Queensland Railways 2350 class

The 2350 class were a class of diesel locomotive built by English Electric, Rocklea for Queensland Railways in 1973/74. All were later sold to AN Tasrail.

History

2356 hauls a special train up the grade north of Eumundi on the North Coast line in 1987

The 2350 class was built for use on the Blackwater and Moura coal lines and based at Gladstone.^[1][2][3] The class became surplus following electrification of the coal lines and in 1987 were all sold to AN Tasrail where they all entered service as the ZB class.^[4][5][6] They were very similar to the Tasrail Za class.

In 1995, one was rebuilt by Australian National's Port Augusta workshop with a raked cab similar to the EL class and renumbered ZR1, while in 1997 a second was rebuilt at AN Tasrail's Launceston workshops with a more conventional cab as ZR2.^[7][8][9]

In 2003, three were sold to South Spur Rail Services, with two shipped to Western Australia to operate infrastructure trains with the fourth stripped for parts in Launceston, they are now owned by Greentrains.^[6]

As at October 2014, the remaining seven examples were in store, four at TasRail's East Tamar worshops and three at Gemco Rail's facility in Bellevue.^[10]

References