Historic Photo of the Day: 2023-11-27

Today's historic photo of the day: Queensland Rail narrow gauge diesel locomotive 1404 sits outside and 1262 sits inside the engine shed at the locomotive depot at Cairns, Qld, July 25 1986. The 1400 class were General Motors engined locomotives built between 1955 and 1957. Only 13 in number, they operated all over Queensland until withdrawal between 1986 and 1992. Whilst there weren't very many 1400s, they were successful enough to convince QR to purchase further locos of later models derived from this design - notably the 1450 and 1460 classes. They're very similar to the Western Australian A class locos and New Zealand Railways Da class, both of which were narrow gauge mainliners. Whilst they were similar in outward appearance to the early series of Victorian Railways 'flat top' T class locos, the QR 1400s, despite being narrow gauge were more powerful: they had a 12 cylinder engine and six-wheel A1A-A1A bogies rather than the VR T class's 8 cylinder engine and four-wheel Bo-Bo bogies. Locomotive 1262 inside the shed is one of the 17 1250 class units of similar vintage. By contrast, these units were English Electric engined units and were cab units with a full-width driving cab at the no 1 end despite having a narrow with body. No 1400 or 1250 class units remain in service today. 1404 has been scrapped but the body of 1262 has survived and is today a static exhibit at the Ipswich Railway museum.