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The 86 class is a class of electric locomotives built by Comeng, Granville for the State Rail Authority of New South Wales.[1]

History

The 86 class initially hauled passenger and freight services to Lithgow on the Main Western line and Wyong on the Main Northern line. Their sphere of operation extended to Newcastle on the latter line in June 1984 and to Port Kembla in January 1986 when the Illawarra line was electrified.

With a one-hour rating of 4,400 horsepower (hp), the 86 class was the most powerful locomotive in Australia at the time. Although no longer in regular use, the class remains among the most powerful in the country. Despite their higher power rating, they were generally regarded as inferior to the Metropolitan-Vickers built 46 class, which dated from the late 1950s.

The last, 8650 was delivered as a Bo-Bo-Bo trial unit.[2] It spent long periods out of traffic undergoing repair.

In 1994/95 all were repainted by A Goninan & Co, Taree into Freight Rail (later FreightCorp) blue.[3] By October 1997 18 had been withdrawn from service with cracked frames.[4] By this stage the amount of work requiring electrics was reducing. National Rail decided it would through haul its services and from March 1998 FreightCorp ceased operating them on Main Northern line services.[5] The need for electrics continued to decline with their remaining duties mainly being hauling coal trains from Lithgow to Port Kembla. The last examples were withdrawn in June 2002.

In 2002, most were sold to Silverton Rail and taken to Broken Hill then sold again in February 2006 to Allco Finance Group with some on sold, but most scrapped.[6][7] Four were leased back to RailCorp in 2004 (8601, 8609, 8622 and 8644) for use on infrastructure trains during construction of the Bondi Junction turnback.[8]

Status

86 class locomotives
Number Owner Location Status Livery References/Notes
8601 Dorrigo Steam Railway & Museum Dorrigo Static Display FreightCorp Blue
8602 Scrapped Freightcorp Blue
8603 Scrapped Freightcorp Blue
8604 Scrapped Freightcorp Blue
8605 Scrapped Freightcorp Blue
8606 Sydney Electric Train Society Enfield Operational Freightcorp Blue [8]
8607 Privately Owned Canberra Stored FreightCorp Blue
8608 Scrapped FreightCorp Blue
8609 Scrapped FreightCorp Blue
8610 Scrapped FreightCorp Blue
8611 Scrapped FreightCorp Blue
8612 Scrapped FreightCorp Blue
8613 Scrapped FreightCorp Blue
8614 Scrapped FreightCorp Blue
8615 Scrapped FreightCorp Blue
8616 Scrapped FreightCorp Blue
8617 Scrapped FreightCorp Blue
8618 Scrapped FreightCorp Blue
8619 Scrapped FreightCorp Blue Planned For Conversion to Drivable Crew Van for SCT at Islington Workshops, Plan Scrapped.
8620 Scrapped FreightCorp Blue
8621 Scrapped FreightCorp Blue
8622 Scrapped FreightCorp Blue
8623 Scrapped FreightCorp Blue
8624 Scrapped FreightCorp Blue
8625 Scrapped FreightCorp Blue
8626 Scrapped FreightCorp Blue
8627 Scrapped FreightCorp Blue
8628 Scrapped FreightCorp Blue
8629 Scrapped FreightCorp Blue
8630 Scrapped FreightCorp Blue
8631 Scrapped FreightCorp Blue
8632 Scrapped FreightCorp Blue
8633 Scrapped FreightCorp Blue
8634 Scrapped FreightCorp Blue
8635 Scrapped FreightCorp Blue
8636 Scrapped FreightCorp Blue
8637 Scrapped FreightCorp Blue
8638 Scrapped FreightCorp Blue
8639 Scrapped FreightCorp Blue
8640 Scrapped FreightCorp Blue
8641 Scrapped FreightCorp Blue
8642 Scrapped FreightCorp Blue
8643 Scrapped FreightCorp Blue
8644 Members of Sydney Electric Train Society Chullora Stored FreightCorp Blue [9]
8645 Scrapped FreightCorp Blue
8646 Transport Heritage NSW Thirlmere Static display FreightCorp Blue [10]
8647 Scrapped FreightCorp Blue
8648 Scrapped FreightCorp Blue
8649 Members of Sydney Electric Train Society Enfield Operational Candy [11]
8650 Dorrigo Steam Railway & Museum Dorrigo Static Display FreightCorp Blue Experimental “Tri-Bo” or “Bo-Bo-Bo”

References

  1. ^ Walters, Chris (May 2007). "When They were Young – The 85 and 86 class Electric Locomotives". Australian Railway History. pp. 198–208.
  2. ^ "8650" Railway Digest November 1985 page 320
  3. ^ "86 Class Repaints" Railway Digest April 1995 page 35
  4. ^ "Out of Service" Railway Digest October 1997 page 31
  5. ^ "Electric Locos" Railway Digest June 1998 page 35
  6. ^ 86 Class Railpage
  7. ^ 86 Class Vicsig
  8. ^ a b "SETS Fleet - Electric Locomotive 8606". www.sets.org.au. Retrieved 9 May 2020.
  9. ^ "8644 information".
  10. ^ "8646 information".
  11. ^ "8649 information".

Further reading

  • New South Wales Rail System Locomotives. Sydney: Archives Section, State Rail Authority of New South Wales. 1984.

External links

Media related to New South Wales 86 class locomotives at Wikimedia Commons

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