Australia's most Overkill Steam Engine - Heavy Harry

Australia is a big country and as search requires a lot of power to Traverse by the late 1920s it became clear to Victorian Railways that their pacifics despite their impressive size just weren't quite enough to keep up with the work put upon them and as search decided what they needed to do was go bigger by 1923 the increase in passengers traveling with the interstate Express to service to Albury was taking its toll on the engines of Victorian Railways the services had to be double-headed by 2 a2s in order to keep up with demand and to Traverse the Steep and sharply curved lines between Melbourne and Ballarat as such Victorian Railways put plans in place to build a fleet of engines capable of hauling these expresses on their own their initial plan was to develop a 482 Mountain type locomotive however these plans were put aside after the S-Class Pacific engines were introduced and had taken over running the services by 1928 despite their performance the S-Class engin still struggled along the tricky line and so interesting the mountain engines picked up again by 1936 Victorian Railways finalized the requirements for the engine and the railways Engineers set about designing it the design they came up with was now a 484 instead of a 482 and would be fitted with plenty of modern Comforts for the crew and to help boost per Performance Construction of three of these engines began in 1939 but was quickly halted due to the outbreak of War priorities quickly shifted elsewhere until it was decided that these engines would be ideal to help with the increased wartime Railway traffic one was completed in February in 1941 and quickly put to work classified as h220 the engine boasted three cylinders a mechanical stoker roller bearings load compensating brakes on its tender power operated reversing gear American Style Bar frames duplex blast pipes attractive effort of £55,000 and including the tender a total weight of 260 tons making it the biggest non-articulated steam locomotive ever to run in Australia once fully assembled it was found the engine was too heavy to Traverse the line it was intended to work on and that multiple Bridges would need to be strengthened to accommodate it the only line that could accommodate the engine was the North Eastern line to Albury and so it was put to work there it was primarily used to move fast Goods despite being designed for passenger work however it still got many chances to haul Express passenger services and the odd Troop Train when needed on occasion it found itself pulling the spirit of progress service from Melbourne to Albury where it managed to outperform the Pacific engines that usually hold the service on one occasion it was noted that the engine managed to clear glenroy Bank a 5m long gradient of 1 in 50 at a speed of 45 mph a climb that the usual pacifics could only make at 15 mph further testing in 1949 recorded h220 as having a top speed of 50 m an hour a draw bar attractive effort of 52,000 lb and the ability to produce 3,600 horsepower while not the fastest of engines its power output remained unmatched by any Modern Diesel or electric engines in Australia until the introduction of the national rail NR class introduced over 50 years later the engine size and incredible power led to many Railway men giving it the nickname of heavy Harry eventually the engine settled into running fast good Services between Melbourne and Wonga as Not only was it capable of pulling heavier trains over the Steep gradients of the line but its large tender also meant it only had to make one stop for water during the Run whereas the other engines would have to make two stops for both water and coal Des despite the engine's success wartime restrictions meant the other two h-class engines were never completed and with the railway turning its attention to diesel traction by the early 50s the railway felt no need to build anymore leaving h220 to be a one-of-a-kind engine while most one-off engines often have a short running life due to them requiring non-standardized parts or having irregular servicing needs compared to other engines Victorian Railways decided to just keep running h220 on Mainline services is often using it for publicity with some magazines calling it Australia's mightiest engine even without its publicity Harry's sheer power was enough for the railway to keep it operating publicity and pulling power unfortunately wasn't enough to keep Harry running Forever by the mid1 1950s Victorian Railways was looking to heavily invest in the railways infrastructure and Diesel and Electric engines were being considered VR had a massive backlog of Maintenance work and the upgrades to multiple lines required to allow h220 to run on them came low on the list despite the Diesels at the time not having anywhere near as much pulling power as heavy Harry the fact they were lighter in weight combined with their ability to run as multiple units meaning two engines could be operated by one crew meant they could outperform many other locomotives and the railway wouldn't have to spend money on upgrading the line to support their weight as a result diesel traction soon took over and in 1956 Harry was withdrawn and put into storage in 1958 it was officially taken off the Victorian railway's locomotive register fortunately it was soon taken under the ownership of the Australian Railway Historical Society who recognized its significance and moved it to the Newport Railway Museum in 1962 where it has since made its home as one of the star attractions looking back h220 is somewhat of an anomaly when it comes to locomotive designs Not only was it too heavy for many of of the lines it was intended to run on but it also suffered many of the drawbacks that came with being a one-of-a-kind design such as complex maintenance and awkward mechanical needs despite this it sheer power and reliability proved to be more than worthwhile for the railway giving it the chance to establish itself as one of Australia's most powerful steam locomotives just goes to show that once again even if a little overweight there truly was no job steam power couldn't do subscribe for one [Music] more

Channel: Train of Thought

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Keywords: Train, Trains, Locomotives, Steam, Steam Train, Steam Trains, Fact, Fun, Fun Facts, Informal, Railway, Railroad, Educational, Train of Thought, ToT, of, Thought, Trainofthought

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Length: 6min 42sec (402 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 24 2023