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C17 No.935 Southern Downs Steam Railway |
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No.935 is seen as recently delivered at the Southern Downs
Steam Railway, Warwick.
This photo was kindly contributed by Stephen Shepherd and
is dated 8 December 2018.
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Builder |
Granville NSW |
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Builder’s Number & Year |
503 of 1949 |
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Wheel Arrangement |
4-8-0 |
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No. in class |
227 |
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No.935 was
one of Queensland Railways’ highly successful C17 class 4-8-0 locomotives, of
which 227 units were constructed by a variety of builders between 1920 and
1953. The C17 class were a versatile type powerful enough for main line
duties, yet with a low axle load which permitted wide deployment and
accordingly the type could be found on everything from suburban and express
passenger duties to main, secondary and branch line work. The final C17 class
members were retired from service at the very end of QR revenue steam
operations in August 1970. No.935 is
one of the ‘1938’ C17 variants which were improved over the original 1920
design by use of piston valves, Laird crossheads, a wider, taller Sedan cab
sporting sliding windows, and a slender stovepipe chimney with a capuchion
lip. No.935 was one of an order for 20 C17’s supplied by Clyde Engineering,
Sydney between 1948 & 1950 in response to post-war motive power demands. According
to ‘Locomotives in the Tropics’, No.935 was written off the Queensland
Railways books in May 1968. Fortunately it was saved from scrapping, instead
being plinthed in the Brisbane suburb of Virginia for the Nundah Rotary Club. It seems
that No.935 became derelict after many years of being plinthed at Virginia.
In 1990 it was rescued from an uncertain fate by the Australian Railway
Historical Society (Qld Division) and taken to their Rosewood Railway,
where it remained in long-term storage together with several other rescued
park locomotives. Here No.935 was stored without a tender; I suspect the
tender tank platework was severely corroded and hence only the tender frame
and bogies were retained and were separately stored at Rosewood. (Further
information on this point is welcome.) Although
No.935 remained stored in a derelict condition, the Australian Railway
Historical Society at least secured the locomotive against being scrapped and
hence it remained as a future restoration project, or at least a source of
spare parts. No.935 has since been purchased by the Southern Downs Steam Railway
and was delivered to their Warwick locomotive depot and restoration base in
late 2018. It is intended that No.935 will eventually restored to working
condition as a long term restoration project. For
further information about the Queensland Railways’ C17 class locomotives,
refer to the page for C17 No.2. Update: A Facebook
post by Downs
Steam Tourist Railway & Museum dated 25 May 2023 reported that No.935’s
boiler had arrived at their Toowoomba restoration base for contract repair on
behalf of the Southern Downs Steam Railway. |
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No.935 (sans tender) heads C17 No.763 and D17 No.855 on the
storage siding at the Rosewood Railway in December 2002.
A second scanned photo view of No.935 stored at the
Rosewood Railway in December 2002.
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, Qld |
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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 |
Downs Steam Facebook page, retrieved 27 February 2024 |
Page updated: 27 February 2024
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