THE NR STORY - A Locomotive for Drivers Designed by Drivers - A history of the NR Class in words and pictures

NR Class Locomotives

In September 1995, National Rail awarded a contract to A Goninan & Co for 80 locomotives, which later became 120. NR1–NR60 were built at Broadmeadow, and NR61–NR120 were constructed at Bassendean. The frames were built at Hexham and the bogies at Goninan's Landsdowne Engineering subsidiary in Taree.
The first locomotive to be completed was NR61, which was trialled on 18 September 1996, between Midland and Jumperkine.[4] The first Broadmeadow-built unit ran on 23 September 1996.[4] The early units were delivered without National Rail branding or logos, but later locomotives were delivered in the full livery. Testing was carried out on the NSW Main Northern line between Werris Creek and Maitland, using ballast wagons and 442 class locomotives, in dynamic braking mode, as dynamic loads. Each locomotive was required to accumulate 10,000 kilometres (6,200 mi) of trouble-free running before being accepted.The final unit was delivered from Broadmeadow in February 1998.
As part of its contract, A Goninan & Co was required to maintain the fleet. A depot was built alongside the Newport to Sunshine railway in the western Melbourne suburb of Spotswood to cater for this.Pacific National announced in September 2022 that the company had committed more than A$160 million towards the overhauling of the company's NR class units for East – West Intermodal traffic