The P class are a class of diesel locomotives built by A Goninan & Co, Bassendean for

Westrail Western Australian Government Railways (WAGR) was the operator of railway services in the state of Western Australia between October 1890 and June 2003. Owned by the state government, it was renamed a number of times to reflect extra responsi ...

between 1989 and 1991.

History

In 1988,

placed an order for 15 CM25-8

Dash 8 The De Havilland Canada DHC-8, commonly known as the Dash 8, is a series of turboprop-powered regional airliners, introduced by de Havilland Canada (DHC) in 1984. DHC was later bought by Boeing in 1988, then by Bombardier in 1992; then by ...

locomotives for bulk grain and general freight haulage with A Goninan & Co. A 16th was later ordered followed by a 17th funded by AMC Mineral Sands. In 1997, the class was fitted with

Locotrol Locotrol is a product of GE Transportation that permits railway locomotives to be distributed throughout the length of a train (distributed power). It is installed on more than 17,000 locomotives around the world, sending signals from the lead loco ...

equipment to allow them to operate in

top and tail A top-and-tail railway train has locomotives at both ends, for ease of changing direction, especially where the terminal station has no run-round loop. This is a British term. It is normal for only the leading locomotive to power the train when in ...

formation. All were included in the sale of Westrail to

Australian Railroad Group Australian Railroad Group (ARG) was an Australian rail freight operator. It began operations in Western Australia on 17 December 2000 following its purchase of the Westrail freight business. It was purchased by QR National in June 2006. The mai ...

in December 2000, with the class redesignated as the 2500 class. In June 2006, all were included in the sale of Australian Railroad Group's Western Australian operation to QR National. All 17 remain in service with

Aurizon Aurizon ( ) is a freight rail transport company in Australia, formerly named QR National. it was the world’s largest rail transporter of coal from mine to port. Formerly a Queensland Government-owned company, it was privatised and floated o ...

as at October 2014."Australia Wide Fleet List 2014" ''

Motive Power ''Motive Power'' is a bi-monthly railway related magazine that focuses on diesel locomotives in Australia. The first issue was published on 23 August 1998. Its headquarters is in Sydney. The content includes photographs of locomotives & trains, ...

issue 96 November 2014 page 64

Status list

References

External links

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Flickr gallery
{{WAGR Locomotives, state=collapsed Aurizon diesel locomotives Co-Co locomotives Diesel locomotives of Western Australia Railway locomotives introduced in 1989 Diesel-electric locomotives of Australia 3 ft 6 in gauge locomotives of Australia