Clyde/GM 2170 Class

The 2170 class are the last and largest of the 2100 class family: forty-five locomotives, 2170 to 2214, built by Clyde at Comeng's Rocklea plant between 1982 and 1984. They entered service from March 1982 as the German Creek, Oaky Creek and Blair Athol coal mines opened. The 2202-2210 batch had larger fuel tanks and spent years at Townsville on Greenvale and Mount Isa line trains.

Most were modified over the years with driver-only operation cabs (D suffix) or auxiliary fuel tanks (F suffix), and from 2000 many received maxi-cabs similar to the 2300 class. 2195 is the only A suffix unit, lightened with a 1,300 litre smaller fuel tank.

The class has been widely dispersed. In 2013 three were consigned to South Africa, and in 2014 Transnet Freight Rail bought fourteen as its Class 35-800. Twelve more were sold to Ferronor in Chile in June 2016. Several of the Transnet units have since come home: Watco Australia bought them back from 2019 and runs them as its WRB and WRC classes. Queensland Rail kept 2195 when the freight business was split off in 2010, and it remains in service as 2195A, while the rest of the survivors are with Aurizon, some of them since rebuilt by Progress Rail as the 2700 class.

References

'Queensland Railways 2170 class', Wikipedia (accessed October 2026)
'2700 Class', Railtram Australia (accessed October 2026)