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C17 No.974 Stalwart of the QR heritage fleet |
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This pleasing view of
No.974 and heritage coaches is courtesy of Graham Watkins from his former ‘SunSteam’ website:
"C17 974 climbs up
the Little Liverpool Range on its return from Laidley on the Chelsea Festival
Tour, 14 September 1996."
(This low-res image is a reminder of the low-bandwidth early
days of the Internet, when Australiansteam.com started!)
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Builder |
Walkers
Limited, Maryborough |
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Builder’s Number & Year |
511 of 1951 |
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Wheel Arrangement |
4-8-0 |
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No. in class |
227 |
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No.974
is one of the final batch of 40 C17 locomotives built to the ‘1950 design’
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, the
name also drawing from contemporary popular culture as ‘Brown Bomber’ was the
nickname of the famous American heavyweight boxer Joe Louis. Official
QR records for No.974 state that it entered service in March 1951 and was
withdrawn from service in February 1969. Despite being withdrawn more than a
year earlier than many of its sister, No.974 found a special place among the
227 members of the C17 class because it was retained in operating condition
by Queensland Railways for hauling tour trains and appearances at heritage
events. It is normally based at The Workshops railway museum, Ipswich, where
in recent years it has received a heavy overhaul including construction of a
new welded boiler. Other modifications made to suit the modern operating environment
include the fitting of automatic couplers and ditch lights. As
at June 2012, No.974 was out of service for roller bearing replacement. It
had returned to operating duties by March 2013. C17
No.974 has been leased to the Mary Valley Rattler, Gympie since May 2018. It
has been running trains to Amamoor 3 days a week since the Mary Valley
Rattler re-opened to passenger services in October 2018. For
further information about the Queensland Railways’ C17 class locomotives,
refer to the page for C17 No.2. |
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No. 974's new welded boiler under construction at Ipswich; webmaster photo dated 8 October 2004.
Paul Shepherd has kindly provided this February 2007 photograph showing modifications made to No. 974,
including the addition of automatic couplers and ditch lights on the buffer beam.
References
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a |
‘Locomotives of Australia’ by Leon Oberg, |
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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 Wilson |
Page updated: 1 December 2019
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Government Railways: |
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Private & Industrial Railways: |
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