48 Class - on the Scrap Line
There’s always something a little forlorn and sad about a locomotive that’s sitting on the scrap line and the scrap lines at Enfield were perhaps a little worse than those at other places.
Here’s 4805 on the scrap line at Enfield back on 21 February 1998.
Photo courtesty of Brad Peadon.
Of course not every locomotive that gets shunted to the scrap line stays there but once a loco becomes a source of spare parts … as 4805 has … then it rarely makes a comeback to revenue service.
When this photo was taken 4805 was around 38 years old and so it would be reasonable to expect that the whole class of 165 locomotives would be on the verge of extinction but not so. A large proportion of the class is still in daily use hauling some major trains and even some of the early members of the class are still around.
Motive Power’s 2007 Fleet List lists 4806 in the Pacific National fleet and stored at Delec while 4818 is stored at Werris Creek. 4819 and 4827 are still in regular use with Railcorp (NSW).
By the way you can find more of the photographer’s work here and you can follow this link to a 48 class forum