New South Wales 4-8-2 Locomotives in Australia

Class D57/Lazy Lizzies (Locobase 2417)

Data from John Forsythe (Archive Officer, Transport House), Steam Locomotive Data, Public Transport Commission of NSW [New South Wales], July 1974, p. 95, 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 "New South Wales Mountain Type Locomotives", Railway Age, Volume 90, No 12 (21 March 1931), p.588; and the 2 Jan 1961 publicity handout from the NSW reproduced at [] . See also P Ransome-Wallis, Concise Encyclopedia of World Railway Locomotives (London: Hutchinson & Company, 1959), p. 300; and M636C 's 25 August 2018 post from the "Steam Locomotive Features Likes and Dislikes" thread onTrains forum at [], last accessed 17 May 2020. (Thanks to Oz Pete, who emailed Locobase about an inaccurate description in January 2010 and Peter Sharpe, who supplied more information in August 2013. Alexander Blessing's 4 March 2022 email clarified the valve gear and the boiler pressure. )

Truly a large engine with three cylinders whose valves were operated by the Gresley conjugated gear. Note that unlike most Mountains, these were low-drivered freight engines. EE Lucy, the chief mechanical engineer, was constrained by several factors, according to the 21 March 1931 Railway Age report. The loading gauge was relatively constricted at 9' 8" (2.95 m) wide by 14' (4.27 m) high. If the engine was to develop enough power for the freight work it was to do and have a boiler pressure of 200 psi, it would need three cylinders. Hence the use of three cylinders with steam cutoffs in in each at 70% and the Gresley conjugated gear.

M636C's post said that the D57 "...showed some influences from US designs from Alco. It is understood that the cylinder general arrangement drawings were copied from the 1925 Locomotive Cyclopedia from the published drawings of the Alco 1600 series 2-8-2 for the South Manchurian Railway."

Viewed from above and looking forward, the most obvious difference between the Gresley and other three-cylinder drives was the "2-to-1" lever mounted transversely under the firebox and pivoting around a fulcrum located just left of the centerline. A valve spindle link on the right outside cylinder moved the long end of the lever forward and back. Through the fulcrum, this motion moved a shorter end a shorter distance on the left side. The left end of the short lever arm ended in a hole through which a pin passed to hold a second, floating lever with two equal-length arms. One of these linked to the outside valve spindle, the other to the inside valve that fed the third cylinder in its turn.

Other features included a cast-steel bed, two Nathan 1918 non-lifting injectors rated at 5,000 gal/hour, Standard Type B stoker, Franklin Precision Type F power reverse, Westinghouse cross-compound compressor, and three Ashton muffled safety valves. Firebox and combustion chamber heating surface included 37 sq ft (3.45 sq m) of arch tubes.

The class soon acquired the nickname "Lazy Lizzies" as a description of their seemingly effortless application of power to almost any length train. Peter Sharpe added further details in an August 2013 email to Locobase: "They had a reputation for being very reliable, even with the Gresley valve gear. As far as I can tell, the NSWGR wasn't happy about the difficulty of servicing but just did it anyway, with the result that the things just kept working. Not trying to run them at Mallard speeds probably helped too. They were just a general purpose grunter that topped out somewhere around 60 mph."

An NSW state heritage inventory form contains the following description of the class's history: "The class of 25 was allocated to two depots, Enfield (10) and Goulburn (15), for running between Enfield and Thirroul, and the steeply graded western line over the Blue Mountains. From 1932 the class entered service on the main south between Moss Vale and Cootamundra and from 1946 working extended to Junee. The class was restricted to these areas by its high axle loading of over 22 tons and banned from all other tracks. Their dominance of heavy goods working over these lines persisted during the 1940s, finally being rendered obsolete by the electrification of the western line to Lithgow from 1956 and the dieselisation of the Illawarra and main south. The last of the class in traffic, 5711 hauled its final train from Junee to Goulburn on 23 September 1961. This locomotive was withdrawn from service the following October and was condemned, along with the rest of the class remaining on 30 July 1963".

Class D58 (Locobase 10629)

Data from 2 Jan 1961 publicity handout from the NSW reproduced at [] . See also John Forsythe (Archive Officer, Transport House), Steam Locomotive Data, Public Transport Commission of NSW [New South Wales], July 1974, p. 90, archived at [], last accessed 12 March 2015. (Many thanks to Brett Fitzpatrick for his 11March 2015 email supplying the link to the CoalsToNewcastle website.); Wikipedia, [], last accessed 5 July 2009; H M Le Fleming, "Illustrated Survey of Modern Steam Locomotives," in P Ransome-Wallis, Concise Encyclopedia of World Railway Locomotives (London: Hutchinson & Company, 1959), p. 343. (Thanks to Oz Pete, who emailed Locobase about an inaccurate description in January 2010.)

Although almost identical with the just-earlier D57 class shown in Locobase 2417, this class of 13 was built within the railway's infrastructure. Eleven were produced at the Eveleigh Workshops and Cardiff Workshops turned out two. The big difference was the adoption of smaller-diameter cylinders, which while reducing power to some extent, theoretically extended the boiler's capacity and allowed the locomotives to slip through the tighter loading gauge of the Newcastle section.

Another important change was the switch from the Gresley conjugating gear to actuate the middle cylinder to a conjugated rack-and-pinion setup "...to prevent 'whip', or lost motion." according H M Le Fleming. Le Fleming noted that the large 2:1 lever used in a standard Gresley gear setup was replaced by "a light oscillating shaft." This was actuated by the right valve spindle, which ended in a rack that rocked the transverse shaft back and forth through a toothed quadrant. This side-to-side motion translated through a small pinion geared to a second pinion that engaged a sliding rack fitted with a crosshead that had the pivot of the small lever for the middle cylinder.

A plan to produce 25 of the locomotives was curtailed, according to Wikipedia, in part because the D58s were not satisfactory. The rack-and-pinion gear proved balky and the smaller cylinders required a later cutoff. The paradoxical result was that a D58 would use more fuel and water than the larger-volume D57s. They were all withdrawn by 1957.