class - in fact, the first four ZA class' builder's numbers follow on in sequence from the 2350s' and are followed by the 2370s'. In 1995, one was rebuilt by Australian National's

Port Augusta Port Augusta is a small city in South Australia. Formerly a port, seaport, it is now a road traffic and Junction (rail), railway junction city mainly located on the east coast of the Spencer Gulf immediately south of the gulf's head and about ...

workshop with a raked cab similar to the EL class and renumbered ZR1, while in 1997 a second was rebuilt at AN Tasrail's Launceston workshops with a more conventional cab as ZR2."Rebuilt Loco Arrives at Tasrail" ''

Railway Digest ''Railway Digest'' is a monthly magazine, published in Sydney, covering contemporary railways of Australia. Overview The magazine's publisher is the Australian Railway Historical Society (ARHS), NSW Division. The first issue was published in M ...

'' July 1996 page 16 In 2003, three were sold to

South Spur Rail Services South Spur Rail Services was a Western Australian owned railway company that provides terminal operations and short haul rail services. In February 2006, it purchased Silverton Rail. In March 2007, it was sold to Coote Industrial, then in Ma ...

, with two shipped to

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

to operate infrastructure trains with the fourth stripped for parts in Launceston, eventually being owned by

Greentrains Greentrains is a locomotive and rolling stock leasing company in Australia. It was formed in June 2008 as a subsidiary of Coote Industrial. In 2008, Coote Industrial subsidiary Gemco Rail acquired 42 locomotives and 54 wagons from the distress ...

. Finally being scrapped in 2016, with the sole remaining WAGR R class, after being left exposed to heavy vandalism. The remaining four Locomotives are in storage, at

TasRail TasRail is the trading name of Tasmanian Railway Proprietary Limited, a Tasmanian Government state-owned enterprise that has operated the mainline railways in Tasmania since September 2009. It operates only freight services. History Establis ...

's East Tamar workshops having been out of use since early 2014. One of these, ZB 5/2123 (2352), has been preserved by

Launceston & North East Railway Launceston may refer to: Places * Launceston, Cornwall, a town, ancient borough, and civil parish in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom ** Launceston (UK Parliament constituency), a former parliamentary constituency in Cornwall * Launceston, Tasmani ...

. It was finally delivered to their Lilydale yard on 27 May 2022, making it the first of its class in preservation.

References

External links

Co-Co locomotives Diesel locomotives of Queensland Diesel locomotives of Tasmania Diesel locomotives of Western Australia English Electric locomotives Queensland Rail locomotives Railway locomotives introduced in 1973 3 ft 6 in gauge locomotives of Australia Diesel-electric locomotives of Australia {{diesel-loco-stub