NSWGR I17 / Z26 Class Steam Locomotives

We often tend to think that rail planners these days are short-sighted and miss obvious signs that they’re plans are not going to produce the outcomes they hoped for but the history of short-sightedness goes back much further than we might think and these locos, ordered in the early 1890’s are an example of that problem.

In 1882 25 B55 class 2-6-0 goods locomotives were ordered from Dubs and Co with the first of these not being delivered until 1891. These locomotives proved quite successful, and Dubs must have been able to speed up the time between order and delivery because the railways went back to them and placed an order for 20 I17 Class saddle tank versions of the B55.

These 20 locomotives, delivered between January and May 1892, were to be used on banking services over the Blue Mountains but, when you think about it, a steam locomotive uses a lot of coal and lot of water … especially when they’re working hard on steep inclines … and these locos didn’t carry much of either.

Sure, the tank looks big but looks can be deceiving and they were soon transferred away from the mountains. Some went to the Waterfall to be used on banking trains there … a much shorter grade that these locomotives could cope with.

Others went to Newcastle and the Illawarra to haul coal trains and they worked in that service for many years. As more and more modern locomotives came into use these locos were slowly shuffled down lesser duties such as shunting at Darling Harbour, banking duties out of Bathurst and Lithgow as well as shunting around the Port Kembla network

Renumbering

These locomotives were originally introduced as the I17 Class but did not have consecutive numbers. In 1924 the Railways introduced a new numbering system and this class was reclassified as the Z26 Class with numbers 2601 to 2620

See the list below for the numbers each locomotive carried.

Withdrawals

The first withdrawal came in 1956 when 2602 was withdrawn at Bathurst and by 1961 there were only nine on the books but the last of the class in Government service wasn’t withdrawn till October 1970.

In December 1966 the Commonwealth Portland Cement Company purchased 2605 and it remained in service with that company, transferring wagons between Portland railway station (north of Wallerawang) and the plant until the Company moved to road transport. By that time the loco it was in such poor condition that, from my own observations, it’s maximum load in the Up direction was just 3 S trucks of bagged cement.

2605 is now preserved at the State Mine Railway & Museum near Lithgow and 2606 is preserved at Thirlmere.

The 26 Class was never going to win any prizes for good looks but there is something about the design that just appeals to people.

Specifications:

Cylinders – 18 x 26in (46 x66cm)

Boiler pressure – 150lb (1034kPa)

Coupled wheels – 4ft 0in (122cm)

Tractive Effort – 21,060lb (93.7kN)

Total weight – 65.9 tons (67.2 tonnes)

History

* Mileage figures have been converted to kilometres by multiplying miles by 1.6

** Records for 2604 and 2606 are incomplete

References
Forsyth, John. Locomotive Data Sheets, unnumbered edition, produced by the NSW Government Railways, Sydney.

Oberg, L Locomotives of Australia – 1850s ~ 1900s Third Edition 1996, Kangaroo Press

The photos on this web page is by Weston Langford.
They are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.