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C17 No. 965 Plinthed at Mundubbera |
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An undated view of
No.965 during its days plinthed at Gladstone.
This photo was kindly contributed by Andrew Ham.
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Builder |
Walkers
Limited, Maryborough |
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Builder’s Number & Year |
502 of 1950 |
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Wheel Arrangement |
4-8-0 |
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No. in class |
227 |
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No.965
is 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’s were a ‘maid of all
work’ type that were powerful enough for main line freight duties, yet with a
low axle load which permitted wide deployment and accordingly they could be
found on everything from suburban and express passenger trains to main,
secondary and branch line freight and mixed traffic work, although the type
are perhaps best associated with the long rural routes through Queensland
Railways’ (QR) Northern and Central Divisions. The final C17 class members were retired at
the very end of QR revenue steam operations in August 1970. No
965 is one of the final ‘1950 design’ of C17 which featured Timken roller
bearings on all axles, together with the ‘1938 design’ improvements of piston
valves, Laird crossheads, a wider & taller sedan cab with sliding
windows, a slender stovepipe chimney with capuchion lip, and a
higher-capacity tender. These final 40
C17’s were known as ‘Brown Bombers’ due to their handsome livery of mid-brown
with green lining. No.965
was placed in Queensland Government Railways service during July 1950 and
written off in November 1969 after a working life of 19 years. Following withdrawal it was placed in a
Gladstone park (as per the photograph above) for the Gladstone Rotary Club. No.
965 was later acquired by the Mary Valley Heritage Railway, based at
Gympie. It was swapped in 2003 for
sister No.253, which had been
displayed at Mundubbera, and No.965 is now plinthed at Mundubbera in
replacement, albeit in a different park to that which had been No’s 253’s
home. For
further general information about the Queensland Railways’ C17 class
locomotives, refer to the page for C17
No.2.
This more recent view (18
May 2013) shows No.965 in her new location at Mundubbera; photo courtesy of
Andrew Wilson. Here No.965 is
protected from the elements via a generous weather-roof. The boiler clothing and some pipework are now removed but
No.965 otherwise appears to be generally complete and in good presentation. |
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References
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a |
"Locomotives of
Australia" by Leon Oberg, published by J. W. Books Pty Ltd |
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b |
Armstrong,
J. 'Locomotives in the Tropics - Volume 2 (Queensland Railways 1910 – 1958 and
beyond)’, published by the ARHS
Queensland Division, 1994. |
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c |
Information
provided by Graham Watkins via email dated 25 May
2003. |
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d |
Webmaster's
observation or comment |
Page updated: 7 March 2017
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