Victorian Railways N class

The N class is a branch line steam locomotive that ran on the Victorian Railways from 1925 to 1966. A development of the successful K class 2-8-0, it was the first Victorian locomotive class designed for possible conversion from the 5 ft 3 in broad gauge to standard gauge. A third batch of fifty locomotives was built in 1949 and 1950 by the North British Locomotive Company as part of Operation Phoenix, the post-war rebuilding of the railways, and was numbered 450 to 499. The railways sold ten of the North British locomotives to the South Australian Railways, which was short of motive power. From 1951 the railways began converting the class to burn fuel oil, but only 36 conversions were done before the programme was cancelled in 1956. Diesel locomotives led to its retirement.