New South Wales D55 class locomotive

New South Wales D55 class

Class D55 Locomotive (former K.1353 Class)

Type and origin Power type Steam Builder Clyde Engineering, Granville Build date 1918–1925 Total produced 120

Specifications Configuration 2-8-0 UIC class. 1'Dh Gauge 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) Driver dia. 4 ft 3 in (1.295 m) Adhesive weight 150,000 lb (68 t) Loco weight 165,000 lb (75 t) Fuel type Coal or oil Firebox:  • Firegrate area 29 sq ft (2.7 m2) Boiler pressure 160 psi (1.10 MPa) Heating surface 1,755 sq ft (163.0 m2) Superheater: ​  • Heating area 365 sq ft (33.9 m2) Cylinders Two Cylinder size 22 in × 26 in (559 mm × 660 mm) Valve gear Southern

Performance figures Tractive effort 33,557 lbf (149.3 kN) Factor of adh. 4.46

Career Operators New South Wales Government Railways Class K1353, D55 from 1924 Numbers 1353–1454, 5501–5620 from 1924 Disposition 1 preserved, 119 scrapped

The D55 class was a class of 2-8-0 steam locomotives built by Clyde Engineering for the New South Wales Government Railways in Australia.

In 1916 Clyde Engineering were award a contract for the construction of 300 K class locomotives. Following experiments with Southern type valve gear on an earlier class, Chief Mechanical Engineer Edward Lucy proposed its installation on these locomotives. The use of Southern valve gear was rare on locomotives operating outside the United States of America. Southern Valve Gear required specific routine maintenance checks to ensure perfection of valve events. Failure to observe these periodic checks and corrections, if necessary, would result in less than exact valve events. This was not a great forfeit in itself, as the 460 members of the closely related other two sub-divisions of the Standard Goods engines normally had markedly indifferent valve events.

The NSWGR wanted to extensively test the first locomotive, so the next member did not appear for a further two years. Meanwhile, the contract had been reduced to just 120 locomotives. All were in service by March 1925 and were fitted with large capacity "Wampu" tenders. The last 30 were fitted with self-cleaning smokeboxes and outside bearings on the lead pony trucks. During W.W.II, the 55 Class were seriously considered for use as War Department Locomotives in Iran and Iraq.

The members of this class spent most of their days attached to depots at Enfield, Goulburn, Harden, Junee and Cowra operating on the Illawarra and Main South lines. They were seldom used on the Main Western or Main Northern lines.