page_title: 4-8-0
section_title: Australia
hierarchical_section_title: 4-8-0 / Usage / Australia
caption_attribution_description: English: At Jamestown (South Australia) T251 has just taken off a down train to Port Pirie to now return light engine to Peterborough. October 1967.
context_page_description: Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, 4-8-0 represents the wheel arrangement of four leading wheels on two axles, usually in a leading truck or bogie, eight powered and coupled driving wheels on four axles and no trailing wheels. In North America and in some other countries the type was usually known as the Mastodon and sometimes as the Twelve-wheeler.
context_section_description: The 4-8-0 wheel arrangement saw service in Australia from 1900. In Tasmania, the privately owned Emu Bay Railway ordered four 4-8-0 tender locomotives for their 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm) gauge system. In 1911, another locomotive was delivered from the North British Locomotive Company. Two of these locomotives are preserved.
  A new class of 4-8-0 locomotive, the T class, designed in South Australia for use on the narrow gauge 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm) gauge system of the South Australian Railways, was introduced in 1903. It proved to be a suitable workhorse and by 1917 there were 78 locomotives in the class. In 1921 and 1922, the Tasmanian Government also purchased six of these narrow gauge South Australian locomotives and, during 1922 and 1923, five of the class were converted to 1,600 mm (5 ft 3 in) gauge for use on the broad gauge system of the South Australian. These were converted back to narrow gauge in 1949. During the Second World War, the Commonwealth Railways obtained four of these South Australian narrow gauge locomotives on loan. Several of these locomotives are preserved.
  The Queensland Government Railways (QGR) introduced its C16 class of 4-8-0 locomotives in 1903, built at its Ipswich workshops. Altogether 152 of these locomotives were in service by 1917. Beginning in 1920, a number of the QGR C16 class locomotives were equipped with superheaters on an experimental basis, but since their slide valves were not suited to superheated steam and became prone to steam leaks due to excessive wear, they were soon converted back to use saturated steam. During the Second World War, the Commonwealth Government also acquired eleven C16 class locomotives on loan. Only one example of this class was preserved.
  The QGR’s superheated C17 class entered service from 1920. The Commonwealth Railways also ordered 22 locomotives of the same design for their narrow gauge rail system, designated the NM class. In total, the C17 class eventually numbered 227 locomotives, of which twenty are preserved.
  In 1922, the QGR ordered 22 new 4-8-0 locomotives and designated them the C19 class. They were the largest conventional type locomotives to operate on the QGR.
caption: South Australian Railways T class
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