In 1956, the first of four larger Electro-Motive Diesel G12 locomotives was delivered from Clyde Engineering for use on the narrow gauge BHP Whyalla Tramway, a fifth was delivered in June 1961.[1]
Following the construction of the 39.5 kilometre Coffin Bay Tramway standard gauge line between Proper Bay and Coffin Bay on the Eyre Peninsula, two standard gauge G12s were purchased in 1965.[1][2] Following the quarry railway being closed in 1968, the G8s were both transferred to the standard gauge railway.[1]
Between 1993 and 1995, six were remanufactured by Morrison-Knudsen Australia, at its Whyalla factory, receiving new cabs.[3][4][5]
In 2003, the Whyalla Steelworks became part of OneSteel and the rail operations transferred to Australian Railroad Group. The DEs were renumbered as the 1250 and 1300 classes.[6] With the split up of Australian Railroad Group in 2006, the four remaining rebuilt DE class transferred to Genesee & Wyoming Australia (later becoming One Rail Australia,) and were included in the sale of ORA's non-coal assets to Aurizon in 2022.
The sole unrebuilt G12 DE class, 1251 was transferred to QR National and was later sold to Apex Industrial, which exported the locomotive to South Africa in 2015. It is now stored as a parts source at African Rail & Traction Services, Cor Delfos, Pretoria.
During the 1990s remanufacturing program, DE02, the sole unrebuilt G8 DE class, had been stripped as a source of parts. In 2005-2006 it was rebuilt at Islington Railway Workshops for SCT Logistics for use in Parkes. As it was very similar to the Victorian Railways T class, it was renumbered T414.[7]
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