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C17 No.45 Mary Valley Heritage Railway |
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A scanned photo view of C17 No.45
at Gympie & District Historical
Society Museum in 1996.
The loco had
been restored to operation in a cramped location at the rear of a display area.
No.45 subsequently moved to
Gympie loco depot as flagship of the new established Mary Valley Heritage
Railway.
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Builder |
Evans,
Anderson, Phelan & Co, Kangaroo Point, Brisbane |
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Builder’s Number & Year |
168 of 1923 |
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Wheel Arrangement |
4-8-0 |
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No. in class |
227 |
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No.45 is
one of Queensland Government Railways’ highly successful C17 class 4-8-0
locomotives of which 227 units were constructed by a variety of builders
between 1920 and 1953. No.45 was built to the original ‘1920 design’ of C17
which are identifiable by a straight-sided cutaway cab, cast iron chimney and
a low-sided bogie tender. At some stage it was fitted with the ‘1938 design’
boiler with a low steam dome, but retains the original style of cast-iron
chimney. No.45 is
one of the oldest surviving C17’s, having been placed in service by the
Queensland Government Railways in January 1923 and written off 44 years later
in October 1967. Upon retirement it spent some time in storage before being
placed in Andrew Fisher Park, Gympie in
1972. Following the unfortunate scrapping of sister park loco C17 No.820 at Gympie in 1982, No.45
was threatened with a similar fate in 1983 until concerned locals came to the
rescue and it was transferred to the nearby Gympie & District Historical
Society Museum on 4 January 1984. Here No.45 was gradually restored to
operation by a team of local volunteers in a rather cramped location at the
rear of a display building. Upon removing the firebox doors (which had been
welded shut during No.45’s park days) it was found that the firebox was still
full of ash! Replacement or refurbished parts were obtained from many
sources, including swaps with other plinthed C17 locomotives. A major
milestone was achieved on 10 October 1992 when No.45 was officially recommissioned
and became available for steaming over a short length of track at the museum. On 17 September 1996, No.45 was transferred to the
newly-formed Mary Valley Heritage
Railway (MVHR) depot and running shed in the former Queensland Railways
loco shed at Gympie. It subsequently
hauled the first ‘Valley Rattler’ train on 23 May 1998, becoming the flagship
locomotive of the MVHR fleet which has since grown to six C17 locos with the
addition of Nos. 253, 705, 802, 819 & 967. John Stark
has written a comprehensive and well-illustrated account of the restoration
of this locomotive and the establishment of the Mary Valley Heritage Railway
in his book ‘The Return of Steam Locomotive C17, No.45’. I would
really appreciate some good action photos of No.45 on Valley Rattler services
for addition to this page, so contributions are welcome! UPDATE:
Alas No.45 Gympie is no longer operational, having last run in May 2003 and
since placed in storage at the Gympie locomotive shed and restoration depot.
Hopefully it will one day be returned to steam on the Mary Valley Railway. For more
general information about the Queensland Railways’ C17 class locomotives,
refer to the page for C17 No.2. |
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No.45’s builders plate as
photographed at Gympie & District Historical
Society Museum in 1996.
No.45 is seen stored under an
improvised tarpaulin at Gympie on 2 February 2019 (with sister No.802 behind).
This photo was kindly contributed by Paul Shepherd.
References
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a |
‘Locomotives of Australia’ by Leon Oberg, published by J. W. Books Pty Ltd. |
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b |
Stark, R. J., 'The Return of Steam Locomotive C17, No. 45', published
2000 by The Degener Timms Publications, Gympie,
Queensland |
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c |
Armstrong,
J. 'Locomotives in the Tropics - Volume 2 (Queensland
Railways 1910 – 1958 and beyond)’, published
by the ARHS Queensland Division, 1994. |
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d |
Locomotive information sheet provided by the Mary Valley Heritage Railway, 28 January 2004. |
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Page updated: 30 January 2022
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Private & Industrial Railways: |
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