Commonwealth Railways NB class

The Commonwealth Railways NB class originated in a shipment of four 0-6-0, 1067 mm (3 ft 6 in) gauge, saddle tank steam locomotives imported to Australia in 1916 from the Vulcan Iron Works of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Their first use was in constructing a naval base in Western Australia. In 1925 two of them were acquired by the Commonwealth Railways, transferred to Quorn, South Australia, and numbered as NB29 and NB30.[1]

Locomotive NB30 shunting a passenger car at Quorn in 1949
Locomotive NB30 in its diesel-hydraulic form

After shunting for two decades at Quorn, where they were nicknamed "pugs", they were set aside.[1] NB29 was scrapped.

Conversion to diesel – NB30

In 1957, the frame and wheels of NB30 (Vulcan Iron Works builder's number 2533) were used as the basis of a small diesel-hydraulic locomotive at the Port Augusta railway workshops.[note 1] Retaining its number, NB30 was initially used in recovering rails from the closed Brachina–Hawker section of the Central Australia Railway, after which it was assigned to Quorn for shunting work. It was then transferred to Port Augusta for use as a workshops shunter, where it was withdrawn from service in 1972.

In 1979, NB30 was donated to the Pichi Richi Railway by the successor to the Commonwealth Railways, the Australian National Railways Commission, whose chairman, Keith Smith, had been the Chief Mechanical Engineer who had overseen its design. As of 2020, the Pichi Richi Railway employed the locomotive on shunting duties.[1]

As of 2020, one of the two Vulcan steam locomotives that did not go to the Commonwealth Railways (no. 4) was stored at the Bellarine Railway.[2]

Notes
  1. Specifications included power output of 140 bhp (104 kW) – from a General Motors model 6/71, 4.5 inch (114 mm) bore x 5 inch (127 mm) in stroke, 6‑in‑line, 2‑stroke diesel engine – at 2100 rpm; maximum speed limit 20 mph (32 km/h); and a maximum axle load of 6 tons (6.1 tonnes). For other specifications, see the general arrangement diagram.

References
  1. "Commonwealth Railways NB class locomotives". Pichi Richi Railway. 2020. Retrieved 3 September 2020.
  2. "Our trains: Fyansford locomotives". Bellarine Railway. 2020. Retrieved 3 September 2020.


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