History
During the early 1950s, Victorian Railways embarked on a massive upgrading of its ageing locomotive fleet as part of 'Operation Phoenix', an £80 million program to rebuild a network badly run down by years of Depression-era underinvestment and wartime overutilisation.
Victoria's branch line railway network, laid with 60 lb/yd rail and featuring gradients of up to 1 in 30, was still largely served by the D1, D2 and D3 variants of the once 261-strong 1902-era Dd class 4-6-0, which by the early 1950s was at the end of its life. These were supplemented by 53 K class 2-8-0 locomotives, some of which had been built as recently as 1946. Although highly successful, the K was unsuitable for potential conversion from 5 ft 3 in (1,600 mm) broad gauge to 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge in the event of the Victorian network being standardised, and VR policy was for all new locomotives to be engineered for easy conversion. As such, the building of further K class was not a desirable option.
With mainline electric and diesel-electric locomotives already on order, Victorian Railways' design team opted for an updated, gauge-convertible K class as what would turn out to be their final steam locomotive design.
Read more about this topic: Victorian Railways J Class
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“Free from public debt, at peace with all the world, and with no complicated interests to consult in our intercourse with foreign powers, the present may be hailed as the epoch in our history the most favorable for the settlement of those principles in our domestic policy which shall be best calculated to give stability to our Republic and secure the blessings of freedom to our citizens.”
—Andrew Jackson (1767–1845)
“History, as an entirety, could only exist in the eyes of an observer outside it and outside the world. History only exists, in the final analysis, for God.”
—Albert Camus (1913–1960)
“The history is always the same the product is always different and the history interests more than the product. More, that is, more. Yes. But if the product was not different the history which is the same would not be more interesting.”
—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)