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The
following article by Douglas Colquhoun was
published in the Australian Railway Historical
Society Bulletin No.522, April 1981.
The
identity of South Australia Railway's narrow gauge
2-6-2 tank locomotive No.0 has long been a
mystery. Its brief appearance on South Australian
rails, under circumstances that posed many
questions about its design and history, has
occasionally been mentioned in Australian
railway journals. It has been found, however, that
when the small fragments of available information
were gathered together, they presented a very
unsatisfactory and incomplete picture. Happily,
further details have recently come to light, and
the writer has attempted in the following
paragraphs to relate the history of this engine as
far as it is known. Early
in 1891 Beyer Peacock & Company of Manchester
outshopped a 3'6" gauge tank locomotive to
the order of the Broken Hill Proprietary Company (BHP),
Broken Hill, N.S.W. Carrying builder's No.3357 of
1891, it was a tank version of Beyer
Peacock's "Narrow Gauge Mogul" as
represented by the South Australian Railway's
Y-class. The side tanks, the extension of the
frames backwards to carry a coal bunker, and a two
wheel trailing truck were the major variations
from the original 2-6-0 design. No.3357
was the second of three similar locomotives to
come to Australia, the other two being No.3170 of
1890 supplied to the Silverton Tramway Company,
and No.5125 of 1908, built for Broken Hill South
Ltd. Only ten other locomotives of this design,
known by their makers as their "Double
Bogie" type, were built; two for the Minos
and Rio Railway, in Brazil in 1881, and eight for
the Alcoy & Gandia Railway in Spain, in
1890-91; both these being metre gauge. No.3357
was shipped on the S.S. "Port Jackson",
which arrived at Port Adelaide on the 8th of
August 1891. At the request of the BHP, it was
assembled at the SAR.'s Islington workshops. This
work was completed on the 24th of August, and it
was dispatched on the 25th. The
first part of the journey, over the broad gauge as
far as Terowie, would most probably have been on
the SAR.'s locomotive transporter No.1272 (later
WL8202). A unique vehicle known as the
"Crocodile" it had been built at
Islington in 1884 to carry narrow gauge
locomotives to and from the workshops over the
broad gauge. Its uniqueness lay in its bogies
which had been fabricated using the driving wheels
from locomotives 1 and 2 built in 1855 and
condemned in 1871. WL8202 saw little service after
the early 1970s and was condemned on the 24th of
May 1977. One bogie is now preserved at the National
Railway Museum and the other is held by Steamranger. We
next hear of No.3357 in a memo from the
Superintendent at Petersburg on the 11th of
September 1891 stating that it had "become
overheated in her bearings" on No.3 down
goods between Petersburg and Cockburn on the 9th
of September. Time was lost at Paratoo, Yunta,
Manahill and Olary, but one can assume that it was
delivered to its new owners no later than
September 10th. Charges made by the SAR for
erecting and forwarding amounted to £48 2s 8d
($96.27).
 On
arrival on the BHP's lease it was soon found to be
too heavy to work over their tracks. It would seem
that a replacement was unobtainable around Broken
Hill, and BHP approached the SAR requesting
the loan of a lighter locomotive. They were
offered W-class 2-6-0 No.53, but it was refused as
being "unsuited to the Company's
requirements". V-class 0-4-4T No.11 was then
offered, and accepted. No.3357 had already been
handed back to the SAR in exchange, and it worked
to Petersburg under its own power on the 29th of
September, but V.11 was not handed over to BHP
until the 4th of November. Until
this point, No.3357 had not been given a road
number, but under SAR ownership it was given No.o
- a unique occurrence. It is known that it worked
to Cockburn and back on at least one occasion
shortly after its acquisition, but spent most of
its time shunting at Petersburg or working to and
from Terowie. In October 1891 it was fitted
with a water cock and connecting hose to
permit it to haul a traveling tank so that it
could be used to work the Broken Hill Express
between Petersburg and Terowie. In
March 1892, No.0 was the subject of a memo
directed to the Locomotive Superintendent at
Petersburg from the accountant, who demanded
tersely, "What class of engine is running
under No.0? From who obtained?" He was duly
acquainted with the pertinent facts. In
the meantime BHP had ordered from Nasmyth Wilson
& Co. Ltd. of Manchester a small 0-6-0 saddle
tank locomotive, B/No.441 of 1892, and this
arrived at Broken Hill on the 12th of February
1893. There being no further use for V.11 it was
offered back to the SAR in return for No.0.
However, the exchange did not occur until May. On
its return to Broken Hill No.3357 became surplus
to BHP's needs, the Nasmyth Wilson engine proving
sufficient to handle the traffic offering.
It was then offered to the Silverton Tramway
Company who were so short of motive power that
they were using horses for shunting. It was
eagerly accepted, and, in June 1893, No.3357
changed hands once more. Silverton numbered it 6
and classified it Y, it being identical to their
No.5 (Beyer Peacock No.3170 of 1890), but its new
ownership was short-lived. In September, BHP
assumed the furnace operations of British Broken
Hill Pty. Ltd., and Block 14 (both wholly owned
subsidiaries) and now requiring an additional
locomotive, No. 3357 was recalled. As Nasmyth
Wilson had already been numbered 1, 3357 became
No.2. No.2
worked at Broken Hill until 1901 when it was sent
to Hummocky Hill (now the city of Whyalla) where
it was to be used to haul iron ore over the
company's newly-built line from Iron Knob. Here it
retained its number 2, but was given the name
"Beyer Peacock" and together with an
0-6-0 tank locomotive named "Kilmarnock"
(Andrew Barclay B/No.914 of 1901) and later to
become first No.3, provided sufficient motive
power for the traffic then offering. In
1914 No.2 was displaced from main line service by
the arrival of two powerful 4-6-0s (Nos.4 and 5),
built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works of
Philadelphia. It became a shunting and standby
engine and its duties seem to have been hauling
cars and water from the jetty, and moving cars to
and from the workshops. It retained these duties
until 1939 when, with the building of the blast
furnace and shipyard, it was employed hauling
crushed stones to the construction sites.
