Victorian Government Rlys 4-6-2 Locomotives in Australia

Class DDE (Locobase 2390)

Data from "New Suburban Rolling Stock, Victorian Railways," Locomotive Magazine, Vol XVII (15 July 1911), pp. 155-156.

Tank engine designed by TH Woodroffe that used the D2's combination of cylinders and boiler (Locobase 2388) and were large enough to handle the 700 -800 passenger trains then coming into service. Two of these engines (710 & 712) were converted to DD-class tender engines.

Class S (Locobase 2591)

Many thanks to Graeme Reid, who contacted Wes Barris about the H class in July 2006 and prompted Locobase's research into that class and Reid's own favorite the S class. Thanks also to Peter Sharpe, whose August 2013 email corrected Locobase's mysterious assertion that these Pacifics were the only three-cylinder Australian locomotives.

Built to handle the Melbourne-Sydney expresses from Melbourne to the NSW border at Albury (where the gauge changed), these big engines were among the three-cylinder engines adopted by an Australian road. The inside valve was actuated by the Holcroft-Gresley conjugating gear. (See Locobase 2417 for a description of the conjugating-leverl mechanism.) All three cylinders used 10" (254 mm) piston valves.

All of the engines eventually were named: Matthew Flinders, Sir Thomas Mitchell, Edward Henty, and CJ Latrobe. Between 1936 and 1938, they all wore a streamline, shovelnose casing resembling that used on the Canadian National's 4-8-4s. The streamlining marked the debut of the air-conditioned "Spirit of Progress" train sets.

[] (October 2002) gives these particulars about the four locomotives: (He gives a figure of 570 sq ft for the superheater). See also [], accessed 14 July 2006.

S301 (Sir Thomas Mitchell, built 1929), with worn cylinders due for replacement, and a mileage of 1,147,408 was the first of the class to be scrapped in October 1953. Usable parts were stored for possible further use.

S302 (Edward Henty, built 1929) during its life of 25 years, held the greatest mileage with a total of 1,446,468. It was scrapped in July 1954.

S300 (Matthew Flinders, built 1928), after covering 1,254,806 miles, was withdrawn from service on September 17, 1954.

S303 (C.J. Latrobe, built 1930), with a mileage of 1,139,978 was scrapped in May 1954.

The four S class were converted from coal to oil in 1951-52. The new tenders carried 2,000 Imp Gal (2,400 US gallons; 9,092 litres). Newly introduced Diesel electric locos took over the run.

When the VR moved to diesels in the early 1950s, these engines left service.