| Weight | 98t |
| Driving Wheels | 4ft 7ins MA 4ft 0ins |
| Boiler Pressure | 180psi |
| Cylinders | Two Outside – 16in x 24in |
| Tractive Effort | 17,090lbf MA 19,600lbf |
In March 1952 the Tasmanian Government Railways (TGR) took delivery of ten class M locomotives built by Robert Stephenson & Hawthorns at Newcastle upon Tyne. They were similar to the YB class locomotives supplied to the Indian Railways.
They operated on the North-Eastern and Western lines and at Hobart.
As the TGR had already started to employ diesel power on some lines that had been intended to be operated by the M class engines four locomotives were fitted with smaller driving wheels in 1957 which enabled them to be haul heavier trains on the steeply graded North-Eastern line. The locomotives fitted with smaller driving wheels became the MA class. The four were originally numbered M1, M2,M6 and M8 and became MA2, MA4, MA3 and MA1 respectively.
The smaller driving wheels had recovered from withdrawn Australian Standard Garratts locomotives.
The locomotives were withdrawn from service from 1960 as they became due for overhaul.
This locomotive (M3) was built by Robert Stephenson & Hawthorns in 1951 for the Tasmanian Government Railways.
It is now on static display at the Don River Railway at Don in north Tasmania.
All ten locomotives built by Robert Stephenson & Hawthorns as class M locomotives have been preserved. The others are.
- M1 – Works number 7427
- M2 – Works number 7430
- M4 – Works number 7424
- M5 – Works number 7425
- M6 – Works number 7429
- MA1 – Works number 7428
- MA2 – Works number 7421
- MA3 – Works number 7426
- MA4 – Works number 7422
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