Kayden's Wheel Reports: Victorian Railways D3 658

 

D3 639's First Mainline Run in Nearly 4 Years! | Steamrail Victoria's D3 639 Test Runs

A Brief History

The land Down Under has a rich and varied railway history that's often overlooked. Each state certainly has unique stories throughout their history. Today, the topic of discussion is one of a locomotive from the proud state of Victoria. 

Victoria has the honour of being the first state in Australia to open a steam-powered railway, It ran from Melbourne's Flinders Street to the gold mines of Sandridge, a distance of about 4 km. This literally laid the foundation for railways in the entire state and beyond, as the 'standard' rail gauge of the Victorian Railways, 5 ft 3 inches or 'Irish Gauge', was derived from this railway. It soon extended across the entire state, eventually reaching the bordering states of South Australia and New South Wales. At the turn of the century, nearly 3000 km of track had been laid across the entire state. 

Around this time, the antiquated 4-4-0 locomotives of British origin that had been brought in for the Victorian Railway's express services were beginning to show their age. Thus, Edward Jeffreys, a British locomotive engineer, was commissioned by the VR to to design a more powerful locomotive to supersede them. 

In 1902, the first of these 'big engines', No.560 of the brand new 'DD' Class 4-6-0s, rolled out of the VR's own Newport Works. This wheel arrangement had been fairly common in the United States since the mid-1800s, but fairly new in the United Kingdom, the first being the Highland Railway Jones Goods of 1894. 261 members of the class would eventually be built from 1902 to 1923, their construction split between the VR's own Newport, Ballarat and Bendigo Workshops, the Baldwin Locomotive Works in the US, Beyer, Peacock & Company in the UK, as well as private Australian builders Walkers, Thompsons Ltd, Castlemaine and Phoenix Foundry.

Additionally, 58 members of the DDE class, essentially a tank engine version of the DD Class, were built by Newport from 1908 to 1913 for fast suburban trains. However, with plans to electrify the suburban routes on the horizon, they were designed with easy conversion to the original tender variant in mind. However, only 2 would ultimately receive this conversion, the rest finding further work as branch line and shunting locomotives.

The DD Class however, proved to be what the mainline needed. Fast, powerful and sure footed locomotives capable of hauling the 'Adelaide Express' between Melbourne and Ballarat, alongside plenty of other top-link, mainline express trains. Even when the more powerful A2 Class came along in 1907, the DDs' light axle loading made them perfect for secondary routes and pulling the 'Commissioner's Train', taking VR Commissioners across the entire state, thus garnering their nickname 'Commissioner's Engines'. 

In 1922, with the arrival of the new K Class freight locomotives which worked alongside the DDs on secondary lines, 94 members of the class received new superheated boilers derived from the Ks, improving their steam raising capabilities. and in turn performance, immensely. Their tractive effort (the pulling capacity of the locomotive in the most ideal circumstances) increased from 20,530 lbs to 22,600 lbs. This warranted a new classification for them: The D3 Class.

Unfortunately, 'Operation Phoenix' spelt the end for these venerable locomotives. The VR had plans to eventually convert the entire network to European standard gauge (4 ft 8 1/2 inches) to be compatible with the rest of the country should a government order to do so be given. Thus, ever subsequent locomotive built after 1951 had to be capable of gauge conversion. Locomotives incapable of this were withdrawn, which unfortunately, included the DDs. 

Happily, this is not where their story ends. In 1956, one of the iconic 'Commissioner's Engines', D3 639, was withdrawn from service, but due to the fame the locomotive had garnered during its lifetime, its number plates and brass fittings were transferred to sister locomotive D3 658. Under her new guise, she hauled the Australian Railway Heritage Society's Vintage Trains to the delight of enthusiasts from 1964 to 1974. These Vintage Trains laid the foundations for what would later become SteamRail Victoria, a volunteer group in charge of restoring historic locomotives and rolling stock and running them on Victoria's mainline. Today, they have amassed a large collection of locomotives ranging from the little 0-6-0 Y112 of 1889 to 3 massive R Class 'Hudsons', R700, R711 and R761 of 1951-1952, arguably the pinnacle of Victorian Railways steam. 

In 1984, the locomotive that started it all (D3 639) was restored back to operating condition to join her colleagues on mainline railtours. In 1988, she was chosen to represent SteamRail at Aus Steam '88, a festival to commemorate Australia's Bicentenary, alongside various other iconic engines across Australia and the world.

Alongside her, 13 other D3s remain in varying conditions across the state. Additionally, a DDE Tank, D4 268, has been preserved at the Newport Railway Museum, not far from the works that built her and many of her siblings. D2 604, which is the closest surviving member to how the class looked upon their initial construction, is also preserved at the museum.

At 120 years old, D3 639 is still going strong, hauling mainline railtours across the state of Victoria on behalf of SteamRail. While she might not be as fast or powerful as an R Class, it certainly is commendable for a locomotive of her age and prestige to be still doing this, on one of the busiest commercial railway networks in the world!

My Thoughts and Concerns

The railways of the various Australian states have always fascinated me and the Victorian Railways' certainly are no exception. Not many century-old locomotives in the world are still capable of running on a busy mainline without the need of an assistant locomotive, yet D3 639 is one of the few. She even does so near the speed she would've in regular service, at 60 mph (nearly 100 km/h). One of her successors, A2 886, is only capable of 50 mph (80 km/h). Only the 3 R Class engines are capable of outdoing her at 70 mph (115 km/h), which are nearly 50 years her junior.

If you had went back in time to tell Jeffries that one of his locomotives would still be operational over a century later and still be able to hold her own against engines 50 years after her, he would probably laugh and tell you to stop joking with him. Alas, that's what's happened. 

I hope you found my first coverage on an Australian locomotive, and an often overlooked one at that too. There will certainly be more as I read and research more about locomotives worldwide that fascinate me, and I look forward to the day I can see her in person and possibly even cab her as she goes tearing down the mainline at full speed!