Clyde/GM 421 Class

The 421 class were built by Clyde Engineering at Granville for the NSW Department of Railways in 1965-66, ten of them numbered 42101 to 42110. The locos were built with dual cabs (one streamlined, one flat cab), and were unpopular with crews because of their rough riding.

In 1990 Northern Rivers Railroad bought four of them, and from October 1997 they worked out of Casino on a range of duties in NSW, including RIC works trains, soybean and flyash trains, and the Ritz Rail tourist train to Murwillumbah. Queensland Rail bought Northern Rivers Railroad in March 2002 and renamed it Interail, and the 421s kept their much-loved NRR livery, one of the most popular in Australia. With the collapse of Ritz Rail and the closure of the Murwillumbah branch, they moved on to Hunter Valley coal trains out of Newstan and Duralie, and helped out on QR National's MB/BM7 trains.

The 421s were eventually parked up, 42107 being stored by Aurizon in early 2018. Of the ten built, five have been scrapped, including 42106 and 42109. Among the survivors, 42101 is operational with the Heritage Locomotive Company, 42103 and 42105 are preserved by Chumrail, and 42107 is now privately owned.

References

'New South Wales 421 class locomotive', Wikipedia (accessed October 2026)
'Interail', Wikipedia (accessed October 2026)