I'm gonna write about this CL class from the former Commonwealth Railways of Australia. It is a very interesting locomotive, especially to those of us in North America, where the legendary bulldog nose on the F and E Units can only be found in nostalgia. The CL Class, still in service today, is the latest General Motors locomotive to feature that beautiful, streamlined, and timeless nose design.
Bulldog nose and porthole windows, what a classic design
Mechanically, the CL Class was an General Motors SD40, with all the parts we knew and were familiar with, when it was first designed and manufactured in the late 1960s and early 1970s by Clyde Engineering of Australia. This class of locomotives was operated from coast to coast between Sydney and Perth, Adelaide and Darwin by Commonwealth Railways and its successor Australian National.
On the side, I have a theory on why the CL class is named CL class. There is this other locomotive introduced in Australia by the Western Australia Government Railways a year before the CL Class and it's called the L Class. The L Class as we know it in North America, is the vastly popular SD40.
In the early 1990s, the CL Class of locomotives was contracted to be rebuilt by Morrison Knudsen Australia and it was split into two classes, CLF for freight service, and CLP with head end power for passenger service (or what was left of it).
Rebuilt CL Class in Genesee & Wyoming color scheme looking pretty sharp
Today, the CL Class locomotives are still going strong. Since the privatisation (and dismantling) of Australian National, these locomotives ended up in the hands of Aurizon (formerly known as QR National) and Genesee & Wyoming Australia.
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Anonymous said…
Since the privatization of Australian railways, there has been a myriad of owners and paint schemes. The locos in the background of the video belong to Chicago Freight Forwarding, another US owned operation. Good times for a railfan. Andrew Kerr Sydney, Australia
Last week, we've identified the Janney coupler and briefly looked at its elegant design. This week, let's, again, very briefly, look at the different types of Janney coupler that are widely used today. I will only talk about the head of the coupler, and ignore anything that the general public may need to trespass onto railroad property and get in a unsafe situation in order to have a good look at.
As far as coupler heads are concerned, there are 3 types in used today. Type E, F, and H. Types E and F are used on freight, and H used on passenger equipment. Since the withdrawal of passenger service in North America by private railroads, the Type H standard is no longer maintained by the Association of American Railroads, a trade group formed of major freight railroads, but is under the control of the APTA, the American Public Transportation Association.
Now let me introduce another term, slack. Slack is an allowed gap between two coupled up couplers. In other words, when most AAR…
This week I'm trying to write, again, about something I'm not entirely familiar with, a steam locomotive (How Steam Engines Work). The nostalgia and romance the steam train brings is unrivaled, however, I cannot say, as someone born in the late 1980s, that the steam locomotive is something I have much emotional connection to. Nevertheless, they are charming machines, each with their own personality and character. Evolution of the steam locomotive is no doubt a powerful testament of Victorian ingenuity and has brought revolutionary changes to the landscape of transport around the world.
The star featured today then is a locomotive from Japan, the Japanese National Railways Class C62. The C62 is the biggest and fastest passenger steam locomotive Japan has ever built for its Cape gage railroad network (we shall revise that Cape gage is 3 ft. 6 in., considerably narrower than the standard gage of 4 ft. 8.5 in.). These locomotives were built in 1948 and 49 for hauling express train…
This will be an interesting post I think. Although the class number 93 has now been referred to twice, none of the locomotives actually exists. At least not yet.
The first Class 93 was discussed by then still national British Railways was going to be the electric locomotive designed to haul the InterCity 250, a concept trainset to command high speed intercity rail service on the West Coast Main Line like the InterCity 225 on the East Coast. Like the name InterCity 250 suggested, the train hauled by the Class 93 would have a top speed of 250 km/h, or 155 mph. Service was expected to begin in 1995. However, with multiple other projects the British Railways had taken on (including the Channel Tunnel lines), funding for the Class 93 and InterCity 250 could not be realized, and the project was scrapped.
Now, the Class 93 may not be dead after all. Although she won’t resemble the original Class 93 in any way, a new Class 93 may just become the latest high speed locomotive to serve passenger…
In the early 1990s, the CL Class of locomotives was contracted to be rebuilt by Morrison Knudsen Australia and it was split into two classes, CLF for freight service, and CLP with head end power for passenger service (or what was left of it).
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Andrew Kerr
Sydney, Australia