The South Australian Railways 740 class was a class of 2-8-2 freight locomotives built by

Clyde Engineering Clyde Engineering was an Australian manufacturer of locomotives, rolling stock, and other industrial products. It was founded in September 1898 by a syndicate of Sydney businessmen buying the Granville factory of timber merchants Huds ...

, Granville for the

South Australian Railways South Australian Railways (SAR) was the organisation through which the Government of South Australia built and operated railways in South Australia from 1854 until March 1978, when its non-urban railways were incorporated into Australian Natio ...

in 1951-1952.

History

In the late 1940s, the

federal government A federation (also called a federal state) is an entity characterized by a political union, union of partially federated state, self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a #Federal governments, federal government (federalism) ...

placed an order with

, Granville for fifty 2-8-2 locomotives. These were ordered as part of Australia's contribution to the

United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA, pronounced ) was an international relief agency founded in November 1943 on the joint initiative of the United States, United Kingdom, USSR, and the Republic of China. Its purpose ...

rehabilitation of China. With the first locomotives under construction, China fell to the Communists and Australia's obligations ceased. The government was able to renegotiate the contract, with only twenty built. Ten were taken by the

Commonwealth Railways The Commonwealth Railways were established in 1917 by the Government of Australia with the Commonwealth Railways Act to administer the Trans-Australian Railway, Trans-Australia and Adelaide-Darwin railway, Port Augusta to Darwin railways. In 1 ...

as the L class, with the other ten going to the

as the 740 class after being converted for broad gauge operation. The 740 class remained in service until the early 1960s when replaced by diesels. The last was condemned in November 1965.

References

External links

{{South Australian Railways locos, state=expanded Clyde Engineering locomotives Railway locomotives introduced in 1951 740 2-8-2 locomotives 1′D1′ h2 locomotives Broad gauge locomotives in Australia Scrapped locomotives Freight locomotives