Western Australia 2-6-0 Locomotives in Australia

Class A (Locobase 9560)

Data from Howell, Comparative Statistics of the Australasian Railways, Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, March 1899, pp. 96-97. Builders were Beyer, Peacock and Dubs & Co.

These were the first class on the WAGR to be built in significant numbers, but they soon proved too small and light for mainline traffic. When the G class were introduced in the mid-1890s, the As were moved to branch-line service. In that role, most of the locomotives operated well into the post-World War II era.

Class G (Locobase 9562)

Data from Howell, Comparative Statistics of the Australasian Railways, Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, March 1899, pp. 96-97. Builders were Beyer, Peacock (7 built), Neilson & Co (12 built), and J Martin & Co (29 built).

[], last accessed 6 September 2008, says that these were part of a "Australian Standard" and were widely used. But, "The G class seems to have satisfied the early need for a mainline general purpose locomotive, although they had a tendency to leave the track when running at high speed." Thus the design was modified to take a leading bogie in place of the Bissel truck; see Locobase 9563.