The Victorian Railways M class were

4-4-0 4-4-0, in the Whyte notation, denotes a steam locomotive with a wheel arrangement of four leading wheels on two axles (usually in a leading bogie), four powered and coupled driving wheels on two axles, and no trailing wheels. First built in the ...

T (tank) steam locomotives for suburban passenger service in

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 ...

, a pattern engine being supplied in 1879 by

Beyer, Peacock & Company Beyer, Peacock and Company was an English general engineering company and railway locomotive manufacturer with a factory in Openshaw, Manchester. Charles Beyer, Richard Peacock and Henry Robertson founded the company in 1854. The company close ...

. Twenty-one further locomotives of this model were built by the

Phoenix Foundry The Phoenix Foundry was a company that built steam locomotives and other industrial machinery in the city of Ballarat, Victoria, Australia. Over 30 years they built 352 locomotives for the Victorian Railways, of 38 different designs. History ...

Ballarat Ballarat ( ) () is a city in the Central Highlands of Victoria, Australia. At the 2021 census, Ballarat had a population of 111,973, making it the third-largest urban inland city in Australia and the third-largest city in Victoria. Within mo ...

, in three batches, from 1884 to 1886. They were numbered 40 (pattern engine), 210-240 (even numbers only), and 312-320 (evens only), and were classed M in 1886. Because their relatively small

coal bunker A coal bin, coal store or coal bunker is a storage container for coal awaiting use or transportation. This can be either in domestic, commercial or industrial premises, or on a ship or locomotive tender, or at a coal mine or processing plant. ...

proved inadequate for the rapidly expanding suburban network of the 1880s, they were rebuilt between 1901 and 1905 at the

Newport Workshops The Newport Railway Workshops is a facility in the Melbourne suburb of Newport, Victoria, Newport, Australia, that builds, maintains and refurbishes Rolling stock, railway rollingstock. It is located between the Williamstown railway line, Willia ...

as 4-4-2T locomotives. They were given an enlarged bunker of capacity on extended frames supported by a trailing radial axle, and the cylinder diameter was increased from . At the same time, the opportunity was taken to replace the troublesome leading

Bissell truck A Bissell or Bissel truck (also Bissel bogie or pony truck) is a single-axle bogie which pivots towards the centre of a steam locomotive to enable it to negotiate curves more easily. Invented in 1857 by and usually then known as a ''pony truck'' ...

with one of the design being used successfully on the contemporary A class and D class locomotives. The rebuilt locomotives were regarded as equivalent to the Victorian Railways' ubiquitous E class

2-4-2 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents the wheel arrangement of two leading wheels on one axle, four powered and coupled driving wheels on two axles and two trailing wheels on one axle. The type is somet ...

T suburban engines for rostering purposes, and were known as the M^E class, although the original 'M' class plates carried on the locomotives were not altered. The re-built engines proved very successful in service, and withdrawals did not commence until 1913, following the introduction of the larger D^DE (later D⁴) class suburban tank engines from 1908. The last M^E locomotives were scrapped in 1922, having been rendered surplus by the conversion of suburban lines to electric traction from 1919 onwards. None have been preserved.

References

External links

Diagram of M class 4-4-0T locomotive, PROV

M Class Steam Locomotive, perspective view, PROV

M Class Steam Locomotive No.212, side view of Tank Engine at Phoenix Foundry, PROV

Diagram of M^E class 4-4-2T locomotive, PROV

M^E Class Steam Locomotive No.318, side view of Tank Engine at Spencer St, PROV

M^E Class Steam Locomotive No.214, PROV
{{DEFAULTSORT:Victorian Railways M Class 1879 4-4-0T locomotives 4-4-2T locomotives 2′B n2t locomotives 2′B1′ n2t locomotives Railway locomotives introduced in 1879 Scrapped locomotives Broad gauge locomotives in Australia M class 1879 Beyer, Peacock locomotives Phoenix locomotives Passenger locomotives