Victorian Railways E class. The E class was a class of suburban tank steam locomotive that ran on Australia's Victorian Railways (VR).

History 
During the late 19th century, Victorian Railways had ended up with a mixed fleet of locomotives of various designs, which had caused maintenance difficulties. To solve this, Richard Speight, a VR commissioner who had worked for the Midland Railway, set out a program to adopt standardized locomotive designs based on British practices. Tasked with designing locomotives for the scheme was Edward Alexander Jeffreys, who designed 5 classes of locomotive for Victorian Railways, all using standard parts. These would become the D class and New A class 4-4-0s, the New R class and Y class 0-6-0s, and the E class 2-4-2T.  

After the design for Jeffreys' 2-4-2T design was finalised by VR, a contract was awarded to the Phoenix Foundry of Ballarat for construction of 45 locomotives, while an example was built by Kitson & Co of Leeds in 1888 for the Melbourne Centennial Exhibitions at the Royal Exhibitions Building, built to Jeffreys' original design without the local changes done by VR. The engine, named Tasmania, was displayed alongside an example of Jeffery’s 0-6-0 goods engine design (later Y class) named Victoria, also built by Kitson. In 1889, Tasmania entered service as E426. 

Although considered to be a prototype due to it being the first E class delivered, Tasmania did not serve as the pattern engine of the class, as the Phoenix Foundry examples were already ordered by the time it was built.

In April 1890, Victorian Railways awarded another contract to David Munro & Company of South Melbourne. They would finish their first locomotive in 1892 and built more locomotives until the last one was completed in 1894. 

Seventy engines were eventually built locally. They were numbered 346 to 394 (even numbers, Phoenix Foundry), 12, 34, 36, 428 to 460 (even numbers, Phoenix Foundry), and 472 to 520 (even numbers, David Munro).

Phoenix delivered five additional locomotives designated as the EE class, numbered 462, 464, 466, 468, and 470. These had a new wheel arrangement of 0-6-2T, specifically designed for shunting use. After evaluation, engines 482 and 496 in 1898, followed by 490 and 478 in 1906-1907, were converted to the same format, although the latter two used 170psi boilers and 18-inch cylinders in place of the earlier 140psi boilers and 17-inch cylinders.

E426 (the Kitson locomotive) was the first E class to be withdrawn in 1915, and two more units in 1917. Melbourne's suburban electrification project made the 2-4-2T engines quickly obsolete. Between 1919-1923, twenty were converted to match the nine existing shunters' 0-6-2T configuration (all bar 494 upgraded to 18-inch cylinders), while another twenty-five were withdrawn. Of the latter group, twenty were sold to the South Australian Railways to become their second M class. An additional eighteen were withdrawn in 1924, leaving only a single 2-4-2T type in service.

In the 1923 locomotive renumbering scheme, the EE class engines were reclassified in the 350-379 group. By 1929, this had expanded to 390, and the group was reclassified as E.

The original 2-4-2T engines were intended to take numbers 236-245 without a class letter. However, only one engine survived long enough to have the new number applied. Thus, 506 became 236.

Class table

Retirements and preservation

In November 1937, E359 became the first 0-6-2T type to be taken off the register, while the remaining engines stayed on the register until the 1950s, with six of them continued to operate until the early 1960s. 

The last original 2-4-2T engine, 236, was used as a shunter at Newport Workshops until it was taken out of service in 1954. The locomotive was then selected for display at Spencer Street Station for the 100th anniversary of Victoria's railways as it was in good enough condition, ultimately sparing it from immediate scrapping. The engine was eventually restored and displayed from the 11th to the 25th of September, 1954. It was then stored at Newport Workshops and later allocated to the newly established ARHS Railway Museum in Newport as one of its first display pieces, where it resides today.

The last two locomotives in service, 369 and 371, worked as yard pilots at Newport Workshops until their withdrawal in 1972. After retirement, E369 was transferred to the Newport Railway Museum. 

E371 was moved to storage at Newport Workshops until the 1980s when it was bought by the Castlemaine & Maldon Railway Group. It would be transferred to Spotswood so it could be dismantled for future restoration. It was eventually found out that the locomotive had sustained significant damage to parts of its frames and boiler, which was considered too costly to repair at the time. Therefore, E371 was reassembled sometime in the 1990s and transferred to Maldon Railway Station for display. 

Around April 2022, E371 was cosmetically overhauled with a brand-new coat of black paint, including painted cab and number plates in the form of stickers, and was moved to the station’s Dock Platform for display.

References

External links
 Victorian Preserved Steam Locomotives detailed information about all surviving ex-VR steam locos.
 Diagram of 2-4-2T E class locomotive
 Diagram of 0-6-2T EE class locomotive
 Picture of E 446
 EE 371
 E 446 Side view
 E 250
 EE 494
 E 480
 E 512
 E-class locomotive at Korong Vale

2-4-2T locomotives
0-6-2T locomotives
Railway locomotives introduced in 1888
Preserved steam locomotives of Australia
Broad gauge locomotives in Australia
E class 1888
David Munro locomotives
Kitson locomotives
Phoenix locomotives
Passenger locomotives