The government was able to renegotiate the contract, with only twenty built. Ten were taken by the Commonwealth Railways, even though it already had diesel locomotives on order, with the other ten going to the South Australian Railways as the 740 class. Some were immediately placed on the scrap line at Port Augusta and never entered service. All were officially withdrawn by May 1959. They were scrapped in the mid 1960s with the boilers sold overseas.[1][2]
Some of the tenders were converted into water carriers for use on the Commonwealth Railways weed killer train, still being in use in the early 1980s.[1]
References
Notes
^ abcOberg, Leon (1984). Locomotives of Australia 1850s-1980s. Frenchs Forest: Reed Books. p. 198. ISBN0-730100-05-7.
Fluck, Ronald E; Marshall, Barry; Wilson, John (1996). Locomotives and Railcars of the Commonwealth Railways. Welland, SA: Gresley Publishing. ISBN1876216018.