New South Wales 4-4-2 Locomotives in Australia

Class C- 79/Z-13 (Locobase 15984)

Data from John Forsythe (Archive Officer, Transport House), Steam Locomotive Data, Public Transport Commission of NSW [New South Wales], July 1974, p. 62, archived at [], last accessed 12 March 2015. (Many thanks to Brett Fitzpatrick for his 11March 2015 email supplying the link to the CoalsToNewcastle website.) See also [] (last accessed 12 March 2015) for their account of 1308, a survivor of this class.

By the end of the 19th Century, the C79 4-4-0s (Locobase 15983) faced heavier traffic than they could handle. As they were replaced by larger engines, some of the more than five dozen engines could be spared for other duties. Suburban traffic into and out of Sydney needed more motive power and the NSW's Eveleigh shops converted one of the C79s into a ten-wheel tank. (It wasn't really an "Atlantic" tank because its firebox retained its original narrow shape.)

Success in this conversion led to 19 more over the next six years. Soon displaced from Sydney service by S636 4-6-4Ts (Locobase 2409), the class went to work in Newcastle suburban traffic. Rebuilt with Belpaire boilers like those on the tender-engine C79s (see Locobase 2400 for boiler details), the class eventually entered branch-line service and headed up North Coast school trains.

Class M40 (Locobase 2430)

Data from John Forsythe (Archive Officer, Transport House), Steam Locomotive Data, Public Transport Commission of NSW [New South Wales], July 1974, p.56, archived at [], last accessed 12 March 2015. (Many thanks to Brett Fitzpatrick for his 11 March 2015 email supplying the link to the CoalsToNewcastle website.), See also [] (16 May 2003) for full

Locobase believes the tube counts given for the original M-40s and the rebuilt engines (Locobase 15986) were typographically reversed in the 1974 document cited above. The larger tube count seems to represent the rebuilt engines and the smaller one (attributed to the rebuilds in the 1974 book) for the originals. So that's how they are are shown.

OS Nock (RWC III, pl 67) comments that although they were excellent engines, the demands of the suburban service on which they worked soon outstripped their power. Even so, they served in one way or another until four were sold to private railways between 1918-1926 and the others scrapped in the mid-1920s.

Class M40/Z-11 - rebuilt (Locobase 15986)

Data from John Forsythe (Archive Officer, Transport House), Steam Locomotive Data, Public Transport Commission of NSW [New South Wales], July 1974, p.56, archived at [], last accessed 12 March 2015. (Many thanks to Brett Fitzpatrick for his 11 March 2015 email supplying the link to the CoalsToNewcastle website.),

The NSWGR retrofitted 13 M-40s locomotives with new boilers. Locobase believes the tube counts given for the original M-40s (Locobase 2340) and the rebuilt engines were typographically reversed in the 1974 document cited above. The larger tube count seems to represent the rebuilt engines and the smaller one (attributed to the rebuilds in the 1974 book) for the originals. So that's how they are are shown.

The class averaged more than 31 years in service before their retirements throughout the 1920s.