Victorian Railways N Class No. N476

Victorian Railways N Class No. N476 was one of the 83 members of the Victorian Railways N Class, it's manufacturer is unknown and it's build date is unknown.
==History==
In 1923, in response to the recommendations made by the 1921 Royal Commission on the matter of uniform railway gauge, VR announced a policy that all new locomotive designs were to be capable of conversion from broad to standard gauge. The rationale was that the task of converting VR from broad to standard gauge at a future date would be far easier to achieve if the existing locomotives and rolling stock could be easily modified for standard gauge operation, rather than requiring expensive re-engineering or replacement.
The K class 2-8-0 built by VR in 1922-23 was a success, but with a firebox mounted between frames engineered for broad gauge operation only, it was not readily gauge-convertible. Thus when additional branch line locomotives were required, the VR produced a 2-8-2 'Mikado' variant of the K, the first 2-8-2 tender engine in Australia. It retained the same wheels, cylinders, motion, and much of the frame of the K, but featured a longer boiler with a wider, larger grate, mounted above the frames and supported by a trailing truck. This enabled possible gauge conversion without radical re-engineering of the frames and grate.
A second series of N Class locomotives were produced in 1930 and a third series in 1949 as part of "Operation Phoenix", said third series evolving the N Class design by adding thermic siphons, combustion chambers, boxpok wheels and smoke deflectors
10 of the second series N Class were sold to South Australia as the SAR 750 Class, which were unpopular with crews due to crammed cabspace, relative to their locomotives.
==Accident==
At around midnight, on January 15, 1966, Victorian Railways N Class No. N476 was involved in a collision with Victorian Railways J Class No. J503 at the Ararat Locomotive Depot, when No. J503 had ran away down a hill and rear-ended No. N476, causing No. N476 to slam through the shed wall of the Ararat Locomotive Depot, no one was killed in the accident but the damage done to No. N476 was pretty bad, that it was withdrawn from service when it was involved in it's accident, removed from the wreck-site and towed away to Bendigo for scrapping.
Meanwhile No. J503 had survived the accident and remained in service for another two years until 1968, it's since been scrapped.
== Books ==
* Victorian Railways N Class No. N476 appeared in a book called Ted Payne Mini-Series: The Steam Era in Victoria, on pages 56 and 57
Category:Steam locomotives
Category:2-8-2 steam locomotives
Category:Australian Locomotives
Category:2-8-2 locomotives
Category:Tender locomotives
Category:Victorian Railways N Class
Category:Victorian Railways
Category:Scrapped locomotives
Category:Australia
Category:Australian Steam Locomotives
Category:Eight-coupled locomotives
Category:Locomotives
Category:Wrecked trains
Category:Scrapped steam locomotives
Category:Locomotives that appeared in Books