Locomotive Profile – New South Wales Railways ’44’ Class

Publisher: Train Hobby Publications
Publication Year: 1998
Format: Softcover, Landscape
Pages: 48
Photography: All colour
Condition: New

Locomotive Profile – New South Wales Railways ’44’ Class provides a detailed photographic record of the ubiquitous NSW 44 class diesel-electric locomotives, which served across every part of New South Wales for over four decades. This volume captures the locomotives in action on freight, passenger, and mixed train duties, highlighting their versatility and importance in NSW rail operations.

The 44 class locomotives were built by AE Goodwin, Auburn, under license from US manufacturer Alco, between 1957 and 1967. Based on the Alco DL500B model, they were fitted with Alco 12-251B engines producing 1343 kW. Built in two batches (the first 60 units between 1957–1961 and the last 40 units between 1965–1967), the later locomotives featured Associated Electrical Industries generators and traction motors, along with illuminated segregated number boxes at the No.2 end.

Designed with dual driving cabs, the locomotives had a rounded No.1 nose and flat No.2 nose, providing operational flexibility across the state. The 44 class had a career spanning from their introduction in the late 1950s to their final withdrawal in July 1997, with many locomotives seeing auction and preservation. Their design was comparable to the South Australian Railways 930 class, Spain’s RENFE Classes 316/318, and the Hellenic State Railways Class A300.

Presented as a 48-page, full-colour, big-picture landscape album, this book is an essential reference for NSW railway historians, diesel locomotive enthusiasts, modellers, and Australian rail book collectors, documenting one of the most widely used and historically significant diesel classes in New South Wales.