The N class was a class of diesel locomotives built by

Comeng Commonwealth Engineering (often shortened to Com-Eng, later Comeng was an Australian engineering company that designed and built railway locomotives, rolling stock and trams. History Smith and Waddington, the predecessor to Commonwealth Engi ...

, Bassendean for Westrail between 1977 and 1979.

History

Eleven were built all for use on the Western Australian narrow gauge network, primarily to haul mineral trains in the south east. Between July 1982 and June 1983, the first four members of the class had their

vacuum brake The vacuum brake is a braking system employed on trains and introduced in the mid-1860s. A variant, the automatic vacuum brake system, became almost universal in British train equipment and in countries influenced by British practice. Vacuum bra ...

equipment replaced with Westinghouse air brake systems, and were redesignated as the NA class. While liked by crews for their ride quality and power, they suffered from reliability problems and most were withdrawn in the early 1990s. The last were withdrawn in 1997.Westrail N / NA / NB classes
Westrail Alcos 9 March 2002 In January 1995 two of the NA class were

converted Conversion or convert may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * "Conversion" (''Doctor Who'' audio), an episode of the audio drama ''Cyberman'' * "Conversion" (''Stargate Atlantis''), an episode of the television series * "The Conversion" ...

standard gauge A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), International gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge and European gauge in Europe, and SGR in Ea ...

using bogies from

Mount Newman Mount Newman () is a mountain rising to about 1,150 m in northeast Havre Mountains, north Alexander Island, Antarctica. Situated 13.23 km south of Satovcha Peak, 13.15 km north-northwest of Breze Peak, 8.26 km northeast of Mount ...

Alco M636s, and redesignated as the NB class. In February 1998 these two were sold to Austrac Ready Power, Junee. These were sold in 2004 to Patrick Port Link,

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

and again in September 2011 to Australian Locolease who redesignated as the 18 class and leased them to El Zorro for use in Victoria."Australia Wide Fleet List 2014" '' Motive Power'' issue 96 pages 65, 67 Austrac also purchased NA1874 but it was sold without use to South Spur Rail Services in 2001 and converted for standard gauge operation in January 2006. It was scrapped in 2014.1874
Vicsig

Status table

References

External links

{{WAGR Locomotives, state=collapsed Co-Co locomotives Commonwealth Engineering locomotives Diesel locomotives of Western Australia Railway locomotives introduced in 1977 Standard gauge locomotives of Australia 3 ft 6 in gauge locomotives of Australia Diesel-electric locomotives of Australia