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Drewry Diesel Locomotive

Drewery Car Co England diesel locomotive State Energy Commission train lugging coal to the

The State Energy Commission of Western Australia purchased a diesel locomotive from the Drewry Car Co, England in 1950, where it spent its entire working life lugging wagons of coal from the Robb Jetty yard to the tippler. In 1985, there wasn't any need to keep the locomotive upon the closure of the power station. SECWA donated it to the Hotham Valley Railway, where it was renamed "South Fremantle" and given the ID of "SEC 1" (Hotham Valley Railway).

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** For those who are not a rail enthusiast and lack knowledge on even the most fundamental train and locomotive features, it isn't an easy quest researching specs and related information on trains and locomotives. Particularly those models from the 'olden days' where insufficient data is readily shared, atleast online. No doubt rail enthusiasts will likely see holes or misinformation in the following details, in which we welcome any amendments.

 

(Preferably information that can be proven as correct, in order to prevant exacerbating the public view we are nothing short of mere drongos with it comes to this subject).

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It appears that the diesel locomotive used at the South Fremantle Power Station was build in 1948. Whilst Drewry Car Co didn't have any production facilities of their own during the post-war years, they subcontracted their manufacturing to Vulcan Foundry and Robert Stephenson & Hawthorns.

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The earliest prototype that can be found for this model appears to be the 204hp 0-6-0 diesel-mechanical shunter built for the Drewery Car Co in 1947. One was trialled on the London North Eastern Railway and then during the first few months of the British Railway. This would later become the protoype for the South Fremantle diesel locomotive although the first built date was in 1952, a year after Rail Heritage WA's image of an almost identical locomotive sitting idle at the power station.

 

Regardless of the difficulty of pinpointing the exact build date and specifications, let alone any certainty for the model type, it could be assumed that its details would be the same or similar to that of the Class 04 locomotives:

Drewry Car Co Class 04 diesel locomotive engine specs

© London North Eastern Railway

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Drewry Car Co manufactured 141 Class 4 locomotives between 1952 - 1962 (BR Locomotive Database).

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Further specificiations for this class of locomotives:

British Rail Locomotives Wiki Class 04 diesel locomotives
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