Garrattfan's Modelrailroading Pages
AD60
Prototype photos
By the end of 2020 I was contacted via my website by Owen Brison. He shared his memories of the 60 class in his train spotting days and some beautiful photos came with it. At some point in time I asked him if he would appreciate me sharing these photos on my website. I am indebted and grateful that he was so kind to grant me permission to do so. This page is the result. I will let Owen do the "talking".
Note for all photos: click the image to enlarge. |
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Introduction |
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| I came across your site on building the model NSW 60 class Garratt via a link on the UK "National Preservation" site. I'm not a modeller but have read, with interest, quite a lot of your description of building 6006. I had a little experience (as a railfan) of the real 60s in their final years. Unfortunately, I don't have Groves' book: I live in Portugal and the book was published and went out-of-print before I found out about it. | |
Some notes on various and varying details of the locomotives |
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| Concerning the return cranks, yes they "lag" on both front and rear units. This is to enable all radius rods, front and rear, to be in the lower half of the
expansion links when running chimney-first. Concerning the tab on the right hand side just next to the generator: there is an early photo in a book showing the boiler section of a 60 being loaded to leave England with two generators, the second one on the now-vacant tab. |
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| Concerning the ladders on the boiler, a fairly early photo of 6019 shows no ladder on the left hand side, and none of my photos show a ladder on the left hand side. A number of locos (maybe all?) have two ladders on the right hand side of the boiler, one near the front and one near the back: see 6022 on the turntable at Broadmeadow loco depot near Newcastle, NSW in photo S3036. The early photo of 6019 shows the builder's plate on the left. | |
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| Concerning the vertical strip of steel at the rear of the slide bars, there should be two such strips, one each side of the slide bars so that the connecting rod is between them. The strips are joined at the bottom by a bolt which (I think) carries some sort of sleeve. I think the idea is that if necessary (for example after damage to a piston), the connecting rod can be disconnected from the crosshead and lowered onto the sleeve; the loco can then be moved (slowly!) without having to remove the connecting rod from the crankpin. See attached photo S86_22. A number of other NSW steam loco classes have this feature. | |
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| At a certain stage in your paragraph 4.2, you are talking about the left hand side of the boiler cradle and mention the "steam delivery pipe". This is presumably a misprint? The pipe running along the left hand side of the cradle is the water pipe: it both balances the water level in the front and rear tanks and also provides the water feed to the injectors via the valve (with a handwheel shut-off) about three quarters of the way from the front: see photo S3035 which shows 6002. The exhaust steam pipe from the rear unit runs along the centre-line of the boiler cradle, beneath the firebox. It is just visible in photo S3035, angled upwards towards the smokebox. | |
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| The live steam pipe to the rear unit goes along the right hand side of the cradle: see photo S3036 again. | |
Lineside photos |
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In 1970-72, I took photos of 6002, -08, -09, -18, -19, -22, -23, -26, -27, -29, -37, -39 and -42. In case you want to encourage yourself to build a second 60 class(!), below is a slide showing how they often ran in their last years: |
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| By about 1970 it could almost be said of the surviving 60s that no two were the same. For example, compare the numbers at the back of 6022 and 6027 in photo S0633, 8 September 1970. Note also that 6027 has the normal type of headlight for a Garratt in the shape of a hemispherical bowl, while 6022 has the standard NSW cylindrical-shaped headlight (at both ends: see S3036 again). I have photos of 6009 showing a Garratt headlight at the front and a cylindrical headlight at the back. On the right hand side of the coal bunker/ water tank of your 6006 you have both a handrail and an electrical conduit, as does 6022 in photo S3036. But other photos show that 6037 just has 1 handrail on each side of the rear tank and no obvious conduit: maybe the wires go in the handrail? | |
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The air filter for the Westinghouse pump seems to have been an addition in NSW, and disappeared towards the end. In my photos, taken between 1970 and 1972, only 6019 has the filter; the other surviving 60s only had the mounting bracket, as in photo S3032. |
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 Photo S9208. No. 6029. |
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The handrails on the sides of the rear bunker on 6029 and 6042 were higher than on the other surviving 60s: see photo S9208 of 6029 and S9623 of 6042 and compare with others. |
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Action in double traction |
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Here follows a sequence of shots of 5910 (a Baldwin 1-4-1) leading 6042 out of Gosford, 28-07-1972, with a freight for Newcastle. The first shows what was then the end of the Sydney electrified area. I had to run down the road between the 3rd. and 4th. shots! |
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Broadmeadow |
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| Here are a few shots at Broadmeadow on 31 August 1971. | |
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| The previous shot of it under maintenance had been taken on 08 September 1970. (I have shots of this loco in service between those two dates). According to my catalogue which is fairly accurate, this was the last shot I got of 6026. | |
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| Look above the wheels and see lumps of grease on parts of the loco. The 60s had grease lubrication for at least the main crankpins with the roller bearings, (and I think for all crankpins). After they had been lubricated, the grease could be seen coming out of the bearings and would then fly off when the loco got going. | |
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Fassifern bank |
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