The C class was a mainline goods locomotive of the
2-8-0
Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents the wheel arrangement of two leading wheels on one axle, usually in a leading truck, eight powered and coupled driving wheels on four axles, and no trailing wheels. ...
'Consolidation' type that ran on the
Victorian Railways
The Victorian Railways (VR), trading from 1974 as VicRail, was the state-owned operator of most rail transport in the Australian state of Victoria from 1859 to 1983. The first railways in Victoria were private companies, but when these companie ...
between 1918 and 1962. Although its original design had some key shortcomings, a number of improvements were made over the class' long career on the VR, many of which were subsequently applied to other locomotive classes on the system.
History
Designed by Chief Mechanical Engineer W. M. Shannon,
the C class was the first goods locomotive designed and built entirely in-house by the Victorian Railways Newport Workshops, following on from the successful
Dd and
A2 class passenger locomotives. When class leader C 1 was introduced in 1918, it was the heaviest and most powerful steam locomotive in Australia.
It had been necessary for Victorian Railways to strengthen bridges at
Dudley Street
Dudley Street is a main street in the Melbourne central business district, linking the northern Docklands district to the north-western corner of the Melbourne CBD. Dudley Street is possibly named after the Governor General from 1908 to 1911, t ...
,
North Melbourne
North Melbourne is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, north-west of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Melbourne local government area. North Melbourne recorded a population of 14,953 at the ...
and along the lines to
Woodend and
Seymour on which the new locomotive was expected to run.
Production
The prototype locomotive C 1 was the only one of the class painted in the Victorian Railways 'Canadian Red' scheme. Locomotive C 2 was the first new Victorian Railways locomotive to be finished in the new VR livery of plain, unrelieved black, a cost-efficiency initiative introduced by the new VR Chairman
Harold Clapp. It was the first of a further 25 C class members also built at Newport Workshops between 1921 and 1926.
Regular Service
The high tractive effort of the C class locomotives enabled Victorian Railways to operate heavier goods trains with a single locomotive and thus enabled significant savings in operating costs through a reduction in train-miles for the tonnage hauled. Along with the smaller
K class branch line
A branch line is a phrase used in railway terminology to denote a secondary railway line which branches off a more important through route, usually a main line. A very short branch line may be called a spur line.
Industrial spur
An industri ...
2-8-0, they were credited with playing a major part in the 15% reduction in overall goods and livestock train miles on Victoria Railways between 1920 and 1924, against a reduction of overall tonnage hauled of only 3% for the same years.
Upon introduction, locomotive C 1 was put to work operating through goods trains on the Melbourne to
Seymour line. Apart from its ability to operate a heavy train unassisted, it was also found to be 5% more efficient in coal consumption per ton-mile than
superheater
A superheater is a device used to convert saturated steam or wet steam into superheated steam or dry steam. Superheated steam is used in steam turbines for electricity generation, steam engines, and in processes such as steam reforming. There ar ...
-equipped A2 and Dd class locomotives, and 25% more efficient that A2 or Dd class locomotives with saturated steam boilers.
By 1924 C class locomotives were operating on the
Bendigo
Bendigo ( ) is a city in Victoria, Australia, located in the Bendigo Valley near the geographical centre of the state and approximately north-west of Melbourne, the state capital.
As of 2019, Bendigo had an urban population of 100,991, makin ...
,
North Eastern
The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each sepa ...
, and
Wonthaggi railway line
Wonthaggi is a seaside town located south east of Melbourne via the South Gippsland and Bass Highways, in the Bass Coast Shire of Gippsland, Victoria, Australia. Known originally for its coal mining, it is now the largest town in South Gippsl ...
s, where full trainloads of bulk goods were available. By 1925, they were also operating grain trains from
Ararat to
Geelong
Geelong ( ) (Wathawurrung: ''Djilang''/''Djalang'') is a port city in the southeastern Australian state of Victoria, located at the eastern end of Corio Bay (the smaller western portion of Port Phillip Bay) and the left bank of Barwon River, ...
via
Maroona where they were able to haul 1200 ton trains unassisted, a 420-ton increase over the hauling capacity of an A2 class locomotive on the same route.
Design improvements
In practice, the C class was initially a somewhat less successful design than the A2. Key shortcomings included a very long, manually stoked firebox that was difficult to fire and prone to clinkering, and an undersized boiler.
The locomotives tended to run out of steam when worked hard.
In an attempt to rectify these problems, locomotive C 5 was fitted in 1933 with a new front end, based on the
Association of American Railroads
The Association of American Railroads (AAR) is an industry trade group representing primarily the major freight Rail transport, railroads of North America (Canada, Mexico and the United States). Amtrak and some regional Commuter rail in North Am ...
(AAR) design of self-cleaning
smokebox
A smokebox is one of the major basic parts of a steam locomotive exhaust system. Smoke and hot gases pass from the firebox through tubes where they pass heat to the surrounding water in the boiler. The smoke then enters the smokebox, and is e ...
