Commonwealth Railways NSU class

Commonwealth Railways NSU class

Preserved NSU58 at The Old Ghan Museum in Alice Springs in September 2006

Type and origin Power type Diesel-electric Builder Birmingham Railway Carriage and Wagon Company Serial number DEL1-DEL14 Build date 1954/55 Total produced 14

Specifications UIC class (A1A) (A1A) Gauge 1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in) Length 32.92 m (108 ft 0 in) Loco weight 60 t (59 long tons; 66 short tons) Fuel type Diesel Prime mover Sulzer 6LDA28 Generator Crompton Parkinson CG390 Traction motors Crompton Parkinson

Performance figures Maximum speed 80 km/h (50 mph) Power output 630 kW (840 hp)

Career Operators Commonwealth Railways Number in class 14 Numbers NSU51-NSU64 First run 12 June 1954 Withdrawn August 1987 Preserved NSU51, NSU52, NSU54, NSU55, NSU58, NSU59, NSU61, NSU62, NSU64 Disposition 9 preserved, 5 stored

The NSU class were a class of diesel locomotives built by Birmingham Railway Carriage and Wagon Company for Commonwealth Railways for use on the Central and North Australia Railways in 1954/55.

By the end of World War II, the Commonwealth Railways were operating a ragged and worn out collection of rollingstock on their Central and North and Trans-Australian lines. Some of the narrow gauge locomotives were fifty or more years old, and the rolling stock not much the younger. Federal Minister for Fuel, Shipping & Transport George McLeay, made recommendations to Cabinet in 1950, to upgrade the Commonwealth Railway's fleet of both narrow and standard gauge locomotives and rollingstock.

In 1950 a tender was issued for 14 diesel locomotives for the 1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in) narrow gauge lines.Thirteen companies submitted over thirty designs. However, as the specifications were rigid, most did not get past the first stage of the selection procedure.

The CR's Mechanical Branch also seemed to take preference for slower revving engines. The Sulzer plant finally selected ran at 750 rpm at idle, whereas one design submitted by AE Goodwin ran at 1500 rpm. Finlay noted the "CR Mechanical Branch appeared not to have been overly excited about high revving engines, as it feared they would lead to high repair bills. 1000 rpm was considered fast enough". Finlay also notes that the seemed preference for slower speed engines, as well as the requirement of an electrical transmission resulted in the failure of many of the submitted tenders.