Western Australia 2-8-4 Locomotives in Australia

Class K (Locobase 9567)

Data from Howell, Comparative Statistics of the Australasian Railways, Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, March 1899, pp. 96-97 and Leon Oberg, Locomotives of Australia: 1850s - 2007 (Rosenberg Publishing, 2007), pp. 96-97.

This double-dozen of pocket tanks served the Eastern Goldfields Railway heavy freight traffic. They served the Kalgoorlie and Collie branches well and remained in use for decades. Not to be confused with superpower Berkshires, these engines had long, straight boilers with a single, centered steam dome and short cabs. All of the wheels were small and the two trailing axles rode in a bogie. For some reason, Oberg shows the boiler pressure as delivered set at 120 psi, but Howells' tables, published in 1899, clearly show 160 psi. Grate area decreased later to 15.8 sq ft (1.478 sq m).

An additional six engines of the class were diverted by the British government for use in South Africa during the Boer War; see Locobase 20903.

Beginning in 1915, the 24 WAGR began installing superheaters; a total of five had been made over by 1929. But the superheater's advantages were more than outweighed by its maintenance demands and all five engines regained their saturated boilers.

According to Oberg, the class was, not surprisingly, run into the ground by the demands of traffic induced by World War II and some were scrapped soon afterward. The departures of others of the class were considerably delayed by the need for heavy switchers and extra power for heavy passenger demands (like race day, e.g.). The last K-class engine was withdrawn in 1964.