Special Collections

This image was scanned from an original glass plate or negative,  kindly provided by the Australian Railway Historical Society, New South Wales Division.

Notes

The Observer's book of steam locomotives of Australia  by David Burke 1979 page 79-80 has the following description:

Massive in every sense, the First Mountain type appeared on NSW rails in 1929, at the culmination of E E Lucy's reign as Chief Mechanical Engineer.  The locomotives were also the first to have three simple cylinders - those outside controlled by Walschaert valve gear, and the inside by Gresley conjugating gear.  Other firsts were a single-piece cast-steel frame, a cast-steel frame for the trailing truck, power reverse gear and mechanical stoker.  Classed D57, they took over the heavy freights on the steeply graded sections of the Mountains, South, and Illawarra lines, except that the 22.4-tonne (22 -ton) axle load of their large tenders prevented their use beyond Wallerawang, Junee and Thirroul respectively.  They were banned from the North line owing to low bridge capacities.

The 25 members of the class were supplied by Clyde Engineering with tenders built at Mort's Dock.  The D57 class also performed quite successfully in occasional tests hauling top link passenger trains including the Melbourne Limited.

In 1950 the first of an improved version of the D57 emerged from Eveleigh Workshops - the D58 class, which varied only in a minor reduction in cylinder diameter and the use of a toothed quadrant and rack drive on the inside cylinder valve gear.  Of the proposed order for 25 locomotives, only 13 were completed, 11 form Eveleigh and two by Cardiff Shops.  Work was then suspended owing to a lack of funds, and was never resumed because of the adoption of diesel power.  Of the two classes, only one representative has been retained. No 5711 at Thirlmere.

Principal dimensions

Driving Wheels - 5ft 0 in - 1524 mm

Cylinders - 23 1/4 x 28 in - 591 x 711 mm

Pressure - 200 lb - 1379 kPa

Weight - 228 tons  - 231.6 tonnes

Tractive effort 56000 lb - 25401 kg

Built 1929-1930

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