, to improve steaming qualities. The results were very promising and led to further experimental work, using A2 class locomotive A2 998 as a test bed and conducted under the direction of VR Rolling Stock branch engineer Edgar Brownbill, in streamlining the steam passages and other changes to reduce back pressure on the exhaust side and increase efficiency. These changes, referred to as 'Modified Front End', were such an improvement that the rest of the A2 and C classes were progressively modified, as well as all of the
K,
N,
S and
X classes.
In 1929, C 5 also became the first VR locomotive to be fitted with a cross-compound air compressor, which was also subsequently adopted across other VR locomotive classes.
The C class was also the first goods locomotive to be fitted with
Automatic Staff Exchange
In railway signalling, a token is a physical object which a train driver is required to have or see before entering onto a particular section of single track. The token is clearly endorsed with the names of the section it belongs to. A token sy ...
apparatus, given their frequent used on express goods and fruit services.
As the poor quality of coal available after World War II exacerbated the problems of firing the C class and industrial action in the mines threatened supply, the entire class was converted to oil firing from 1946 onwards following an initial conversion of C 15 in 1946. Despite the success of the conversion, C class locomotives were still prone to running out of steam when pushed on long rising gradients.
Whereas other VR locomotives to receive Modified Front End treatment had been equipped with
smoke deflectors
Smoke deflectors, sometimes called "blinkers" in the UK because of their strong resemblance to the blinkers used on horses, and "elephant ears" in US railway slang, are vertical plates attached to each side of the smokebox at the front of a ste ...
in the 1930s, it was not until 1947 that the VR finally developed a successful design of smoke deflector for the C class, based on the German "Witte" pattern.
This design was then adopted for the final Newport-built
N class locomotives as well as the last two steam locomotive classes on the VR, the
R and
J classes.
Experimental use of pulverised brown coal
![C16pbc](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/73/C16pbc.jpg)
In 1923, C 16 was modified with Fuller-Lehigh equipment to run on Pulverised
Brown Coal
Lignite, often referred to as brown coal, is a soft, brown, combustible, sedimentary rock formed from naturally compressed peat. It has a carbon content around 25–35%, and is considered the lowest rank of coal due to its relatively low heat ...
(PBC),
a potentially abundant fuel in Victoria given the large brown coal reserves in the
Latrobe Valley
The Latrobe Valley is an inland geographical district and urban area of the Gippsland region in the state of Victoria, Australia. The traditional owners are the Brayakaulung of the Gunai nation. The district lies east of Melbourne and nestle ...
. Unlike the later conversion of
X class locomotive X 32 to PBC firing in 1949, this early experiment was not considered a success and C 16 was returned to black coal operation.
Passenger use
During World War II, increasingly heavy passenger trains and a shortage of suitable motive power saw the C class used as mainline passenger locomotives, a somewhat unusual assignment for a 2-8-0. To facilitate passenger working, their maximum allowable speed was raised from 50 mph (80 km/h) to 60 mph (96 km/h) on the key North Eastern,
Ballarat
Ballarat ( ) is a city in the Central Highlands (Victoria), Central Highlands of Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. At the 2021 Census, Ballarat had a population of 116,201, making it the third largest city in Victoria. Estimated resid ...
, Bendigo and
Geelong
Geelong ( ) (Wathawurrung: ''Djilang''/''Djalang'') is a port city in the southeastern Australian state of Victoria, located at the eastern end of Corio Bay (the smaller western portion of Port Phillip Bay) and the left bank of Barwon River, ...
lines.
Withdrawal
The postwar rebuilding of Victorian Railways in the late 1940s and early 1950s saw the order of hundreds of new locomotives of superior design to the C class, culminating in the delivery of
B class mainline
diesel electric
Diesel may refer to:
* Diesel engine, an internal combustion engine where ignition is caused by compression
* Diesel fuel, a liquid fuel used in diesel engines
* Diesel locomotive, a railway locomotive in which the prime mover is a diesel engine ...
and
L class mainline
electric locomotive
An electric locomotive is a locomotive powered by electricity from overhead lines, a third rail or on-board energy storage such as a battery or a supercapacitor. Locomotives with on-board fuelled prime movers, such as diesel engines or gas ...
s.
With these new locomotives entering service, the ageing C class locomotives were progressively withdrawn from service, commencing with C 20 in June 1954. The last C class in service, C 7, was withdrawn in April 1962.
Engine histories
Based on locomotive history cards.
[http://victorianrailways.net/motive%20power/csteam/c_class_cards.pdf ]
Preservation
![C10-preserved](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/96/C10-preserved.jpg)
C 10 was set aside for preservation on 18 May 1962, after having run during its career on the VR.
It is preserved at the
Newport Railway Museum
The Newport Railway Museum is located on Champion Road, Newport, Victoria, near the North Williamstown station.
History
The museum opened on 10 November 1962, after the Australian Railway Historical Society (ARHS) Victorian Division was allocat ...
.
References
External links
C class locomotive history and photographs
{{DEFAULTSORT:Victorian Railways C Class
2-8-0 locomotives
C class
Railway locomotives introduced in 1918
Broad gauge locomotives in Australia