The Victorian Railways X class was a mainline goods locomotive of the 2-8-2 'Mikado' type operated by the Victorian Railways (VR) between 1929 and 1960. They were the most powerful goods locomotive on the VR, aside from the single H class, H220, which was confined to the North East line, until the advent of diesel-electric traction, and operated over the key Bendigo, Wodonga, and Gippsland mainlines.
The X class was a development of the earlier C class2-8-0 goods locomotive, designed to be gauge convertible from 5ft3in (1,600mm) to 4ft8+1⁄2in (1,435mm) standard gauge in the event of the Victorian Railways network being converted to standard gauge. The C class, with a narrow firebox between the frames, could not be easily converted. The X class retained the same cylinder and driving wheel dimensions as the C class as well as its valve gear, but introduced a much larger boiler and a trailing truck behind the rear driving axle.
The 2-8-2 layout of the X class allowed a wide, deep firebox suited to the high ash, low calorific coals from the State Coal Mine typically used for goods haulage. This improved on some key shortcomings of the C class which were regarded as poor steaming and featured a very long 9ft 7in (2,921mm) manually stoked firebox that was difficult to fire and prone to clinkering.[1] The X class was also equipped with a much larger capacity tender of similar design to the S classPacific introduced in 1928, enabling through runs from Melbourne to Bendigo without intermediate stops to restock the tender.[2]
All but two were built with a Franklin C2 type Booster engine on the trailing truck axle, following a successful trial of a booster on the smaller N class light lines 2-8-2.[3] The booster allowed an additional 9,000lbf (40kN) tractive effort at starting and low speeds to increase the hauling power of the locomotive, particularly on heavy grades. X36 and X37 were built without boosters and were rostered for 'plains working' on the relatively flat line between Gheringhap and Maroona stations.[4] X37 was equipped with a booster in March 1932,[5] however X36 was never fitted with one, even though its trailing truck axle was equipped with the necessary pinion gear wheel.
Production
The success of the original eleven locomotives delivered in 1929 (X27 to X37) led to further examples being built. X38 was assembled in 1937 from spare parts, helping to create work for workshops staff at a time of high unemployment.[4] A further seven X class locomotives were built in 1938, a followed by a further six in 1942–43,[6] with a final four X class delivered by 1947.
Regular service
The X class locomotives were described as always the master of their task, fast steaming and easy riding.[7] With their relatively heavy axle load, the X class was initially confined to the Bendigo and Wodonga lines, with the occasional journey on the Ballarat or Geelong lines. In later years after they were allowed to cross the Flinders Street Viaduct between Spencer Street and Flinders Street stations, they worked goods trains of over 1,000 tons between Morwell and Melbourne, and even worked the South Gippsland line to Korumburra frequently until the late 1950s and as far as Foster.[8][9]
Even in its original form, the X class locomotive was a marked improvement on the C class in terms of performance. Comparative tests between prototype X27 and C class locomotive C18 revealed that the X developed an indicated horsepower output of 1,220 horsepower (910kW) between 30 and 36mph (48 and 58km/h), compared with 950hp (708kW) at 21 miles per hour (34km/h) for the C.[10] With a later revised boiler design and other changes improving performance and increasing indicated horsepower to as much as 1,620hp (1,208kW),[11] the X class was renowned for its ability to be driven extremely hard.[12] As with the C class, it was also occasionally pressed into mainline passenger service on key intercity routes, particularly during Christmas and Easter peak times.[8]
By 1943, X class locomotives were each averaging 29,100 miles (46,800km) per annum.[4]
Design improvements
X39, built new in 1938 with visible design changes including Modified Front End 'flowerpot' funnel, smoke deflectors, and Belpaire firebox with combustion chamber. The tender is believed to be a former S class tender.
