Tasmanian U Class Diesel
This is the story of a diesel that just refuses to go away. They were originally built as part of a batch of 20 by Malcolm Moore for a dam construction project in Victoria to a gauge of 3′. By the time the project was finished many of them looked like this:
Photo courtesy of the National Archives
The Tasmanian Government Railways bought eight of them when the dam project was completed and rebuilt six of them to 3′ 6″ gauge and two to metre gauge. The metre gauge locos went to Thailand as aid under the Colombo Plan and the other six were put into service in various small yards around Tasmania.
By 1981 all but one of the six U class had been written off. U3 remained in service as the shunter at Launceston loco depot but by 1990 it had been taken off the books and in August of that year it was placed on display in a Launceston Park.
Of the six rebuilt locos two have now been scrapped and four have been preserved. Two have been preserved in operating condition and U6 is one of those. Here you see it sitting on the turntable at the Don River Railway in 1996.
It’s around 50 years old and it’s hard to believe that this loco once looked like the the worn out pile of junk in the top photo but these little locos just don’t want to go away.
You’ll find a plan of the TGR U Class by following the link.