New South Wales 90 class locomotive

The 90 class are a class of diesel locomotives built by Electro-Motive Division, Canada for FreightCorp and EDi Rail, Cardiff for Pacific National. They only operate on Hunter Valley coal workings because they are the heaviest locomotives of the New South Wales network.

History

Ordered in July 1992 under a Ready Power contract along with the 82 class, the first batch of 31 were built by Electro-Motive Division in London, Ontario, Canada in 1994, while a second batch of four locomotives delivered in November 2005, were built by EDi Rail at Cardiff Workshops to the same specification.^[1]

The 90 class are of a single ended cab design, with an almost identical cab layout to the 82 Class. They are restricted to the Hunter Valley line due to their weight. All passed to Pacific National when FreightCorp was privatised in February 2002.

A number of the class are named after Olympic Games athletes. The original batch retain FreightCorp livery with Pacific National decals, while the later four were delivered in Pacific National livery.^[2][3]

Operations

Restricted to the Hunter Valley the 90 class operate on the Main Northern line as far as Muswellbrook, although they did operate to Dartbrook mine south of Aberdeen until it closed in 2006. From Muswellbrook the 90 class operate as far west as Ulan on the Gulgong line. They have also operated as far south as Eraring Power Station at Dora Creek.^[4]

They usually double or triple head coal trains of up to 91 wagons, although they operated singularly on the Eraring Power Station services.^[4] All are maintained at a depot built on Kooragang Island as part of the Ready Power deal that opened in June 1994.^[4][5]

Out of the Hunter

Members of the class have visited the wheel lathe at Delec Locomotive Depot in Sydney and one was on display at Sydney Central for the 100th Anniversary of Clyde Engineering in 1998. To minimise weight they operated a light engine and with only a small amount of fuel.^[4]

Status table

References

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