Australian Garratt

1952 · NSWGR AD60 · Work 38 of 1,871

Australian Garratt, 1952, NSWGR AD60

An AD60 Garratt articulated locomotive on a long straight through the Australian outback: it looks like three separate vehicles coupled in a row, a long water tank on its own driving wheels at the front, a long coal bunker on its own driving wheels at the rear, and between them the boiler with cab hung on a bridge frame that rests on the two end vehicles, a gap visible beneath the boiler, hopper wagons trailing, red earth and low scrub to the horizon.

What it was used for
New South Wales Government Railways freight over the Blue Mountains. Forty-two built from an order for fifty; the last entered service in January 1957, by which time the first had already been withdrawn for a year. The last revenue working was on 23 February 1973.
What was new
The largest and heaviest locomotives ever to run in Australia. Not, however, the most powerful Garratts in the world — the East African Railways 59 class pulled considerably more, and even within Australia the D57 class exceeded them in tractive effort. A record usually told too large; the defensible version is narrow, and it is enough.