International Railroad Discussion > Australia: Sydney's Transport Heritage Expo - Diesels

The annual Transport Heritage Expo took place at Sydney's Central Station. As well as static displays, rides were offered on historic steam, electric & Diesel Rail Motor trains in the suburban area.

4001 was New South Wales' first main line diesel loco. Based on the ALCO RSC, it was built by Montreal Locomotive Works & entered service in 1951. It was the first of 20. It has been repainted into the special blue livery it received for the 1954 Royal Tour of Queen Elizabeth II.

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Also on display was NSW's first Gm/EMD locomotive - 4201.
4201, based on the F7 (but with Co-Co bogies) was built by the Australian EMD licencee, Clyde Engineering in November 1955. It was the first of only 6 in its class. 4201 is in the special "125 years of railways in NSW, it originally received in 1980.

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4490 is one of 100 ALCO 500B models with the Alco 12-251B engines built by Australian licencee AE Goodwin in Sydney. The class was first introduced in July 1957, but 4490, being one of the last built, dates from July 1967. It wears the standard NSWGR Tuscan Red livery. The 44 class were unusual in having a full driving cab in the flat "B" end.

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4520, is one of 40 45 class built, again by Australian ALCO licencee AE Goodwin in Sydney and is based on the ALCO DL-541 model. The 45 class were built between 1962-1964.

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Very nice locomotives. The Expo looks very interesting

Pedro Rezende
Vespasiano MG,
https://youtube.com/c/minasgeraisrailways1

Can someone please explain the cuplers on the above locomotives. Looks like that they are a combination of USA and European design and function.

Correct. Auto couplers were late coming to Australia! When diesels were first being introduced, transition to auto couplers was in progress. The 40/44 & 45 class have buffing plates, rather than separate buffers. Handy for rear banking duties! Only some historic rolling stock still have screw couplings.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/18/17 01:21 by Stephenloco.

Under the Australian Constitution, following Federation in 1901, the 6 States retained their individual legal status/identity, so are still separate Sovereign Countries.

So lets reword the above post to read "Auto couplers were late coming to New South Wales!" Citizens of other states may not wish to be associated with NSW tardiness

Some other states were even later!

And the State that had imported William Webb from the MKT in 1922 was much earlier!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Alfred_Webb

I think that you will find that the Irish gauge States converted that gauge prior to 1929
in 1922 Webb introduced a rehabilitation plan for the South Australian Railways based on American railroad principles of large, standardised locomotives and steel bodied bogie freight wagons, with automatic couplers to enable a significant increase in productivity. 1200 wagons of four types were purchased from American Car and Foundry in 1924

It would appear that the Commonwealth Railways TAR was automatic from its inception in 1917

Your mob in NSW were tardy, likewise the narrow gauge states

Was the horn on 4201 originally mounted in that location?  That seems like a view obstruction for the crew.  Were the clearances so tight they couldn't put the horn on the roof?

From all the photos I have seen the horns have always been in lat location. However earlier photos show, there were only twin horns.