The H class are a class of diesel 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

Victorian Railways The Victorian Railways (VR), trading from 1974 as VicRail, was the state-owned operator of most rail transport in the Australian state of Victoria from 1859 to 1983. The first railways in Victoria were private companies, but when these companie ...

in 1968–1969.

History

The H Class were built as T class locomotives with modifications for use at the Melbourne Hump Yard. They were fitted additional equipment for their duties, including extra weight for traction, "manual power control" to allow low speed operation, and an accurate low speed speedometer. The H class were delivered as T413 to T417, but were reclassified before entering service. The class rarely left

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

due to their excessive weight, until being approved to operate on the same lines as the N class in January 1987. All were included in the sale of V/Line Freight to Freight Victoria in May 1999 and passed with the business to

Pacific National Pacific National is one of Australia's largest rail freight businesses. History In February 2002, National Rail Corporation, National Rail's freight operations and rollingstock, jointly owned by the Government of Australia, Federal, Governm ...

in August 2004. Pacific National sold three of the H class to the Ettamogah Rail Hub in 2015. Two of those were on-sold to 707 Operations in 2018. H4 was scrapped in 2020, while H1 had had its long hood cladding removed and was stored in North Dynon between 2020 and April 2022, when it was transferred to the

Seymour Railway Heritage Centre The Seymour Railway Heritage Centre (SRHC) is a railway preservation group based in Seymour, Victoria, Seymour, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. The volunteer non-profit incorporated association was established in 1983 as the Seymour ...

as part of a long-term restoration project. In mid-2023, all four of the surviving H classes were bought by

Watco Australia Watco Australia is a rail haulage operator that was formed in 2010 to haul grain for the CBH Group in Western Australia. In 2019, it commenced operating in Queensland under a contract with GrainCorp. It is a subsidiary of Watco. History In 200 ...

, and are currently being refurbished at Newport Workshops.

Status table

Reference:

References

{{VRLocos, state=collapsed Bo-Bo locomotives Clyde Engineering locomotives Pacific National diesel locomotives Railway locomotives introduced in 1968 H class Broad gauge locomotives in Australia Diesel–electric locomotives of Australia Shunting locomotives