Victorian Railways C class

The C class was a mainline goods locomotive of the 2-8-0 'Consolidation' type that ran on the Victorian Railways between 1918 and 1962. Although its original design had some key shortcomings, a number of improvements were made over the class' long career on the VR, many of which were subsequently applied to other locomotive classes on the system.

History

Designed by Chief Mechanical Engineer W. M. Shannon,

The high tractive effort of the C class locomotives enabled Victorian Railways to operate heavier goods trains with a single locomotive and thus enabled significant savings in operating costs through a reduction in train-miles for the tonnage hauled. Along with the smaller K class branch line 2-8-0, they were credited with playing a major part in the 15% reduction in overall goods and livestock train miles on Victoria Railways between 1920 and 1924, against a reduction of overall tonnage hauled of only 3% for the same years.^[4]

Upon introduction, locomotive C 1 was put to work operating through goods trains on the Melbourne to

In practice, the C class was initially a somewhat less successful design than the A2. Key shortcomings included a very long, 9 feet 7 inches (2.92 m) manually stoked firebox that was difficult to fire and prone to clinkering, and an undersized boiler.[7] The locomotives tended to run out of steam when worked hard.

In an attempt to rectify these problems, locomotive C 5 was fitted in 1933 with a new front end, based on the Association of American Railroads (AAR) design of self-cleaning smokebox, to improve steaming qualities. The results were very promising and led to further experimental work, using A2 class locomotive A2 998 as a test bed and conducted under the direction of VR Rolling Stock branch engineer Edgar Brownbill, in streamlining the steam passages and other changes to reduce back pressure on the exhaust side and increase efficiency. These changes, referred to as 'Modified Front End', were such an improvement that the rest of the A2 and C classes were progressively modified, as well as all of the K, N, S and X classes.^[7][8]

In 1929, C 5 also became the first VR locomotive to be fitted with a cross-compound air compressor, which was also subsequently adopted across other VR locomotive classes.

As the poor quality of coal available after World War II exacerbated the problems of firing the C class and industrial action in the mines threatened supply, the entire class was converted to oil firing from 1946 onwards following an initial conversion of C 15 in 1946. Despite the success of the conversion, C class locomotives were still prone to running out of steam when pushed on long rising gradients.[1]

Whereas other VR locomotives to receive Modified Front End treatment had been equipped with smoke deflectors in the 1930s, it was not until 1947 that the VR finally developed a successful design of smoke deflector for the C class, based on the German "Witte" pattern.^[2] This design was then adopted for the final Newport-built N class locomotives as well as the last two steam locomotive classes on the VR, the R and J classes.

Experimental use of pulverised brown coal

In 1923, C 16 was modified with Fuller-Lehigh equipment to run on Pulverised

With these new locomotives entering service, the ageing C class locomotives were progressively withdrawn from service, commencing with C 20 in June 1954. The last C class in service, C 7, was withdrawn in April 1962.[7]

Engine histories

Based on locomotive history cards.^[10]

Preservation

C 10 was set aside for preservation on 18 May 1962, after having run 1,160,856 miles (1,868,217 km) during its career on the VR.^[2] It is preserved at the Newport Railway Museum.

References