New South Wales 90 class locomotive

Ordered in July 1992 under a Ready Power contract along with the 82 class, the first batch of 31 were built by Electro-Motive Division in London, Ontario, Canada in 1994. While the second batch of four locomotives delivered in November 2005 were built by EDi Rail at Cardiff Workshops to the same specification.[1]

The 90 class were the first of the now very common Australian single ended cab and long hood design, with an almost identical cab layout to the 82 Class. They are restricted to the Hunter Valley line due to their large mass. All passed to Pacific National when FreightCorp was privatised in February 2002.

A number of the class are named after Olympic Games athletes. The original batch retain FreightCorp livery with Pacific National decals, while the later four were delivered in Pacific National livery. Slowly, the Canadian built locomotives are being repainted into the Pacific National Livery, with 9012 being the first repainted in November 2018.[2][3]

Many of the design features of the class were incorporated into the Downer EDI Rail GT46C.

Units 9032, 9033 and 9034 were modified by EDi Rail in May 2017 to increase their mass to 177 tons, bringing their tractive effort on par with more modern AC units.

Restricted to the Hunter Valley the 90 class operate on the Main Northern line as far as the Dartbrook, and on Ulan on the Gulgong line. They have also operated as far south as Eraring Power Station at Dora Creek.[4]

They usually double or triple head coal trains, 165 ton units can pull up to 91 wagons, and 177 ton units can pull up to 96. Units operated singularly on the Eraring Power Station services.[4] All are maintained at a depot built on Kooragang Island as part of the Ready Power deal that opened in June 1994.[4][5]

Members of the class have visited the wheel lathe at Delec Locomotive Depot in Sydney and one was on display at Sydney Central for the 100th Anniversary of Clyde Engineering in 1998. To minimise weight they operated as light engine and with only a small amount of fuel.[4]

• Downer EDI Rail GT46C

Media related to New South Wales 90 class locomotives at Wikimedia Commons