C16 Baldwin - Large Consolidation Class

Notes

These were originally referred to as "Large Consolidations" although (what later became) the C15 engines were also known by that name. This was an example of the breakdown of the old classification scheme. With the introduction of the new system they were classed as C16 but later called C16 Baldwin to distinguish the new C16 engines being built at Ipswich.

Two of these engines were imported from Baldwin for the Central Railway. With an axle load of only 6½ tons they were the most powerful engines to be used in the nineteenth century. Their load from Rockhampton to Emerald was 200 tons reducing to 150 tons for the Drummond Range.

In 1884, O'Rourke and McSharry purchased a similar machine for use during the construction of the extension to the Central Railway. It was purchased by the railway in 1887 and transferred to Ipswich the following year.

The engines were later fitted with Westinghouse Brakes. All received new boilers with increased pressure of 140psi in 1900 and had their loads increased accordingly.

Increasing government pressure to support local or British manufacturers resulted in these being the last engines to be imported from America until the AC16 Class in 1943.

In 1889 locomotives and rollingstock were consolidated into one rollingstock register. This resulted in most items, except those operating on the original Southern and Western Railway (from Ipswich), being renumbered. Numbers shown are state (or former S & W) numbers. Those in brackets are former numbers of individual railways.