The GT46C is a model of diesel-electric locomotive designed and 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 ...

using

Electro-Motive Diesel Electro-Motive Diesel (abbreviated EMD) is a brand of diesel-electric locomotives, locomotive products and diesel engines for the rail industry. Formerly a division of General Motors, EMD has been owned by Progress Rail since 2010. Electro-Motive ...

components. A number of Australian rail freight operators purchased them from 2022: Aurizon as the Q/FQ/V class All 24 locomotives were owned by

Aurizon Aurizon Holdings Limited ( ) is a freight rail transport company in Australia, formerly named QR National Limited and branded QR National. In 2015, it was the world's largest rail transporter of coal from mine to port. Formerly a Queensland G ...

in July 2022.

By operator

Westrail

In May 1996,

Westrail Western Australian Government Railways (WAGR) was the state owned operator of railways in the state of Western Australia between October 1890 and June 2003. Owned by the state government, it was renamed a number of times to reflect extra respon ...

ordered 15 GT46Cs from

as part of an order that also included nine narrow gauge S class locomotives. The order was later extended to 19. All were assembled at a facility established by Clyde Engineering within Westrail's Forrestfield Depot to fulfill the contract with components manufactured at Clyde's Kelso and

Somerton Somerton may refer to: Places Australia * Somerton, New South Wales * Somerton Park, South Australia, a seaside Adelaide suburb ** Somerton Man, unsolved case of an unidentified man found dead in 1948 on the Somerton Park beach *Somerton, Victoria ...

plants. All were included in the sale of Westrail to

Australian Railroad Group Australian Railroad Group (ARG) was an Australian rail freight operator. It began operations in Western Australia on 17 December 2000 following its purchase of the Westrail freight business. It was purchased by QR National in June 2006. The mai ...

in December 2000 and again to QR National in June 2006. Initially numbered as the Q class, they were later reclassified as the 4000 class.

Freight Australia

Following the destruction of two

G class G class or Class G may refer to: Railways * NZR G class (1928), a type of steam locomotive used in New Zealand * Tasmanian Government Railways G class, a class of 0-4-2T steam locomotive used in Australia * V/Line G class, a class of diesel-ele ...

locomotives in 1999,

Freight Australia Freight Australia was an Australian railway company that purchased the Public Transport Corporation, V/Line Freight business from the Government of Victoria in 1999. Initially known as Freight Victoria, it operated rail freight services and cont ...

ordered a single GT46AC from EDI Rail who had purchased Clyde Engineering. It was built at their

Cardiff Locomotive Workshops The Cardiff Locomotive Workshops (now known as the Cardiff Maintenance Centre) is a rail yard and rolling stock facility located between Cockle Creek railway station, Cockle Creek and Cardiff railway station, New South Wales, Cardiff stations n ...

in 2002. Numbered V544, it was named after

Deputy Prime Minister A deputy prime minister or vice prime minister is, in some countries, a Minister (government), government minister who can take the position of acting prime minister when the prime minister is temporarily absent. The position is often likened to th ...

Tim Fischer Timothy Andrew Fischer (3 May 1946 – 22 August 2019) was an Australian politician and diplomat who served as leader of the National Party of Australia, National Party from 1990 to 1999. He was the tenth Deputy Prime Minister of Australia, d ...

. It was included in the sale of 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 February 2004. The locomotive initially operated interstate freight duties, primarily the

SCT Logistics SCT Logistics is an Australian interstate transport company operating rail and road haulage, with facilities in Brisbane, Sydney, Parkes, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth. History SCT Logistics was founded in 1974 as Specialised Container T ...

service from

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 ...

Perth Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

. In late 2007, it moved to haul Leigh Creek to

Port Augusta Port Augusta (''Goordnada'' in the revived indigenous Barngarla language) is a coastal city in South Australia about by road from the state capital, Adelaide. Most of the city is on the eastern shores of Spencer Gulf, immediately south of the ...

coal trains in

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...

, servicing the Playford B and

Northern Northern may refer to the following: Geography * North North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating ...

power stations. Between March 2014 and May 2021, V544 was stored at Port Augusta workshops after a major engine failure. In May 2021, it was sold to

One Rail Australia One Rail Australia was an Australian Rail freight transport, rail freight operator company. Founded by a United States short line railroad holding company, Genesee & Wyoming, Genesee & Wyoming Inc, in 1997 as Australian Southern Railroad, and s ...

and has since been painted into their livery. The ''Tim Fischer'' name was retained. It is currently in service, with the ORA logos painted over and replaced with Aurizon ones.

FreightLink

In 2003, four were built by EDI Rail at

for FreightLink. They were purchased for use on the Adelaide-Darwin railway. The first two units were painted in

Indigenous Australian Indigenous Australians are people with familial heritage from, or recognised membership of, the various ethnic groups living within the territory of contemporary Australia prior to History of Australia (1788–1850), British colonisation. The ...

liveries, the other two were in FreightLink red. All were included in the sale of FreightLink to

,FQ Class
Vicsig and later the sale of ORA to

. File:Q4004_ARG_A_QR_COMPANY.JPG,

Q4004 in March 2009 Image:V544_Mambray_Creek_Aug07.jpg,

V544 at

Mambray Creek, South Australia __NOTOC__ Mambray Creek is a locality in the Australian state of South Australia located on the east coast of the Spencer Gulf about north of the state capital of Adelaide city centre, Adelaide and about north of the city of Port Pirie, South A ...

in August 2007 File:Arrival of the first Ghan into Darwin.jpg, FreightLink indigenous liveried FQ01 in Darwin in January 2004 File:Q 4001 Downer EDI Rail GT46C Aurizon.jpg, Q 4001 Aurizon Bulk Freight West train in Fremantle.

Aurizon Service

Q class

V class

FQ class

Related development

* New South Wales 90 class locomotive, ancestor model GT46CWM * Downer EDI Rail GT46C ACe, derivative model

References

External links

{{WAGR Locomotives Aurizon diesel locomotives Clyde Engineering locomotives Co-Co locomotives Diesel locomotives of Australia Diesel locomotives of Western Australia Railway locomotives introduced in 1997 Standard-gauge locomotives of Australia Diesel–electric locomotives of Australia