Victorian Railways J Class No. J503

Victorian Railways J Class No. J503 was one of the 60 members of the Victorian Railways J Class. It was built in 1954 by the Vulcan Foundry.
==History==
J503 was introduced alongside 59 other J class locomotives. A development of the successful Victorian Railways K class 2-8-0, they would be the last new class of steam locomotive introduced on the VR. Introduced almost concurrently with the diesel-electric locomotive, B60, that ultimately superseded them, the locomotives were only in service for a relatively short time, with the last one going in 1972 when steam ended in Victoria as a whole.
==Incident==
At around midnight, on January 15, 1966, Victorian Railways J Class No. J503 was involved in a collision with Victorian Railways N Class No. N476 at the Ararat Locomotive Depot, when it had ran away down a hill towards the Ararat Locomotive Depot and rear-ended No. N476, causing the locomotive to crash through the shed wall of the Ararat Locomotive Depot, no one was killed in the incident, but the damage that was done to No. N476 was so bad that it was withdrawn from service, and removed from the wreck site and hauled away for scrap shortly thereafter.
As for No. J503, it was mostly unharmed in the incident and remained in service for another two years until 1968. It was never preserved, having being scrapped.
*Victorian Railways J Class No. J503 appeared in a book called Ted Payne Mini-Series: The Steam Era in Victoria, specifically on page 57.
Category:Steam locomotives
Category:2-8-0 steam locomotives
Category:Australian locomotives
Category:2-8-0 locomotives
Category:Tender locomotives
Category:Victorian Railways J Class
Category:Australian steam locomotives
Category:Australia
Category:Locomotives
Category:Eight-coupled locomotives
Category:Built in 1954
Category:Victorian Railways
Category:Locomotives that appeared in Books