 The
purchase of the Baldwin 4-6-0s had led to an
increase in the weight of ore trains from 200 tons
to 400 tons, requiring an efficient braking system
and heavier drawgear. No train brakes were in use
at that time and all rolling stock was fitted with
"chopper" type couplings. All
locomotives and cars were subsequently equipped
with Westinghouse brakes and auto-couplers and, as
No.2 received an overhaul and a new boiler in
1919, it can be assumed that it was so modified at
that time. The air reservoirs were originally
placed on the side tanks immediately in front of
the cab, but were later moved to the top of the
boiler behind the steam dome, and the compressor
was mounted on the right hand side of the smokebox.
With the addition of front and rear mounted
electric lamps, and a generator place immediately
behind the funnel, No.2 had gained a most
business-like appearance at the cost of the
elegant outline it had possessed in earlier days. In
common with the other smaller locomotives at
Whyalla, No.2 had a 4-wheel traveling tank
permanently coupled behind the bunker. A final
modification was made in 1941 when it was fitted
with the necessary valves and pipework to enable
it to operate the steam tipping gear on the
blast-furnace ladle cars. During
1963 the tracks serving the blast furnaces
were converted to standard gauge, thus ending the
era of narrow-gauge steam - though Baldwin
No.4 was retained for a short time to drive
the company's pile driver on the main line. Most
of the locomotives were cut up and fed into the
blast furnaces, but No.2 survived and was
presented to the Whyalla City Commission for
preservation on the foreshore. Unfortunately, as
is the case when little thought is given to
"preservation" of this sort, No.2 has
suffered the effects of salt air and is now in
poor condition.
 Having
traced the history of No.3357 it would seem
appropriate to deal with the other two
locomotives. No.3170 had been supplied to the
Silverton Tramway Company in 1890, becoming their
Y-class No.5. This classification had previously
been given to their 2-6-0 locomotives, which had
also been supplied by Beyer Peacock, and was
applied to the tank engine because of its
similarity in power and dimensions. In 1898 it was
handed over to the Sulphide Corporation's Central
Mine as compensation for one of their locomotives
destroyed in a fire some years previously. The
circumstances of this accident remain a mystery.
Retaining its No.5, it worked at Broken Hill until
the late 1930s when it was laid aside. Transferred
to Whyalla in 1940 and overhauled, it was given
the road number 2A and placed in service as a
shunting locomotive. It would seem to have seen
little service after the 1950s and suffered the
indignity of being the only locomotive of the
three to be fed into the blast furnace. No.5125
was built to the order of Broken Hill South Ltd.
in 1908 and was the last "Double Bogie"
engine built by Beyer Peacock. Like the other two,
it was shipped to Port Adelaide and railed to
Broken Hill. It spent thirty years shunting over
the company's sidings before being set aside. It
was bought by BHP in 1940 and sent to Whyalla
where it became their second No.3, the first No.3
having been scrapped some years earlier. Here it
fulfilled similar duties to 2 and 2A until the
closing of the narrow gauge system serving
the blast furnaces in 1963. It was presented to
the Whyalla Children's Playground where it
still survives in somewhat better
condition than No.2. All
three locomotives were built to the same general
arrangement, but 3357 differed from the others in
several details. Its tanks were 3" wider and
the bunker 6" wider and 3" longer. It
also had a pump fitted between the frames worked
by an eccentric on the driving axle, in place of
the left-hand injector, and an additional footstep
on each side in front of the tanks. It is possible
that No.5125 may have had larger tanks and bunker
like No.3357. Beyer Peacock's records do not show
this, but photographs taken at Whyalla seem to
indicate otherwise. Set
out below is a table showing the major dimensions
of these interesting locomotives and, though there
may be variations between individual engines - the
larger bunkers and side tanks would seem to
indicate larger coal and water capacities with a
resultant increase in roadworthy weight - they
provide a summary of the class as a whole.
| Wheel
arrangement: |
2-6-2T |
|
Driving
wheels diameter: |
39" |
| Cylinders:
- No. |
2
x outside |
| -
Diameter and stroke |
14½"
x 20" |
| Valve
gear: |
Stephenson
Link |
| Boiler
pressure: |
130
p.s.i. |
| Tractive
effort (75% of B.P.): |
12,154
lbs |
| Heating
surface - tubes (sq ft): |
708.6
sq ft |
| -
firebox (sq ft): |
67.4
sq ft |
| -
grate area (sq ft): |
13.67
sq ft |
| Bunker
capacity - coal: |
40
cu ft |
| -
Water: |
600
gal |
|
- on drivers: |
23
tons |
| Weight
in working order: |
32.95
tons |
| Maximum
axle load: |
7.75
tons |
| Wheelbase
- engine: |
20'
3" |
| -
rigid: |
7'
6" |
| Overall
length: |
25'
4½" |
 The
dimensions shown in the table above are from Beyer
peacock's records. Under BHP ownership at Whyalla,
with the addition of Westinghouse equipment etc.,
the company records show engines as having 32.50
tons available for adhesion and an overall weight
of 42.50 tons. Finally,
the writer would like to acknowledge the
assistance given by Miss C. Heap of the
North-Western Museum of Science and Industry,
Manchester, the South Australian State Archives,
Mr. David Griffiths of BHP, Mr. Peter Manning and
Mr. David Parsons in researching this paper. |
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