Locomotive 3016

C30 class steam locomotive

Built: 1903

Builder: Beyer, Peacock & Co. Manchester

Wheel arrangement: 4-6-0

Current status: Out of service, stored

Locomotive 3016 was built, as 4459, by Beyer, Peacock and Company of Manchester, England, and Eveleigh Railway Workshops in Sydney, for the New South Wales Government Railways. It entered service on 28th October 1903 as Locomotive 651, one of the first 35 of 145 S636 class tank engines in use on the Sydney suburban rail network. These engines became the (C)30 class in the 1924 renumbering scheme.

As built, the C30’s were 4-6-4 tank engines, designed for use on Sydney’s suburban rail network. They served in this function until 1926, when the ‘Red Rattler’ electric units came into service. Electrification of the Sydney metropolitan network commenced in 1926. 

Now surplus to requirements, the 30 class were reassigned to various places across New South Wales. Between 1928 and 1933, 77 locomotives, including 3016, were converted into 4-6-0 tender engines, to replace older locomotives on country services. As a 4-6-0 tender engine, the 3016 was further modified in 1941 with the addition of a superheated boiler to increase efficiency and power output and piston valves replacing the slide valves. 

Now known as 3016T, it serviced the areas of Narrandera, Cowra, Goulburn, Dubbo, Werris Creek and Temora. Records of the day state that it covered 3,253,120km in 69 years of faithful service, the highest amount of its class. 3016 was withdrawn from service in February 1972 and purchased by Parramatta Rotary Club, to be used on an enclosed line in Parramatta Park, which was operated by the Steam Tram and Railway Preservation Society.

3016 proved to be too heavy for the Parramatta line, and was facing the scrapyard until members of the then ARHS-ACT organisation, Alan Kent and Peter Reynell, discovered that the locomotive could be available. After lengthy negotiations, Locomotive 3016 was bought by ARHS in 1978. It was restored between 1986 and 1989, and it operated regular heritage trains far and wide for the Society.

In 2003, 3016 was fully dismantled and restored at the then NSW Rail Transport Museum at Thirlmere. Following its return to Canberra, ARHS-ACT operated 3016 from 2006 to 2016 on a wide variety of heritage trips, before the locomotive was leased back to THNSW for a further three years. It was withdrawn for overhaul in 2019. Details on the current restoration project can be found under the What’s Happening 3016 restoration page.