Victorian Railways G class

The Victorian Railways G class is a class of steam locomotives built for the Victorian Railways 2 ft 6 in gauge branch lines by Beyer, Peacock & Company. They were introduced in 1926 to increase train sizes and reduce losses on these lines. Their tractive effort was comparable to the most powerful branch line locomotives on the Victorian Railways, the K class.

Origins

The design was based on the earlier M and Ms class Garratts constructed for the Western Australian Government Railways. That design had been amongst the earliest of the Garratts, and first entered service in 1911. The major modification was the use of outside frames to allow for the reduction of gauge from to. The design proved durable as two further examples were built for the Fyansford [Cement Works Railway|Australian Portland Cement gauge railway] at Fyansford in the 1930s.
The two locomotives were built in 1925 with builders numbers 6267 and 6268 respectively and shipped to Australia, arriving at Newport Workshops in March 1926. G41 entered service on 5 June 1926, followed by G42 on 28 June 1926.
Sometime after the engines were introduced it was found the cab of G42 was too short for one of the Walhalla drivers, Bob Rumpff, who was about tall, so the cab roof was raised to stop him injuring his head. The cab of G41 was similarly raised for standardisation, and the alteration was referred to as "Rumpff's Roof".

Working lives

The locomotives were allocated numbers G41 and G42. G41 was put to work on the Colac to Beech Forest and Crowes line, while G42 was placed on the Moe to Walhalla railway. The locomotives stayed on these lines, returning to Newport Workshops for heavy repairs when necessary.
Introduction of the Garratt locomotives allowed significantly longer and heavier trains to operate. Capacity on the Colac - Crowes line was as below, e.g. a single NA locomotive could haul 16 vehicles or a maximum of 85 tons between Colac and Barongarook. In 1922 the line had a daily return service scheduled for the whole length, plus another one on Mondays and Thursdays between Beech Forest and Colac, and a number of other trains built into the schedule if required. By 1933, between the introduction of the Garratt and reduction in traffic due to the depression, this had fallen to three trains per week Colac to Beech Forest, only two of those continuing to Crowes, plus a postal motor in the opposite direction to the steam train.
Similarly, train capacity increased significantly when G42 was introduced on the Walhalla line:
Introduction of the Garratt locomotives with their M.C.B. couplers required transition of the rest of the narrow gauge fleet from the earlier "Chopper" style couplers to match. The Garratts could not have been fitted with the earlier type of coupler, because their extra power would have exceeded the force those were designed to withstand.
The engines ran more or less unaltered until 1941, when G41 had its chimney replaced with a "stove-pipe" style unit, and G42 in 1955. In 1958 both engines were fitted with electric generators and lighting, including front and rear headlights, marker lights and cab interior lighting. The cowcatchers were later removed from G42.
G42 was noted for its absence on the "Return to Walhalla" Australia Day special trains on the Walhalla line, which forced the first operation of double-headed NA class locomotives beyond Erica.
A typical journey worked by G42 on the Moe to Erica mixed train was recorded by Ted Downs in 1954, with numerous photographs in "A day in the life of G 42".
After the closure of the Walhalla line in 1955 G42 was moved west to Colac, where it worked the line in conjunction with G41. Both engines were used on special excursion trains from 1959 to 1962, using eight NBH carriages which had previously operated on the Gembrook line.
In the final months of the line G41 was out of use, having been cannibalised for parts to keep G42 working. G42 hauled the last regular train on the Colac line on 27 June 1962, and the last tour train on 30 June 1962. The engine, and the line, were both taken out of service because that was when G42's boiler certificate was due to expire.

Disposal and preservation

After closure of the narrow gauge line from Colac, the whole of G42 and the engine units of G41 were removed to Newport Workshops, while the boiler unit of G41 was sent to Ballarat North Workshops and scrapped in 1962. The engine units of G41 were scrapped in October 1964, though the number plates, whistle and headlights were recovered and are housed at the Menzies Creek Museum. G42 was purchased from the Victorian Railways in July 1964 by the Puffing Billy Preservation Society, being transferred by rail to Belgrave in January 1968 and arriving at the Menzies Creek Steam Museum on 10 February 1968. The museum also acquired one of the Australian Portland Cement Garratts along with an unused spare boiler.
In 1978 a decision was made to restore G42, with an appeal for funds opening in June 1979 and the task completed in April 2004. The spare boiler from Australian Portland Cement was used instead of G42's original boiler as this had had its copper inner fire-box and boiler tubes removed by the V.R. before sale to the Puffing Billy Preservation Society in 1963. G42 was withdrawn from service in February 2009 pending a "D" exam as part of the Puffing Billy Railway's regular maintenance program. On 16 August 2009, G42 returned to service for one day only to celebrate "100 years of the Garratt locomotive design" with a special to Cockatoo and return before returning to storage pending the mentioned "D" exam.
On 12 December 2010, G42 moved under its own steam after extensive repairs including turning more than from the wheel tyres. It was put to a test with a difficult shunt of 20 cars into different roads. The locomotive was then used on the "Green time table" service which otherwise calls for the double heading of NA class locomotives on one of the trips, enabling its greater hauling capacity to substitute for the two NAs.
As of April 2023, G42 is on display in the Menzies Creek Museum "for a period of at least five years".