page_title: Victorian Railways H class
section_title: Service life
hierarchical_section_title: Victorian Railways H class / History / Service life
caption_attribution_description: English: H 220 leads the Albury Express out of Melbourne, past the signalbox at Essendon, circa 1949. Victorian Railways photograph
context_page_description: The Victorian Railways H class was an express passenger steam locomotive operated by the Victorian Railways from 1941 to 1958. Intended to eliminate the use of double heading A2 class locomotives on The Overland services on the steeply graded Western line to Adelaide, wartime restrictions led to only one locomotive being built. Nicknamed Heavy Harry, H220 was the largest locomotive ever built in Australia and the largest non-articulated steam locomotive to run on Australian railways.
context_section_description: Although it had been built to work the Western line to Ararat, a number of bridges along the route required strengthening before the H class locomotive, with its 23 ¹⁄₄ long tons (23.6 t; 26.0 short tons) axle load, could enter regular service on the line. The necessary work was deferred due to wartime restrictions on available resources. Therefore, H220 was put to work on the North-Eastern line to Albury, the only line able to accommodate its loading gauge and high axle load. It mostly hauled fast goods services, but it also powered express passenger services, troop trains and, on the odd occasion when the regular S class Pacific was not available, the Spirit of Progress. That was particularly the case in the postwar period, when S class locomotives were affected by poor coal and reduced availability. H220 gave an indication of its capabilities on one such run of the Spirit in the late 1940s, when it reportedly topped the 5-mile (8 km)-long 1 in 50 Glenroy Bank at 45 mph (72 km/h), three times the typical S class-hauled speed at that same point. It went on to pass Seymour 13 minutes ahead of schedule, and arrived at Albury at 20 minutes ahead of the 10:40 pm scheduled arrival time.
  H220 never operated in its intended role as motive power for The Overland, although it did make a brief appearance on the Western line in 1949, when it ran a series of trials on goods trains from Melbourne to Ballarat, being assessed by the VR dynamometer car. Results from the dynamometer car showed that the locomotive developed around 3,300 drawbar horsepower (2,460 kW) at 47.5 mph (76 km/h), and a starting drawbar tractive effort of 52,000 lbf (230 kN). The Australian Railway Historical Society, in listing the introduction of H220 among its "100 defining aspects of Australian railways", noted that test results as high as 3,600 horsepower (2,680 kW) at 50 mph
  (80 km/h) were recorded, a power output unequalled in Australia during the steam era, and only equalled in the modern era by the National Rail NR class diesel-electric locomotives.
  Although intended for express passenger use, H220 was found to be particularly effective when used as a fast goods locomotive. It typically hauled five return trips a week between Melbourne and Wodonga, covering around 1,875 miles (3,017 km) per week, and hauling loads of up to 820 tons (833 t) over the 1 in 50 gradients on that line. By comparison, the maximum loads between Wodonga and Melbourne of the C class 2-8-0 and X class 2-8-2 heavy goods locomotives were 555 and 650 tons respectively. H220 was also able to complete the journey in a much shorter time, with its large tender requiring only a single stop for water, rather than the two stops for water and coal that the other locomotives required. Even after the introduction of mainline diesel-electric traction from 1952 onwards, Victorian Railways' promotional literature featured H220 prominently. One advertisement in Walkabout in November 1953, headed "Trains we are proud of", promoted H220 as "Australia's mightiest engine" and noted its nightly service hauling the 21:25 Albury Interstate Fast Freight.
  From all accounts, H220 was a success, even though it spent its life hauling services and operating on a line it was not specifically designed for. Although one-off locomotives are often consigned to a short operating life, or underutilised due to non-standardisation of parts and maintenance requirements, H220 remained in service until finally being superseded by diesel electric locomotives in the late 1950s. In a service life of 15 years 3 months, it clocked up a total of 821,860 miles (1,322,660 km), averaging over 4,800 miles per month.
caption: H220 leads the Albury Express out of Melbourne, past the signalbox at Essendon, circa 1949
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