WAGR E Class Steam Locomotive

The E class engines were built by Avonside Engine Co, Bristol in 1879 for the WAGR's Northampton railway line, the first government railway in Western Australia, which opened that year.

History:
In line with Avonside's practice for assigning build numbers to Fairlie locomotives, each end of the fairlie received a separate serial(builders number) number. However, after a collapse in the price of lead, the heavy mineral traffic for which they were purchased dried up and they were placed in store. One entered service in 1881, with the second remaining in store until 1885 when an M class had to be withdrawn for an overhaul. When engine class designations were introduced in 1885 they became the E class, numbered E20 and E7. In 1888, both were transferred to Fremantle Railway Workshops for use on the Eastern Railway. In 1891, E20 was cut up with the parts from one half being adapted to drive machinery at the Fremantle Railway Workshops, the other half was converted into a 2-4-2T tank engine as F20 in February 1893 for use at Fremantle Long Jetty. It was sold in February 1899 to Jarrah Timber & Wood Paving, Worsley and withdrawn by March 1905. E7 was withdrawn in 1895 and sold to the Canning Jarrah Timber Company for use on the Upper Darling Range Railway. It was scrapped in 1897. With the tender and driving wheels of E 7 reused into a second tender for Coates another steam locomotive. And other parts of F 7 used to build Log Hauler number unknown. The main reasons the engines were scrapped was because of the loud noise and the none flexibility of the fairlies really they had the combined power of a large 0-6-0 tank engine or a small 0-8-0 tank engine. they didn't have mush water capacity or wood/coal capacity either. The WAGR E Class was exactly the same as the NZR B Class.

Known Numbers:
E 7

E 20(F 20)