Late Nineteenth Century
The steep 1 in 30 gradients over the Darling Scarp presented a major problem to the early railway system, so in 1893/94 the K class 2-8-4T tank engines were introduced for traffic on this Eastern Railway. The K class were the first class of locomotives designed new for the WAGR, and some were later ordered for use in South Africa. The K class were unfortunately too heavy for branch-line operations and were so restricted to main-line services. In 1896 two new classes were introduced to the WAGR, namely the N Class 4-4-4T suburban tank engines and the O Class 2-8-0T&T, so classified for the presence of tenders and boiler-side fuel-storage bunkers. The N and O classes shared a standard boiler and cylinders which gave them compatibility. The N class were primarily used on suburban passenger and shunting duties - a role which they dominated for almost two decades. The O class were used initially on mainline goods services but were quickly relegated to branch line services where they served successfully. In the event further orders were placed until the class totaled fifty-six, with 10 being built locally at the Midland Railway Workshops.
The R class 4-4-0s represented a radical departure from previous WAGR locomotive design. The engines featured the largest diameter wheels of any WAGR locomotive at 1.45m, which allows for higher speeds at reduced power. Given the nature of WA's railways, however, this was not beneficial and the class saw limited service in their intended role as express engines, but continued to serve in country areas (such as around Northam) for many years. The class numbered 24 and were withdrawn in the mid-1920s when replaced by much larger locomotives.
Read more about this topic: Locomotives Of The Western Australian Government Railways
Famous quotes containing the words late nineteenth century, nineteenth century, late, nineteenth and/or century:
“I was brought up in the great tradition of the late nineteenth century: that a writer never complains, never explains and never disdains.”
—James A. Michener (b. 1907)
“When I see that the nineteenth century has crowned the idolatry of Art with the deification of Love, so that every poet is supposed to have pierced to the holy of holies when he has announced that Love is the Supreme, or the Enough, or the All, I feel that Art was safer in the hands of the most fanatical of Cromwell’s major generals than it will be if ever it gets into mine.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)
“If mothers are told to do this or that or the other,... they lose touch with their own ability to act.... Only too easily they feel incompetent. If they must look up everything in a book, they are always too late even when they do the right things, because the right things have to be done immediately. It is only possible to act at exactly the right point when the action is intuitive or by instinct, as we say. The mind can be brought to bear on the problem afterwards.”
—D.W. Winnicott (20th century)
“The taste for freedom, the fashion and cult of happiness of the majority, that the nineteenth century is infatuated with was only a heresy in his eyes that would pass like others.”
—Stendhal [Marie Henri Beyle] (1783–1842)
“All I have to do
is hear his name
and every hair on my body
just bristles with desire.
When I see
the moon of his face,
this frame of mine
oozes sweat like a moonstone.
When that man
as dear to me as breath
steps close enough to me
to stroke my neck,
the thought of jealousy
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that’s hard as diamond
sometimes.”
—Amaru (c. seventh century A.D.)