The X class, in common with all broad gauge VR steam locomotives built from 1907 onwards, underwent design modifications to the smokebox draughting and blastpipe dimensions referred to as 'Modified Front End', as well as other improvements such as the fitting of smoke deflectors, Automatic Staff Exchange apparatus and cross-compound air compressors. The copper firebox round-top boilers the original eleven locomotives were built with, prone to priming if too much water was carried,[8] were replaced with all-steel boilers featuring Belpaire pattern fireboxes. The new boiler design also featured a combustion chamber and thermic syphons to increase power and efficiency.[7][14] The VR was so satisfied with the performance of the revised X class all-steel boiler design, a shortened barrel version was considered during the design phase of the R class4-6-4 express passenger locomotives of 1951.[15]
X38 introduced a new welded fabricated trailing truck in place of the cast steel units previously imported from the Commonwealth Steel Company of Illinois, USA. This design innovation was fitted to all subsequent examples built.[4]
In July 1938, X39 became the first VR locomotive to be equipped with A6-ET brake equipment, a feature subsequently incorporated into all new VR steam locomotives.[13]
Experimental use of Pulverised Brown Coal
X32, after conversion to PBC firing, on a test train with the VR and South Australian Railways joint stock Dynamometer car. Note plume of steam from the turbine motor on the tender, which drove a conveyor screw and blower to force coal dust into the firebox.
In 1949, the VR was faced with dwindling supplies of black coal due to industrial action on NSW coalfields and Victorian black coal reserves becoming exhausted.[16] Large numbers of locomotives were converted to fuel oil operation, but as a further step X32 was experimentally fitted with German 'Stug' (Studiengesellschaft) equipment in a specially modified tender for the burning of Pulverised Brown Coal (PBC), a fuel in potentially abundant supply in Victoria.
The trial was successful with the locomotive noted for its clean running and the elimination of smoke, spark hazard and spark arrestor cleaning. With the grate automatically stoked via a tender-mounted conveyor screw and blower motor, it was now possible to harness the full steam-raising potential of the locomotive's boiler without the stamina of the fireman being a limiting factor. The steam requirements for both engine and booster were able to be met for unlimited periods at maximum steam pressure even against the action of both injectors. Comparative performance tests with black coal-fired X30 revealed that X32 was able to generate a drawbar horsepower output of 1,440hp (1,074kW) at 30 miles per hour (48km/h), exceeding by 5 to 10% that which could be produced by X30 with good quality Maitland or Lithgow coals.[8][11] The locomotive gained a reputation for both speed and dependability. On one occasion, X32 hauled a 621-long-ton (631t) load between Seymour and Melbourne in 105 minutes, where the working timetable for a full 650-long-ton (660t; 730-short-ton) load allowed 147 minutes.[17] On 4 April 1951 it replaced a defective S class locomotive in hauling the Spirit of Progress from Wallan to Melbourne, taking 43 minutes to cover the same distance the S class-hauled train would normally cover in 40 minutes, despite having to start the train from standstill and running with a lower permissible maximum speed.[18]
As early as July 1951 the Victorian Minister for Transport announced that the remaining 28 X class locomotives were to be converted to PBC operation.[19] Victorian Railways went on to convert express passenger locomotive R707 to PBC operation and went as far as placing tenders for the construction of a further 15 new brown-coal fired X class locomotives. However, by 1957 the price of PBC had doubled against a fall in the price of fuel oil and the increased availability of high quality NSW coal at good prices.[20] This, coupled with the demonstrated efficiency and economical operation of B class mainline diesel-electric locomotives introduced in 1952, made the high cost of installing storage and transport facilities for PBC uneconomic. The additional X class order had already been cancelled in favour of additional B class locomotives,[12] and in January 1957 Victorian Railways announced the discontinuation of PBC operation and the intention to return X32 and R707 to black coal firing.[20] X32, taken out of service in May 1956 pending repairs, was instead scrapped in August 1957.[11]
Demise
The rapid dieselisation and electrification of Victorian Railways' mainline operations in the 1950s meant that the X class was rendered obsolete as the new B class diesel-electrics and L class electrics proved their superiority over steam for heavy freight work.[21] Withdrawals commenced in 1957 and accelerated with the delivery of the S class diesel-electric locomotives from August that year, with the diesel fleet by then large enough for the X class to be displaced from mainline goods haulage. A report comparing total operating costs per mile (including fuel, oil, crewing, maintenance, depreciation and interest) for locomotives in freight service found an S class diesel-electric cost 68.41 pence per mile versus 261.01 pence per mile for the X class steam locomotive.[22] The X class locomotives were increasingly relegated to short-hop transfer goods haulage, a role that as mainline goods locomotives they were unsuitable for.[12] On 12 April 1957 X43 became the first of the class to be scrapped, and by the end of 1960 all were withdrawn and all but one had been scrapped.[23]
Efforts by railway enthusiasts to save the last remaining X class locomotive from being scrapped played a pivotal role in the establishment of a railway museum and the preservation of examples of many other VR locomotive classes.
