| Weight | 190t |
| Driving Wheels | 6ft 1in |
| Boiler Pressure | 210psi |
| Cylinders | Outside – 21½in x 28in |
| Tractive Effort | 32,080lbf |
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 However, they were almost immediately superseded by mainline diesel-electric and electric locomotives on the VR from 1952 onwards.
By the end of 1953 the R class locomotives had been withdrawn from The Overland service to Adelaide and also the VR passenger service to Mildura.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 711 was built by the North British Locomotive Company in Glasgow in 1951 for Victorian Railways.
It operated on the Victorian Railways until withdrawn from service in 1965 and placed on plinth outside the Bendigo station under the ownership of the City of Greater Bendigo in central Victoria.
In 1995 the locomotive was leased to West Coast Railway and extensively rebuilt for regular service on a passenger service between Melbourne and Warrnambool. This rebuilding featured various modifications including Lempor exhaust, power reversing gear and conversion to oil burning.
Following the demise of West Coast Railway the locomotive was leased to Steamrail Victoria in 2005. Several of the previous modifications (notably the Lempor exhaust and power reverser) were removed by Steamrail Victoria but it was retained as being oil firing.
The locomotive was subsequently certified for main line operation and as of mid 2022 the locomotive was in service.
Six other R class locomotives built by the North British Locomotive Company have been preserved.
- R700 – Works number 26990
- R704 – Works number 26994
- R707 – Works number 26997
- R753 – Works number 27043
- R761 – Works number 27051
- R766 – Works number 27056
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