In 1968 the New South Wales Government Railways (NSWGR) placed orders with Clyde Engineering for 20 of their Model J26C which would become the 422 Class, the first entering service in early 1969.
These were the first Australian diesel electric locomotives to adopt a fully ‘box’ car body with noseless cabs at each end. They were powered by the then recently introduced supercharged EMD V16 645E engine rated at 2000HP (1491KW), featured a EMD D32B main generator and six EMD D77B traction motors. They were assigned initially to the Main South and the Main South Coast passenger and freight services.
As a precursor to the introduction of the 81 Class, in 1980 42220 was modified by Clyde Engineering to incorporate EMD’s ‘super series wheel slip control’, thereby lifting its haulage capability by some 30% above the unmodified members of the class, and at the same time cab air conditioning was incorporated. In 2001 it was purchased by Chicago Freight Car Leasing Australia (CFCLA) and became their FL220. They also purchased unmodified 42203 which became their HL203.
With more modern equipment being purchased, 42206 and then 42202 were purchased by Northern Rivers Railroad (NRR) in 2000 and 2002 respectively and were used on their RitzRail passenger and flyash service between Murwillumbah and Casino. The remainder were sold to Australian Southern (AS) which became Australian Railway Group (ARG) before being split, eleven going to Queensland Rail (QR) as their DC Class and five to Genesee & Wyoming (G&W) as their 22 Class.
In this presentation we will take a detailed look at the inside and outside of the Model J26C and witness them in operation for NSWGR (and later SRA and Freight Rail/Corp), ARG, CFCLA, G&W, NRR and QR National.
Approximate run time: 136 minutes.