This locomotive was built by Vulcan Foundry at Newton le Willows in Lancashire in 1879. It was one of three locomotives supplied to the New South Wales Government Railway (NSWGR). All three worked on Richmond to Camden line, Sydney.
In 1897 this locomotive was renumbered 530 and in 1901 it was moved to the Yass Tramway. This short branch was built to link to the Main South line when it was decided that that line would not run through Yass. The line is less than 5km long and was operated as a tramway. Because of this, there were a number of locations in town where passengers could be picked up or dropped off. Near the end of the line, it ran down the centre of Dutton Street, and consequently drivers had to maintain a careful watch.
The locomotive was employed on the Yass Tramway until 1910. Five years later it was sold by the NSWGR having covered over 400,000 miles. It was bought by the Commonwealth Government for work at Jervis Bay on construction of the breakwater.
Jervis Bay was selected in 1915 as the best place to locate a port for the new Australian capital of Canberra which had been established in 1913 following a long dispute as to whether Sydney or Melbourne should be the capital. A proposed route for a railway from Jervis Bay to the proposed Federal city of Canberra was drawn up in 1909 but was not acted upon. Jervis Bay never developed as initially envisaged – the population in 2016 was only 390.
The locomotive was sold in 1932 to the Kalingo Colliery, Cessnock but was out of service by 1938. The boiler and saddle tank were scrapped at some stage and later on motion parts were removed but these may still exist.
In 1983 the remains of the locomotive was moved to the Richmond Vale Railway Museum.
In 1992 locomotive was moved to the Yass Railway Museum. I was then fitted with a boiler from classmate 129 which had been recovered from a sawmill.
The locomotive is now on display at the Yass Railway Museum.
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