| Weight | 14 tons |
| Driving Wheels | 2ft 0in |
| Boiler Pressure | 160psi |
| Cylinders | Outside – 9½in x 12in |
This locomotive was built by the Hunslet Engine Company in Leeds in 1916 for the British Arm as one of 155 War Office 4-6-0T engines. They were ordered by the War Department Light Railways to run on their 600mm gauge lines supplying the front line during the First World War. The design of the locomotive is an evolution of an earlier Hunslet 0-6-0T type, with extended frames and an added 4-wheel bogie to provide a low axle-load suitable for quickly-laid light railway.
It is interesting to note that the 155 locomotives were completed at a time when Hunslet were also constructing howitzers, shells, and machinery to make shells as well as a limited number of other locomotives. By comparison, in peace time they averaged about 40 locomotives of all designs per year.
Most of the locomotives became surplus at the end of the war and a number of the locomotives were repurchased by the Hunslet Engine Company Ltd. They were then overhauled and regauged where necessary prior to being resold. These locomotives and the nine built after the war ended up in diverse locations including Argentina, Palestine and Australia as well as the UK. Fifteen of these locomotives were sold to the Engineering Supply Company of Australia (ESCO) in two batches in 1920 and 1924 for use on the 2 feet gauge (610mm) tramways of the Queensland cane fields.
This locomotive was one of two such locomotives delivered to delivered to Cattle Creek Mill at Finch Hatton near Mackay. During its working years at Cattle Creek it received a number of modifications (in common with other War Office Hunslets) including an extended smokebox.
It was withdrawn from cane haulage duties in 1963 and placed into store before being donated to the Australian Narrow Gauge Railway Museum Society (ANGRMS).
After a period of storage at Brisbane it was moved to the ANGRMS base at Woodford in 1983 where it remains in open storage.
This is one of five such locomotives which operated in Australia which have been preserved. The others are.
- WD 303 – Works number 1215
- WD 306 – Works number 1218
- WD 327 – Works number 1239
- WD– Works number 1317
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Preserved British Steam Locomotives 