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K 154 and its conversion to N 441 The story so far... |
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K 154 displayed at the Gippsland Folk Museum, Moe in March 1989; this photo kindly provided by Wes Harris.
At that stage K 154 was well presented and cared for.
K 154 was
built by the Victorian Railways' Newport Workshops in 1940 to the successful
K-class 2-8-0 design. A total of 53 K-class locomotives were constructed for
branch-line duties, with a significant number retained in storage or for
workshop shunting duties towards to end of steam traction on the Victorian
Railways.
K
154 arrived at the Gippsland Folk Museum, Moe in the 1970's after running a fan
trip to Sale. It was stabled overnight at Moe before shunting, together with a
passenger carriage & guard van, into the museum via a temporary connection
from the main line. Newsgroup postings suggest that the ashes from the final
fire could be seen where they had been dropped under the firebox and that the
boiler was not emptied after this final run. Unfortunately, the wet
Gippsland climate took its inevitable toll on K 154 and the locomotive
eventually became derelict. There was a proposal around 2003 for the locomotive
to be restored for operation on the South Gippsland Railway and some
dismantling took place in preparation for its relocation, however this proposal
did not come to fruition.
K 154 was later
acquired by the K 154 Preservation Group and the boiler, frames, wheels &
tender frame were transported to Newport Workshops in late 2005. K 154's old
boiler was scrapped during 2006 as it was judged to be beyond repair. The
tender tank was apparently also derelict and scrapped at Moe.
K 154 at Newport is now
the focus of the N 441 Project by the Locomotive Restoration Group Inc, which
is rebuilding K 154 as a first-series N-class 2-8-2 locomotive. This
interesting project will fill a gap in Victorian Railways locomotive
preservation, as the N-class are poorly represented in preservation with only
Newport-built N 432 and North British Locomotive Co
built 752 / N 477 surviving, with neither operable. The conversion of K 154 to
N 441 takes advantage of the fact that the N and K-class locomotives were
effectively 2-8-2 (main line) and 2-8-0 (light line) versions of the same
design, and indeed the locomotive frames are identical excepting allowances for
the N-class rear trailing truck.
Progress with the N 441
conversion is now proceeding at Newport Workshops. The frame modifications and
extensions are well in hand, and an X-class tender wheel
set has been prepared for use in the trailing truck. A suitable N-class boiler
has been purchased for the project and was removed from Swan Hill during
2006. (An N-class boiler was used to power the sawmill display at Echuca Wharf
for many years but had moved by 2002; possibly the same boiler.) Interestingly,
other N-class boilers also survive at Newport Workshops but apparently the Swan
Hill boiler was found to be in better condition.
A set of N-class spoked
driving wheels graced J 512 at the time of its withdrawal and these are now
stored at the Seymour Railway Heritage Centre. These wheels are not required
for the project to convert J 512 to standard gauge, and around September 2007
this spare wheel set was donated to the N 441 Project by the Seymour Railway
Heritage Centre.
Here is a
link to the Project
N 441 website of the Locomotive Restoration Group Inc, which provides
excellent information and photographs of this interesting project. This website
includes PDF project reports containing detailed engineering information about
the transformation of K 154 to N 441 and several photos showing progress to
date. The group’s Facebook page includes some more recent information.
K 154 seen at the Gippsland Folk Museum, Moe on 17 January 2004; this photo kindly provided by Wes Harris.
Comparison with the earlier 1989 photo above shows how unkind the intervening 15 years had been to K 154.
K 154 in steam (together with J 515) at Newport Workshops
in September 1970.
This photo was kindly contributed by Anthony Winstone.
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a |
‘A brief
history of Preserved Rolling Stock of Victoria’ by
Norm Bray, Peter J Vincent and Daryl M Gregory. Published
by Brief History Books, PO Box 437, Sunbury, Vic 3429. |
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b |
ARHS (Victorian
Division) 'North Williamstown Railway Museum', Third
Edition 1968, revised 1977, reprinted 1980. |
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c |
‘Locomotives
of Australia - 1985 to 2010’ (Fifth
Edition), by Leon Oberg, published
2010 by Rosenberg Publishing Pty Ltd. |
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d |
Wikipedia
page for VR K-class locomotives: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victorian_Railways_K_class Retrieved
21 February 2023 |
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e |
Railpage
Newsgroup postings ‘K 154 at Moe’ viewed 17 March 2014 |
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f |
N
441 Project website of the Locomotive Restoration Group Inc, retrieved 17 March 2014 |
Page updated: 21 February 2023
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