page_title: Victorian Railways R class
section_title: 21st century steam: West Coast Railway's R 711 and R 766
hierarchical_section_title: Victorian Railways R class / History / 21st century steam: West Coast Railway's R 711 and R 766
caption_attribution_description: English: Former en:Victorian Railways R Class en:4-6-4 R711, as modified for regular mainline passenger operation by West Coast Railway, sits at en:Warrnambool Station on 17th November 2001. Photo by ZZRBiker
context_page_description: The R class was an express passenger steam locomotive that ran on Australia's Victorian Railways from 1951 to 1974. A long overdue replacement for the 1907-era A2 class 4-6-0, their development and construction was repeatedly delayed due to financial constraints caused by the Great Depression and later the manpower and materials shortages of World War II and the immediate postwar period.
  Orders eventually totalling 70 locomotives were placed with the North British Locomotive Company of Glasgow. Once initial teething problems were overcome, R class locomotives proved to be a success and their power and speed enabled faster timetabled services. However, they were almost immediately superseded by mainline diesel-electric and electric locomotives on the VR from 1952 onwards. With successive orders of diesel-electric locomotives through the 1950s and 1960s gradually displacing them, all but seven of the class were withdrawn and cut up for scrap.
  Four of the remaining locomotives were later restored to operating condition between 1984 and 1998.
context_section_description: R class locomotives saw a relatively brief but notable return to operation of regularly scheduled mainline passenger rail services when in the late 1990s, two of the remaining locomotives were extensively modified and returned to service. Private rail operator West Coast Railway, which had successfully tendered for operation of the Warrnambool railway line in the privatisation of the Victorian passenger rail network, modified the locomotives as part of an ambitious plan to operate steam-powered express passenger services running to the same timetable as those operated by modern diesel electric locomotives.
  In order to ensure the locomotive's ability to reliably keep to the timetable, a number of notable design changes were made. These included the replacement of the original single blastpipe with dual Lempor ejectors, conversion to oil firing, fitting of power reverse, and the addition of a diesel control stand to allow for multiple unit operation with diesel electric locomotives where required. R 711 entered service on regular trains on 21 November 1998, and design refinements based on its performance in service were made to the subsequent conversion, with the exception of a diesel control stand, for R 766. For a number of years, the modified R class locomotives could be seen in regular operation between Melbourne and Warrnambool, keeping a fast 3 hour 13 minute schedule which included six stops along the 267 km (166 mi) route. In 2001, locomotive R 766 suffered a mechanical failure of its connecting rod assembly while running at 115 kilometres per hour (71 mph). The connecting rod became detached at one end and dug into the trackbed, although the locomotive was not derailed.
  In 2004, West Coast Railway ceased operations after a number of operational problems made the business unviable. The two R class locomotives made a final trip back to Newport Workshops, where they passed into the care of Steamrail Victoria.
caption: R 711, equipped with dual Lempor exhausts, resting at Warrnambool after hauling a West Coast Railway passenger service, 2001.
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