Australia
The first 4-4-0s appeared in South Australia in 1859. From that initial order for two locomotives, the numbers of this wheel arrangement multiplied and eventually appeared in most of the Australian colonies. Tender, tank and saddle tank versions, varying in size from small engines to express passenger racers with 6 feet 6 inches (1,981 millimetres) driving wheels, worked in Victoria, New South Wales, Western Australia and Tasmania on 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm) Cape gauge, 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) Standard gauge and 5 ft 3 in (1,600 mm) Irish gauge.
The locomotives came from British builders such as Dübs and Beyer, Peacock, from the American Rogers Locomotive Works in New Jersey and from local firms such as James Martin & Co. in Gawler, South Australia, and the Phoenix Foundry in Ballarat, Victoria. In New South Wales and Victoria the 4-4-0 ruled the rails for mainline passenger services until the early 1900s. In Western Australia some were later converted to 4-4-2s.
Famous quotes containing the word australia:
“I like Australia less and less. The hateful newness, the democratic conceit, every man a little pope of perfection.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)
“It is very considerably smaller than Australia and British Somaliland put together. As things stand at present there is nothing much the Texans can do about this, and ... they are inclined to shy away from the subject in ordinary conversation, muttering defensively about the size of oranges.”
—Alex Atkinson, British humor writer. repr. In Present Laughter, ed. Alan Coren (1982)