English Electric 1300 Class

English Electric 1300 Class

The 1300 class was a diesel-electric locomotive introduced by the Queensland Railways in 1967. They were built by English Electric Australia in Rocklea, Queensland as an upgraded version of the 1270 class with more powerful engines and larger fuel tanks.

The class was primarily used on the Moura and Blackwater lines for coal transport and based at Gladstone. The locomotive class became surplus to Queensland Rail's requirements following electrification in 1986-87.

The entire class was sold to the Australian National Railways in 1988 for use by TasRail where they became the ZC class. They were renumbered consecutively, 1300 becoming ZC1 and 1344 becoming ZC45, although 12 units were numbered and were used as a source of spare parts. Most had very short working lives with just 13 remaining in service by 1995 and only six by 1997.

Ten of the ZC class were sold to Morrison-Knudsen Australia (MKA) in 1994 and with eight rebuilt as the MKA class at Whyalla, South Australia.

With the privatisation of the Australian National Railways, TasRail was sold to the Australian Transport Network. Seven remained in operation with ATN, becoming the 2140 class. Most stored units were scrapped and the last was withdrawn in 2004. Pacific National acquired TasRail in 2004, including four stored 2140 class locomotives. TasRail was sold back to the Government of Tasmania in 2009. TasRail sold three of the remaining stored locos for scrap in 2012 with 2144 (formerly ZC14, formerly 1318) sold Diesel Traction Tasmania for static preservation.