WAGR Australian Standard Garratt

The Australian Standard Garratt or ASG was built to be strong and flexible for heavy wartime work on 3 foot 6 inch gauge railways who needed a heavy strong machine.

History:
With the outbreak of World War II, in 1939 the Federal Government formed the Commonwealth Land Transport Board (CLTB) to take responsibility for the country's land transport networks. It had the power to override the decisions of the State railways. In 1942, the CLTB appointed the Commissioner of Railways in Western Australia, Joseph Ellis, to investigate the capacity of Australia's narrow gauge network(3 ft 6 in) and recommend what locomotives should be purchased. Ellis recommended that three variations of Garratt locomotive be purchased; heavy, medium and light. The CLTB elected to build only the light type to allow it to operate on any narrow gauge line in Australia. After an attempt to obtain drawings and licenses from Beyer, Peacock and Company failed, in July 1942 the CLTB recommended to the War Cabinet that 30 locomotives be built locally. In August 1942, the War Cabinet approved the order, this was increased to 65 locomotives in November 1942. The Western Australian Government Railways' Chief Mechanical Engineer Frederick Mills was seconded to lead a team of engineers in Melbourne to design the new locomotive. The Queensland Railways were vocal opponents, stating its preference for a modified version of its C17 class. The result was the Australian Standard Garratt, with the first locomotive being built in a record breaking four months to enter service in September 1943. Only 57 ASGs were completed, with assembly of the remaining eight cancelled at the end of the war. The locomotives were built by the WAGR's Midland Railway Workshops (10), the Victorian Railways' Newport Workshops (12), the South Australian Railways' Islington Railway Workshops (13), and Clyde Engineering, Sydney (22). At first the ASG was quit successful but soon flaws began to surface due to the project being rushed. Because of this the ASG's became unpopular with their crews especially the WAGR crews leading to a strike and a royal commission. After the war most ASG's were sold or scraped G33 was sold to the Fyansford Cement Works after being built for the WAGR but never sent there. However lots of water tanks and other small or basic parts were used to store water, wood or even just left behind many of these still exist including a water tank know owned by the Bassendean Railway Museum.

Known Numbers:
G10

G20

G26

G27

G28

G29

G30

G31

G32

G33 (never sent)

G44

G45

G46

G47

G48

G49

G50

G54

G55

G56

G57

G58

G59

G60

G61

G62

G63

G64

G65