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TASMANIAN GOVERNMENT RAILWAYS |
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M and MA CLASS STEAM LOCOMOTIVES |
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Don River Railway’s MA2 and M4 passing through Pigeon Hill near Burnie, Tasmania (Sept 2004) |
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INTRODUCTION |
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I’ve long admired the shape of the M and MA Class locomotives, owned by the Don River Railway in nearby Devonport, Tasmania. So when I decided to try my hand at making a GMAX model of a steam locomotive for use in TRS2004, the M Class seemed a natural choice. |
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HISTORY OF THE M and MA CLASS |
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The history of the M and MA Class steam locomotives is well documented in the book “the History of the Don River Railway’s Locomotives, Railcars and Carriages”, by Greg Cooper (ISBN 0-958006-0-3). For a detailed account of the M class and many other locomotives used in Tasmania, please see this excellent publication, which is available from the Don River Railway (www.donriverrailway.com.au). The following is a brief summary from that book. After years of locomotive shortages during World War II, the Tasmanian Government Railways (TGR) required a locomotive with a maximum axle load of 10 tons, which it wished to use on it’s more lightly laid branch lines, as well as the main line. To speed up delivery times and reduce costs it was decided to use an existing design and the metre gauge YB class 4-6-2 locomotives of the Indian and Burmese railways were chosen. In the late 1940’s an order was placed with Robert Stephenson and Hawthorns for the construction of ten locomotives, incorporating some modifications to suit the needs of the TGR. The new locomotives were designated the M Class as they were classed as “medium” steam locomotives. All ten locomotives (M1 - M10) were shipped from England in early 1952 and they began to enter service shortly afterwards. They were mainly used in the northern half of the state, principally on passenger and mixed traffic trains and only occasionally on goods trains. During 1957 the TGR locomotive fleet was re-organised to make more effective use of diesels. Some less utilised passenger and mixed train services were also cancelled. This resulted in the loss of much of the work to which the M class was best suited. To better utilise these locomotives four were modified (M1, M2, M6 and M8) and fitted with smaller driving wheels to make them more suited to goods trains. These were re-designated the MA class, re-painted from emerald green to bright red and re-numbered MA1 to MA4. The original M7, M9 and M10 were then re-numbered to M1, M2 and M6. More diesel-electric locomotives were purchased in 1961-62 causing the use of steam trains to become irregular and after 1962 they were only used when diesels were unavailable. From the mid 1960’s some M and MA class locomotives began to be progressively withdrawn from service and placed into storage, until in June 1971 all remaining locomotives were withdrawn. After a boiler overhaul in 1972, M3 returned to service to become one of three remaining steam locomotives with the TGR. M3 completed it’s final trip on the TGR in October 1975. All remaining TGR steam locomotives were sold after the take-over of the TGR by Australian National Railways in 1978. All ten of the M and MA class locomotives have survived, with the following four having been restored to working order:
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The current locations of all TGR M Class locomotives can be found on the TasTrain website at www.railtasmania.com/loco/m.htm |
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