09/10/2026
A very good evening to all our friends and followers! We're looking forward to opening the museum tomorrow (Saturday) for you to visit between 12 noon and 5pm.
A little history for you all. Yesterday, 8 October, marked exactly 60 years since the final runs of the N Class 'Mikado' locomotive on Victorian Railways, ending a 41-year operating career.
The N Class never had the fame of the VR's express passenger locomotives, but was nevertheless a very important type, with a total of 83 eventually being built between 1925 and 1951, ten of which ended up heading over to South Australian Railways! The N Class were a common sight across the main lines of Victoria, as well as lightly-laid cross-country lines, hauling both freight and local passenger services.
In 1922, Victorian Railways had just introduced its K Class branch line locomotives; a hugely successful type with one perceived shortcoming; the unsuitability for future conversion from broad to standard rail gauge due to the firebox sitting between the locomotive's frames. The standardisation or rail gauges (something we have still not achieved in 2026!) was a political issue in the early 1920s. As such, it was decided in 1923 that rather than building ten more K Class locomotives, the design would be modified with the addition of a trailing axle (thus becoming a 2-8-2, a.k.a. 'Mikado').
The addition of a trailing axle facilitated a wider firebox that could sit above rather than between the frames, enabling future conversion to standard gauge. It also allowed for a longer boiler and larger grate, which enabled greater steam generation. While the N Class shared the same nominal tractive effort as the K Class by virtue of having the same cylinders, driving wheels and boiler pressure, its larger boiler enabled it to generate higher horsepower outputs, closer to that of an A2 Class express passenger locomotive. More power allowed the N to move a heavy load at higher speeds than the K, even though both were ultimately limited to the same 80 km/h maximum speed. The N Class also used the larger self trimming tender already in use with the C Class heavy goods locomotive, allowing it a potentially greater range.
For all its success (tempered only by its need for longer turntables than the K Class) the N Class locomotives could not compete with low running costs and high availability of the new T and Y Class diesel electrics introduced in the late 1950s and early 1960s, and the remaining N Class fleet was very rapidly withdrawn in the mid 1960s. By October 1966, the end was near.
On 1 October 1966, locomotive N468 ran a special afternoon tour to Healesville for the Victorian Schools Railway Clubs Association. Then, one week later, N468 and N475 ended the N Class era in style as they took a huge train comprising 10 E-type carriages plus ZP van from Spencer Street Station to Ballan, west of Melbourne. The train presented an unforgettable image as it crossed the Melton Viaduct.
Today, two of the original 83 locomotives survived into preservation; N432, which is preserved at the museum, and the former N477, sold to South Australian Railways in 1951 and renumbered 752, which is preserved at the National Railway Museum, Port Adelaide. Additionally, there is also an interesting project underway by the Locomotive Restoration Group, which is converting a K Class locomotive into an N Class using a spare N Class boiler and other remaining parts.
