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C17 No. 935 Stored at the Southern Downs Steam Railway |
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No. 935 is seen as
recently delivered at the Southern Downs Steam Railway, Warwick.
This photo was kindly contributed by Stephen Shepherd and
is dated 8 December 2018.
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Builder |
Granville NSW |
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Builder’s Number & Year |
503 of 1949 |
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Wheel Arrangement |
4-8-0 |
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No. in class |
227 |
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No.935
was one of Queensland Railways’ highly successful C17 class 4-8-0
locomotives, of which 227 units were constructed by a variety of builders
between 1920 and 1953. The C17 class were a ‘maid of all work’ type that were
powerful enough for main line duties, yet with a low axle load which
permitted wide deployment and accordingly the type could be found on
everything from suburban and express passenger duties to main, secondary and
branch line work, although the type are perhaps best associated with the long
routes through Queensland Railways (QR) Northern and Central Divisions. The
final C17 class members were retired from service at the very end of QR
revenue steam operations in August 1970. No.935
is one of the ‘1938’ C17 variants which were improved over the original 1920
design by use of piston valves, Laird crossheads, a wider, taller Sedan cab
sporting sliding windows, and a slender stovepipe chimney with a capuchion
lip. No.935 was one of an order for 20 C17’s supplied by Clyde Engineering,
Sydney between 1948 & 1950 in response to post-war motive power demands. According
to ‘Locomotives in the Tropics’, No.935 was written off the Queensland
Railways books in May 1968. Fortunately it was saved from scrapping, instead
being plinthed in the Brisbane suburb of Virginia for the Nundah Rotary Club. It
seems that No.935 became derelict after many years of being plinthed at
Virginia. In 1990 it was rescued from an uncertain fate by the Australian
Railway Historical Society (Qld Division) and taken to their Rosewood Railway,
where it remained in long-term storage together with several other rescued
park locomotives. No.935 is stored without a tender; I suspect the tender
tank platework was severely corroded and hence only the tender frame and
bogies were retained and were separately stored at Rosewood. (Further
information on this point is welcome.) Although
No.935 remained stored in a derelict condition, the Australian Railway
Historical Society at least secured the locomotive against being scrapped and
hence it remained as a future restoration project, or at least a source of
spare parts. No.935 has since been purchased by the Southern Downs Steam Railway
and was delivered to their Warwick locomotive depot and restoration base in
late 2018. It is intended that No.935 will eventually restored to working
condition as a long term restoration project. For
further information about the Queensland Railways’ C17 class locomotives,
refer to the page for C17 No.2. |
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No.935 (sans tender) heads C17 No.763 and D17 No.855 on the
storage siding at the Rosewood Railway in December 2002.
A second scanned photo view of No.935 stored at the
Rosewood Railway in December 2002.
References
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a |
‘Locomotives of Australia’ by Leon
Oberg, published by J. W. Books Pty Ltd |
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b |
Stark,
R. J., 'The Return of Steam Locomotive C17, No. 45', published
2000 by The Degener Timms
Publications, Gympie, Qld |
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c |
Armstrong,
J. 'Locomotives in the Tropics - Volume 2 (Queensland Railways 1910 – 1958 and
beyond)’, published by the ARHS
Queensland Division, 1994. |
Page updated: 19 October 2019
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