In September 1960, the VR announced that the remaining X, D1, D2, D4, E and Y class locomotives were to be withdrawn within the next six months.[21] Members of the Australian Railway Historical Society (ARHS) and a number of VR employees, aware that these locomotive classes were about to vanish just as the S class had six years earlier, began making approaches to the Victorian Railway Commissioners suggesting that an example of each of the various classes still in existence be preserved in a railway museum.[24] On 17 November, the last two X class locomotives in service were withdrawn, and X36 hauled X29 dead-attached back to Newport Workshops where both were to be scrapped.[25] By the end of the year X29 was already largely cut up, and VR employees sympathetic to preservation efforts had moved X36 to the back of the scrapping row to buy it time as negotiations continued over its future. In February 1961 the ARHS met with the VR and succeeded in securing a temporary hold on X36's scrapping until 1 April 1961. When that date passed without resolution, X36 was again moved back to the scrapping row. However, the locomotive was saved when the office of the VR Chief Mechanical Engineer intervened at the eleventh hour and deferred the scrapping.[26]
In May 1961, the VR Commissioners accepted the ARHS proposal for the museum and provided locomotives, land, and tracks for its establishment. The Railway Museum opened to the public on 10 November 1962 and X36, withdrawn after 741,609 miles (1,193,504km) of service,[14] is today preserved alongside dozens of other former VR locomotives and rolling stock.
In April 2006, the boiler from scrapped locomotive X30, obtained by CSR Limited in 1959 to provide steam for Australia's first particle board factory in Oberon, New South Wales, was finally retired from service after 47 years service and allocated to a preservation group.[12][27]
Model Railways
HO scale
Steam Era Models has produced a brass and whitemetal kit for the X Class steam locomotive, items L10E for 1929–1935, L10R and L10W for the 1945–1962 period riveted and welded tenders respectively, with numbers included for X28, 29, 33, 35, 36, 38, 39, 46, 50 and 51. Alternative parts are also included for fabricated or cast trailing trucks (under the cab), plate or lattice cowcatchers.[28][29]
Trainbuilder will soon release a ready-to-run brass model of the engine, featuring numbers X28, 29, 42, 49, 51 and 55; X32 with Stug equipment, and X36 as preserved.[30][31]
Related Research Articles
The Spirit of Progress was the premier express passenger train on the Victorian Railways in Australia, running from Melbourne to the New South Wales border at Albury, and later through to Sydney.
The NZR KB class of 1939 was a class of six mixed traffic steam locomotives built for New Zealand Railways Department (NZR), that operated on New Zealand's railway network. After the success of the K class, the KB class were built to meet the increasing traffic demands on the Midland Line in the South Island. The locomotives had a wheel arrangement of 4-8-4 and first appeared with distinctive streamlining, mainly to hide their ACFI feedwater systems.
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.
The A2 class was an express passenger locomotive that ran on Victorian Railways from 1907 to 1963. A highly successful design entirely the work of Victorian Railways' own design office, its long service life was repeatedly extended as economic depression and war delayed the introduction of more modern and powerful replacement locomotives.
The Victorian Railways S class was a class of 4-6-2 express passenger steam locomotive operated by the Victorian Railways (VR) in Australia between 1928 and 1954. Built when the VR was at its zenith and assigned to haul the broad gauge-leg of its Melbourne to Sydney interstate express passenger services, the S class remained the VR's most prestigious locomotive class until the advent of diesel electric locomotives in the early 1950s.
The K class was a branch line steam locomotive that ran on Victorian Railways in Australia from 1922 to 1979. Although its design was entirely conventional and its specifications unremarkable, the K class was in practice a remarkably versatile and dependable locomotive. It went on to outlast every other class of steam locomotive in regular service on the VR, and no fewer than 21 examples of the 53 originally built have survived into preservation.
The N class was a branch line steam locomotive that ran on Victorian Railways from 1925 to 1966. A development of the successful K class 2-8-0, it was the first VR locomotive class designed for possible conversion from 5 ft 3 in to 4 ft 8+1⁄2 instandard gauge.
