North British Locomotive Company      Works No 26997     Class  R     R 707     4-6-4      Victoriana Government Railways    Gauge 5ft 3in

Weight190t 
Driving Wheels6ft 1in
Boiler Pressure210psi
CylindersOutside – 21½in x 28in
Tractive Effort32,080lbf  

By 1943 it was clear that the Victorian Railway (VR) needed more powerful locomotives in order to cope with the increased traffic during the Second World War. The Victorian Railway Locomotive Design Section turned their attention to a proposed design to replace the stock of ageing pacific locomotives. The increase in performance that the enhancements that the design provided required the wheel arrangement to be changed from 4-6-2 to 4-6-4 in order to keep the axle load to 19½tons.

The first 20 locomotives were ordered by the VR to be built in the Newport Workshops in 1946 but the order was not fulfilled for many years due to material and labour shortages. At this time the emphasis was placed on producing locomotives to haul goods trains.

By the late 1940s new motive power was desperately required. The Australian Federal Government restrictions on the availability of US dollars (designed to favour trade within the British Empire) precluded the VR from purchasing American diesel-electric locomotives. The VR broke with a long-standing policy of in-house steam locomotive construction and called for tenders to construct an additional 50 R class. The contract was awarded to North British Locomotive Company (NBL) of Glasgow, Scotland in September 1949. The order was increased to 70 in January 1950 with the cancellation of the original order of 20 locomotives from VR’s Newport Workshops. Parts manufactured for the Newport order were used to complete the NBL-built locomotives.

Further delays were experienced once the locomotives finally arrived from May 1951 onwards. Corrosion had already set in during their sea voyage as deck cargo from Scotland to Australia, and there were numerous manufacturing defects requiring rectification. The first locomotive eventually entered service in June 1951 and last of the 70 engines entered traffic in September 1953.

Once initial teething problems were overcome the R class locomotives proved to be a success and their power and speed enabled faster timetabled services. However, they were almost immediately superseded by mainline diesel-electric and electric locomotives on the VR from 1952 onwards.

By the end of 1953 the R class locomotives had been withdrawn from The Overland service to Adelaide and also the VR passenger service to Mildura. The Gippsland line, which was electrified to Traralgon by 1955, was the first line to see the complete withdrawal of the R class from service. In May 1964, R 703 worked the last regular steam-hauled passenger train out of Melbourne when it operated the service to Geelong.

The R class is remembered by many people for its role as power for the seasonal grain harvest. In times of a good harvest, virtually every available locomotive would be marshalled into service to shift wheat trains of over 1,000 tons from Victoria’s Western district through to the ports for export. Double-headed R class locomotives, sometimes aided by a third R acting as banking engine at the rear, could be seen battling the 3 mile, 1 in 52 Warrenheip Bank out of Ballarat.

With successive orders of diesel-electric locomotives through the 1950s and 1960s gradually displacing them, all but seven of the class were withdrawn by 1974 and cut up for scrap. The last three were withdrawn from regular service in 1967.

Because they were superseded so early in their lives by more modern forms of traction, and because they spent so much of their remaining lives stored for seasonal grain traffic and/or in poor condition, the R class achieved one of the lowest average mileages of any VR locomotive. The lowest was that of R 716, which recorded just 88,909 miles in only four years of service before being withdrawn in 1956 and scrapped in 1962.

As the VR focussed its attention on diesel electric traction, steam locomotive depots were gradually closed down and the remaining steam fleet became a much lower maintenance priority. A particular problem was the lack of feedwater treatment, which saw many of the locomotive boilers condemned for severe corrosion well before the end of their design life.

After 1967 the remaining locomotives on the register were used for special enthusiast workings. In this role they were able to fulfill their intended role of high speed passenger travel, with speeds of over 80 mph being recorded. Three (706, 769 and 749) continued in this role until boiler and mechanical conditions made them too costly to maintain and they too were withdrawn which left only two (707 and 761) in an operable condition. These two were finally withdrawn in 1974 when their boiler certificates expired which brought to an end the operation of steam locomotives on the Victorian Railways.

This locomotive R 707 was built by the North British Locomotive Company in Glasgow in 1951 for Victorian Railways. The locomotive sustained damage whilst being delivered to Australia in July 1951 and did not enter service until August 1954. The damage was due to damage to the roller bearings on the driving wheels caused by the entry of salt water while being shipped to Australia as deck cargo. The leading driving wheel assembly (wheels, axles and roller bearings) also suffered alignment defects and repair work required the driving wheels to be pressed off the axles, replacement roller bearings fitted and re-balancing after re-assembly.

 By this time the locomotive had been converted to burn Pulverised Brown Coal dust (PBC) as part of a trial. The results suggested that the locomotive could perform similar to a locomotive burning conventional coal but it burned less fuel. The expense of installing storage and handling facilities became increasingly uneconomic with falling prices for fuel oil and the success of diesel-electric traction. The conversion had also reduced the water capacity of the tender such that there was insufficient margin for delays or bad weather running on many routes, confining the locomotive to the shorter Melbourne to Geelong and Seymour lines. The experiment were discontinued and R 707 was converted back to black coal operation in 1957.

It was taken out of service in May 1956 following minor damage to the locomotive as a result of a derailment.

The locomotive was withdrawn from VR revenue services in July 1965 and stored at Bendigo.

In June 1967 the locomotive was steamed up to act as a stationary boiler test. After this R707 spent a short period outside the locomotive work at Bendigo and in October 1967 it hauled its last train when it ran to Melbourne where it was subsequently placed in the in the Railway Museum at North Williamstown.

In November 1967 the locomotive ran from Bendigo to Newport Workshops under its own steam and underwent minor repairs to enable it to be used to haul a special railtour later that month.

After this R707 was returned to storage at Geelong depot in December 1967. It was then towed to South Dynon Diesel Depot in October 1968 for inclusion in a display of locomotives and rolling stock at a VR exhibition at Spencer Street station.

The locomotive was then transferred to Newport Workshops in November 1968 for further use on special tour workings which it undertook until September 1974. Due to the locomotive performing so well during this period a plan was formulated of a plan by July 1980 for its preservation.

Following discussions with workshop management at Newport the locomotive was moved into the erecting shop at Newport in October 1980. The work on restoring the locomotive started in the the old Tarpaulin Shop in February 1981. In December 1981 the locomotive was transferred to the former Victorian Line Workshops at Spotswood where work continued.

The work progressed to the point where the locomotive was steam tested in late 1984 and it returned to service with a commissioning trip to Bacchus Marsh in July 1985. The locomotive was then run in by hauling a goods train from Tottenham Yard in Melbourne to North Geelong.

By 1985 the locomotive had acquired the name City of Melbourne in recognition of it having been based there since November 1968.

The locomotive was then based at Victorian Line Workshops at Spotswood until it was moved to Newport Railway Workshops in 1992 when the former was disposed of by the Public Transport Corporation.

The locomotive remains based at Newport where it as been overhauled a number of times and as of mid 2022 was operational.

Six other R class locomotives built by the North British Locomotive Company have been preserved.