[Ausloco] ATN Ls & WAGR Ls

[Grahame John Ferguson <grahamef@mail.mcmedia.com.au>]

On 16/6/00 I wrote:-
>L251 + L270 with empty wheat wagons passed through Seymour at 1457 hrs
southbound.

>regards,

>Grahame.

I meant to add that L251 was the class leader built in October 1967 and I
have a copy of 'Rail Transportation' of that year with it on the cover. L251
will soon reach its 33rd birthday.  The WAGR had 3000hp diesel locomotives
15 years before NSW.

When L251 was built it was the most powerful diesel locomotive in Australia
at 3000hp(the NSW 46 class was the most powerful locomotive at 3780hp),
until the C636 was built for either Mt Newman or Hamersley in 1968. 

To me the L class are still one of my favourites.  It goes to show how solid
simple by today's standards locomotive engineering, can endure.  There must
be a lesson in that somewhere for the railway mechanical engineer of today.
The L class are an Australian version of the US SD40.  The SD40s successor
the SD40-2 became one the biggest sellers of all time in the USA.

For your information it has a fuel tank of 14600 litres, weighs 137 tonnes,
gear ratio 60:17, max speed 134km/h, pressurised engine compartment.

It was the first to have a tubocharged EMD engine in Australia, the 645E3.
It was also the first to have a main alternator, the AR-10.  The 2nd type to
have the D77 traction motors.  Variations of these have lived on in new EMD
locomotives built today.

I am not sure whether it or 42201 introduced the Hi-Ad bogie.

Their original colour scheme was a grey with a dark blue stripe with yellow
lining. The pilot beams were red with the loco number painted in yellow.
The 2nd version colour was a pale blue background replacing the grey.  This
was the best colour scheme of any locomotive I have seen.  The subsequent
colour schemes were not worth the price of the kodachrome film I used.

The L class also had a small spring loaded rod with a knob on the reverser,
that prevented the locomotive being thrown into reverse untintentionally.

For a good many years they had alkaline batteries.

They were not delivered with air-conditioning.

It had 2 control stands, unlike VR locomotives.  In the early 80's
turntables were installed at Forrestfield, Avon Yard, ?West Merriden and
Kalgoorlie so that they could all run short end leading.

Only the sound of their gasping single horn let an image of a great rugged
machine down.

All L class had a crome plated 'L' with a separate oval metal plate with the
loco's number fixed to the cab sides.  The WAGR J class also had this
arrangement.

As with all WAGR locomotives they did not have illuminated number boards.  

With their speed and power and good looks, they were equally at home with
the Indian-Pacific, or in multiples of 3 on 90 wagon 9000 ton Iron Ore
trains from Koolyanobbing to Kwinana.  

I'd rather see an L on the IP than an NR any day.  They would have no
trouble hauling the IP at speed and on heavy grades.

Basically L251 was a ground breaker in Australian diesel locomotive
production, it alao looked like a locomotive and sure sounded like one! They
were with out a doubt- "the Best from the West!

Who would have believed that I would see it again go through my town after I
had spent my youth chasing it and its sisters around WA, some 23 years ago.

Does anyone out there have any information to share, either memories or on
the modifications instigated by ATN?

regards,

Grahame.


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