Victorian Railways E class No. 236

236 (originally E506) is a 2-4-2T that ran on the Victorian Railways of Victoria, Australia from 1893-1953.
== History ==
=== Origin ===
The locomotive was built as E506 on the 21st of August 1893 by David Munro & Co (as Melbourne Locomotive & Engineering Works) of South Melbourne as apart of a 25 locomotive contract David Munro received from Victorian Railways in April 1890. 
The design was introduced by VR chairman Richard Speight under his program of locomotive standardisation, where he tasked engineer Edward Alexander Jeffreys to design 5 classes of locomotive all using British locomotive construction practises. 
The E class would be the only tank engines designed for the program and tenders were initially put out 1887 to the Phoenix Foundry of Ballarat once the design was modified by VR. After that, an example was built by Kitson & Co of Britain to Jeffreys' original design in 1888 and was given the name 'Tasmania'. This locomotive was later displayed at the Royal Exhibitions Building in Melbourne alongside an example of Jeffreys' Y class, named 'Victoria'. The first of the locally made E classes built by Phoenix and the Kitson locomotive (numbered E426) started entering service in about 1889, with more locomotives from the Phoenix Foundry and David Munro following from 1889-1894.
E506 was brought into service and, much like its siblings, served as motive power for Melbourne's extensive suburban railway network alongside the M, DDE, and Y Classes. By this time, locomotives would've worn the VR Brunswick Green livery and after 1900, Canadian Red. They continued serving passengers until 1919, when the network was electrified. E506, alongside all of the other E class locomotives on the system, were all made redundant when the Tait and Swingdoor electric trains arrived. As a result, between 1919 and 1923, twenty were converted from 2-4-2Ts to 0-6-2Ts to the EE Class design, which dated back to 1893, while another twenty-five were withdrawn. Of the ladder group, 20 were sold to the South Australian Railways and became their second M Class in 1920. They would run from 1920 with retirements beginning in 1925, until the last examples were retired in 1935 and were all scrapped. An additional eighteen were withdrawn in 1924. 
E506 was retired from passenger service in 1920, having clocked up a distance of over 1 million kilometres in its first 27 years of life. It was spared of any form of conversion and was retained by the Victorian Railways and renumbered to unclassed No. 236. The engine would work as a shunter at Newport Workshops from 1923 in an all-black livery as the only original E Class in VR service and, with the second M classes being scrapped, it had become the sole surviving one after 1935. 236 would spend the remainder of its career shunting at Newport until 1953, when it was retired from VR service.
=== Retirement ===
After retirement, 236 would be cosmetically restored to its original Brunswick Green livery from the 1890s back when it was E506 and displayed alongside T Class No. T94, electric locomotive 1101, and an AEC railmotor at Spencer Street Station (Now Southern Cross Station) from the 11-25th of September 1954 for the "V.R. Cavalcade" to celebrate 100 years of rail transport in Victoria. After the celebrations were over, 236 was placed into storage for the next 10 years. During that time, its 1-chime whistle was removed and its disposition is unknown. 236 was then moved to the Newport Railway Museum in 1961, where it currently resides there as a display alongside one of the 0-6-2Ts, E369 (Ex E494).
== Gallery ==
File:EVwU3gaUEAAdIGB.jpg|236 (Ex E506) on display at Spencer Street in Sep, 1954.
File:VictorianCollections-large (3).jpg
File:VictorianCollections-large (1).jpg
File:236.webp|236 as preserved in January 2024
== References ==
Category:Australian Locomotives
Category:Victorian Railways
Category:Victorian locomotives
Category:Preserved steam locomotives
Category:Sole survivor