The Victorian Railways P class was a class of goods locomotives operated by 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 1860 and 1921, built by

Beyer, Peacock & Company Beyer, Peacock and Company was an English railway locomotive manufacturer with a factory in Openshaw, Manchester. Founded by Charles Beyer, Richard Peacock and Henry Robertson, it traded from 1854 until 1966. The company exported locomotives, ...

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

, England.

History

Victorian Railways initially numbered passenger and goods locomotives separately, the engines were numbered 5–9. This was changed in the late 1860's to odd numbers for goods locomotives and even numbers for passenger locos with these locomotives taking the odd numbers 1–9. This odd and even system remained in use until 1912. In 1886, they were allocated to Class P.

Production

The five locomotives were built in 1859 with builder's numbers 115–119 at an average cost of £3779-12-0 for each loco. They arrived in Port Phillip in March 1860.

Regular service

In addition to regular goods service, some were loaned to contractors, like Cornish & Bruce, for line construction and ballasting purposes. In 1894, all were allocated to .

Design improvements

Over the years they were fitted with various alterations to the cabs. There were also various upgrades over the years; with constant improvements to safety — these including things like updates to safety valves (and domes), smokeboxs and chimneys (with spark arrestors), and brakes.
P1 received a new boiler in December 1894. Then between 1903 and 1906 they were all reboilered with a new boiler pressures of 150psi.

Demise

P3 was withdrawn in 1917, P5 and P9 in 1919, P7 in 1920, and P1 in 1921.

Fleet summary

References

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Specific

External links

P class locomotive no. 7, circa 1865

P class steam locomotive no. 3

VPRS 12903/P0001, 302/03
- Drawing of P class steam locomotive 0-6-0 c1860
VPRS 12800/P0001, H 1038
- P class steam locomotive side view
VPRS 12800/P0001, H 2850
- Bendigo Beyer Peacock P class steam locomotive 1883
VPRS 12800/P0001, H 5004
- P class steam locomotive no.3 on Echuca mixed train at Deniliquin 11-1-1902
VPRS 12800/P0001, H 1087
- P class steam locomotive no.1 perspective view New Market circa 1916 {{DEFAULTSORT:Victorian Railways P Class 1859 0-6-0 locomotives Railway locomotives introduced in 1859 Scrapped locomotives Broad gauge locomotives in Australia P class 1859 Beyer, Peacock locomotives Freight locomotives