POWERHOUSE COLLECTION

Locomotive engine plates from Australia

Object No. B2517

This is a collection of 40 manufacturers builders' plates which collectively cover the construction of railway locomotives and rolling stock largely manufactured in New South Wales from the 1880s to the 1960s. The plates are from rolling stock built at both government railway workshops, such as at Eveleigh, Cardiff and Chullora, and private engineering companies including Ritchie Brothers of Auburn; A.E. Goodwin of St Marys and Auburn; and the Clyde Engineering Co. Ltd of Granville. Some of the plates are from the most iconic locomotives used on the New South Wales Government Railways at the time, including C38 class steam locomotives used for express and mail trains, and the Beyer-Garratt articulated freight locomotives, which in the early 1960s were the heaviest and most powerful engines in Australia. The plates also cover the change-over from steam to diesel powered locomotives. The introduction in 1951 of twenty diesel-electric locomotives turned a new page in rail operations in New South Wales. In 1956, six diesel-electric locomotives of the GM-12 type were supplied by Clyde Engineering and by the 1960s the majority of the diesel-electric locomotives were being built for the Railways by Goodwin-Alco. These locomotives for the first time enabled most towns in New South Wales to be within a 12-hour range from Sydney for freight deliveries. Ken Williams, Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences Volunteer, under the supervision of Margaret Simpson, Curator May 2015