Victorian Railways C class (diesel)

The C class were purchased by the Victorian Railways for heavy freight haulage. They are a variant of the WAGR L class (itself an Australianised EMD SD40) fitted with safety cabs.^[1]: 226 Initially, the first four were placed on the North East line to haul services from Melbourne to Albury while the latter six were put on the broad gauge to haul services on the Serviceton line. Following upgrades to the infrastructure, they were also able to operate on the Ballarat to Geelong line and from January 1982 through to Adelaide with the standard gauge units transferred to the broad gauge.^[2]

Prior to delivery the expectation was that the engines would be classed H220 to H229, corresponding to builders' numbers 76-824 through 76-833.^[3]: 230 The H class at this time would have been in homage to the Victorian Railways' largest steam locomotive, H220 "Heavy Harry", but the class letter would have conflicted with diesel engines H1-H5^[4]: 260 which were designed for use on the Melbourne hump yard.^[5]

The locomotives were delivered from Adelaide to Melbourne on the broad gauge interstate line, with the first arriving on 14 May 1977. It was converted to standard gauge two days later, named "George Brown" at a ceremony at Spencer Street station on 17 May 1977,^[6]: 279 and entered service on 20 May 1977. The first few engines were intended for use on standard gauge goods trains, but occasionally were required to operate passenger trains like the Intercapital Daylight. In these cases their lower maximum speed limit of 80 km/h (50 mph) guaranteed late running.^[7]: 80

The first four engines were converted to standard gauge within days of delivery, each slotting into the North Eastern roster and only briefly returning to broad gauge every few years, possibly for maintenance at South Dynon workshops (for example, C504 from 12 to 24 January 1978).^[8]: 45

On 3 August 1979, engines C505 and 506 ran through to Adelaide for the first time as part of a trial of through-running, in place of the previous practice involving changing locomotives at the border. C505 led on the westbound trip with a trailing load of 1,755 t (1,935 short tons) and 506 led on the eastbound with 1,804 t (1,989 short tons). A number of stop-and-start tests were undertaken on the Adelaide hills line to test the engines' ability to handle heavy loads, and running times were tested particularly between Tailem Bend and Mile End. New radio communication systems were also trialled between the driver and guard using fixed units in lieu of the earlier portable units. The trial was deemed a success, with through-running becoming a regular feature from 12 November. At the time a number of C Class engines were running on the standard gauge between Melbourne and Albury, and it was intended to recall these for broad gauge interstate work and have them replaced by GM class locomotives from Australian National Railways.^[9]

Bau lists the engines being repainted from Victorian Railways' blue and gold livery to V/Line orange in the period July 1986 to June 1992.^[10]

In September 1988, C504 and C505^[11]: 146 were transferred back to the standard gauge and began to operate services through to Sydney.^[12][13]

Following the Melbourne-Adelaide railway being closed for gauge conversion, the eight remaining broad gauge units were converted to standard gauge and operated services from Melbourne to Parkes until the converted line reopened in July 1995.^{[citation needed]} All were transferred by V/Line to National Rail in June 1995.^[10]

Following the delivery of National Rail's NR class locomotives, the C class were put into storage at Junee Locomotive Depot in 1997 before being moved to Islington Railway Workshops, Adelaide.^[14][15] Unlike the other locomotives National Rail initially used, ownership of the C class passed to National Rail.^[16] In August 1999 two were repainted in National Rail livery and returned to service as Melbourne shunters.^[17]

C501 was acquired by the Seymour Railway Heritage Centre and the other nine went to Allco Rail, with two leased to Pacific National and seven to Silverton Rail as the Cs class.^[10] Following the collapse of Allco Finance three were sold to Chicago Freight Car Leasing Australia and six to Greentrains in January 2008 with all resuming their original identities.^[18][19][20]

In April 2016, the six Greentrains units were sold to Southern Shorthaul Railroad.^[21][22] Having been in store at South Dynon Locomotive Depot, all were taken to the Lithgow State Mine Heritage Park & Railway with the last returned to service in August 2016.^[23] As of February 2024, all 10 class members are operational with C502 - C510 inclusive owned by SSR as of January 2025.^{[citation needed]}

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  Silverton Rail Cs1 in June 2006
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  Southern Shorthaul Railroad C503 on Kooragang Island in January 2011
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  Southern Shorthaul Railroad C510 and C504 at Donnybrook
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  Southern Shorthaul Railroad C505 at North Geelong Grain Loop
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  Southern Shorthaul Railroad C504-442s1-C510 Somerton
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  Southern Shorthaul Railroad C504 - 4911 - RL302 on a loaded SSR Grain train to Geelong at Craigieburn
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  Victorian Railways Preserved C Class leader C501 in between Seymour Railway Heritage Centre's Victorian Railways T class (T357) and Southern Shorthaul Railroad's New South Wales 49 class locomotive (4917) at Albury