The 86 class is a class of electric locomotives built by Comeng, Granville for the State Rail Authority of New South Wales.
History In 1981 Comeng was awarded the contract to build fifty units, using Mitsubishi camshaft-control equipment. Mitsubishi proposed to use the newer chopper technology as camshaft control was by now near-obsolete and they had in fact ceased to manufacture these. However the SRA were insistent on using the older technology so Mitsubishi re-started camshaft equipment production just for this contract. Major electrical equipment was interchangeable with the 85-class locomotives and two had the capability of multiple-unit operations.
The 86 class initially hauled passenger and freight services to Lithgow on the Main Western line (including the Indian Pacific) and Wyong on the Main Northern line. Their sphere of operation extended to Newcastle on the latter line in June 1984 and to Port Kembla in January 1986 when the Illawarra line was electrified.
With a one-hour rating of 4,400 horsepower (hp), the 86 class was the most powerful locomotive in Australia at the time. Although no longer in regular use, the class remains among the most powerful in the country. Despite their higher power rating, they were generally regarded as inferior to the Metropolitan-Vickers built 46 class, which dated from the late 1950s. 8619 was planned for Conversion into a Drivable Crew Van for SCT at Islington Workshops, this plan was scrapped.
The last, 8650 was delivered as a Bo-Bo-Bo trial unit"8650" Railway Digest November 1985 page 320. It spent long periods out of traffic undergoing repair.
The SRA had intended to order dual voltage 1.5 kV DC and 25 kV AC variants for use on the Maldon-Dombarton line, but this never eventuated due to the cancellation of the project.
In 1994/95 all were repainted by A Goninan & Co, Taree into Freight Rail (later FreightCorp) blue."86 Class Repaints" Railway Digest April 1995 page 35 By October 1997 18 had been withdrawn from service with cracked frames."Out of Service" Railway Digest October 1997 page 31 By this stage the amount of work requiring electrics was reducing. National Rail decided it would through haul its services and from March 1998 FreightCorp ceased operating them on Main Northern line services."Electric Locos" Railway Digest June 1998 page 35 The need for electrics continued to decline with their remaining duties mainly being hauling coal trains from Lithgow to Port Kembla. The last examples were withdrawn in June 2002.
In 2002, most were sold to Silverton Rail and taken to Broken Hill then sold again in February 2006 to Allco Finance Group with some on sold, but most scrapped.86 Class Railpage86 Class Vicsig Four were leased back to RailCorp in 2004 (8601, 8609, 8622 and 8644) for use on infrastructure trains during construction of the Bondi Junction turnback.
Seven locomotives remain. Transport Heritage NSW owns 8646 which is on display at the NSW Rail Museum at Thirlmere. Both 8601, the first in the class and 8650, the last electric locomotive built by Commonwealth Engineering, are stored at the Dorrigo Steam Railway & Museum.
The Sydney Electric Train Society (SETS) owns locomotives 8606, 8644 and 8649, the latter of which is in operational condition and has been returned to its original Candy livery.8607 is privately owned and stored at Canberra, awaiting restoration.
Fleet Status +NumberEntered serviceWithdrawnLocationStatus8601February 1983?Dorrigo, NSWStatic Display8602April 1983? -Scrapped8603April 1983? -Scrapped8604May 1983? -Scrapped8605September 1983? -Scrapped8606September 1983?Enfield, NSWOperational8607September 1983?Canberra, NSWStored8608October 1983? -Scrapped8609October 1983? -Scrapped8610October 1983? -Scrapped8611November 1983? -Scrapped 8612November 1983? -Scrapped8613December 1983? -Scrapped8614December 1983? -Scrapped8615January 1984? -Scrapped8616January 1984? -Scrapped8617February 1984? -Scrapped8618March 1984? -Scrapped8619April 1984 ? -Scrapped8620April 1984?Scrapped8621May 1984? -Scrapped8622May 1984? -Scrapped8623June 1984? -Scrapped8624July 1984? -Scrapped8625July 1984? -Scrapped8626September 1984? -Scrapped8627October 1984? -Scrapped8628September 1984? -Scrapped8629October 1984? -Scrapped8630October 1984? -Scrapped8631November 1984? -Scrapped8632November 1984? -Scrapped8633December 1984? -Scrapped8634December 1984? -Scrapped8635December 1984? -Scrapped8636January 1985? -Scrapped8637February 1985? -Scrapped8638March 1985? -Scrapped8639March 1985? -Scrapped8640April 1985? -Scrapped8641May 1985? -Scrapped8642May 1985? -Scrapped8643June 1985? -Scrapped 8644June 198530 June 2002Chullora, NSWStored8645July 1985? -Scrapped8646August 1985?Thirlmere, NSWStatic display8647August 1985? -Scrapped8648August 1985? -Scrapped86494 October 19854 February 1998Enfield, NSWOperational86501986 ?Dorrigo, NSWStatic Display
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