The Victorian Railways H class was an express passenger steam locomotive operated by the Victorian Railways from 1941 to 1958. Intended to eliminate the use of double heading A2 class locomotives on The Overland services on the steeply graded Western line to Adelaide, wartime restrictions led to only one locomotive being built. Nicknamed Heavy Harry, H220 was the largest locomotive ever built in Australia and the largest non-articulated steam locomotive to run on Australian railways.
The R class was an express passenger steam locomotive that ran on Australia's Victorian Railways (VR) from 1951 to 1974. A long overdue replacement for the 1907-era A2 class 4-6-0, their development and construction was repeatedly delayed due to financial constraints caused by the Great Depression and later the manpower and materials shortages of World War II and the immediate postwar period.
The Victorian Railways J class was a branch line steam locomotive operated by the Victorian Railways (VR) between 1954 and 1972. A development of the successful Victorian Railways K class 2-8-0, it was the last new class of steam locomotive introduced on the VR. Introduced almost concurrently with the diesel-electric locomotives that ultimately superseded them, the locomotives were only in service for a relatively short time. They should not be confused with an earlier group of five 2-4-0 locomotives built by Beyer, Peacock & Co. in 1860, also designated as J class.
The DD class (later reclassified into D1, D2 and D3 subclasses) was a passenger and mixed traffic steam locomotive that ran on Victorian Railways from 1902 to 1974. Originally introduced on mainline express passenger services, they were quickly superseded by the much larger A2 class and were relegated to secondary and branch line passenger and goods service, where they gave excellent service for the next fifty years. The DD design was adapted into a 4-6-2T tank locomotive for suburban passenger use, the DDE (later D4) class. They were the most numerous locomotive class on the VR, with a total of 261 DD and 58 locomotives built.
The Victorian Railways L class was a class of electric locomotives built by English Electric and operated by the Victorian Railways and later V/Line from 1953 until 1987 primarily on the Gippsland line. They were the only class of main line electric locomotive operated in Victoria.
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The AA class was an express passenger locomotive that ran on the Victorian Railways between 1900 and 1932. The largest, heaviest and most powerful 4-4-0 steam locomotive to run in Australia, it was the final development of this locomotive type in Australia.
The mainline passenger locomotives, later classified as B class, ran on the Victorian Railways (VR) between 1862 and 1917. They used a 2-4-0 wheel arrangement, which provided greater traction on the new, more heavily graded Geelong–Ballarat railway and the Melbourne-Bendigo-Echuca railway, as opposed to the 2-2-2 arrangement previously selected for the relatively level Geelong line. The B class locomotives are regarded as the first mainline VR motive power, and were highly successful in passenger operations.
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The Victorian Railways V Class is a steam locomotive, used on the Victorian Railways in the period 1900-1930.
The Victorian Railways X class was a class of 0-6-0 mainline goods locomotives operated by the Victorian Railways between 1886 and 1920.
References
Pearce; etal. (1980). North Williamstown Railway Museum. Melbourne: ARHS. ISBN0-85849-018-8.
↑ Sargent; etal. (2004). Locomotive Profile Victorian Railways "X" Class "Mikado" 2-8-2 Heavy Goods Locomotive. Train Hobby Publications. p.2. ISBN1-876249-89-7.
1 2 3 4 Fowler, John (2015). Gerald Dee – the life and times of a remarkable railwayman. Matraville, NSW, Australia: Everleigh Press. p.154. ISBN978-1-876568-82-5.
1 2 3 4 George, Ron (November–December 1991). "The VR X class 2-8-2 Mikado". Australian Model Engineering. No.39. pp.9–10.
↑ Tate, Neil and Sargent, John (November 2004) "Victorian Railways "X" Class "Mikado" 2-8-2 Heavy Goods Locomotive". Train Hobby Publications: p. 1 and p. 15.
1 2 3 Buckland, John L. (July 1972). "Pulverised Brown Coal Fuel for Steam Locomotives". Australian Railway Historical Society Bulletin. Australian Railway Historical Society. pp.145–161.
VPRS 12903/P1 Box 496/02 - PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE VICTORIA Dynamometer car test results showing theoretical speeds (in mph) up various grades for locomotive X 32 running on Yallourn brown coal precipitator dust. Note additional low speed increments below line indicating use of booster engine
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