The Development of Modern Australian Locomotives
In company with many nations around the world, Australia's earliest railway locomotives were designed and built either in England or the United States. With the eventual arrival of electric and internal combustion locomotives, Australia continued to rely upon imported designs and this was the case until the early 1950s when Australian engineering firms stitched up individual manufacturing licence deals with high profile European and North American diesel loco builders.
This book traces the evolution of this country's wide variety of electric, petrol and diesel locomotives. The lavish illustrations explore the gradual improvement of the various manufacturers' families of locomotives, and the book discusses engineering improvements - all in a conversational delivery peppered with anecdotes.
It also reveals how Australian technology was at times exported back to the licence holder (as was the case when the NSW State Rail Authority sold some of its many homegrown XPT supertrain traction improvements to Britain for use in the train's prototype, the celebrated HST).
The book discusses locos as diverse as 10 tonne underground mining units right through to the 190 tonne 3340kW General Electrics at Hamersley Iron, as well as the many thousands of mainline Government-owned locomotives and those used in industry and plantation service throughout Australia.
