Queensland, Australia
Queensland Railways 1300 Class, 1312, crosses the Comet river trestle bridge with ´The Midlander´ during August, 1984.
© Brian Webber
| The primary use for the 1300 class was for to transport coal from the Moura and Blackwater mines, although it was not uncommon to find them on other duties, such as general freight services. All 45 members of the class were based at Gladstone depot and became known as the "Poms", after their English Electric name. These versatile locomotives worked in every part of the state, after being displaced from their coal duties by the Clyde/GM loco's in the 1970's, until the late 1980's when it was decided by QR that it was going to "standarise" its locomotive fleet on the Clyde/GM loco's and would therefore dispose of the English Electric locomotives. During 1987 the Australian National Railway Commission in Tasmania, purchased the 16 locomotives of the 2350 & 2370 classes from Queensland and were still in the market to obtain additional motive power. Towards the end of 1988 all 45 members of the 1300 class, including some that had been stored and heavily stripped of parts, were sold to the ANRC and shipped to Tasmania in three batches. This 'export' marked the end of the 1300 class as they were known, on arrival in Tasmania, they were all reclassified to fit into the Tasmanian classfication system and they became the ZC Class. |
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