Help Build Our Locomotive Cab: The Victorian Steam Locomotive Company was formed with the aim to build, from scratch, a Victorian Railways V Class to fill a gap in railway preservation in Victoria

The ‘V499 Project’ as it is known was launched in July 2011. The aim is to build a compound cylinder V class locomotive. 16 of the class were built between 1900-1902 and were the largest locomotives ever built by the Victorian Railways at the time. The class were very powerful and highly successful and traveled all over Victoria.

As technology improved and more modern designs of locomotive were introduced the V class started to be withdrawn in 1924. By January 1930 all 16 members had been scrapped. Sadly this means that an example of this much-loved class was never preserved. However, that is changing.

The Victorian Steam Locomotive Company was formed with the aim to build, from scratch, a Victorian Railways V Class. Numbered V499, after the class leader, it will fill a gap in railway preservation in Victoria and be used to operate on several of the tourist railways, and possibly the mainline railways too, across the state.

Over the past 18 months we have been restoring the tender frame and wheel sets for the tender. For those who are not familiar with railway terminology, a ‘tender’ is the part where the coal is carried (see photo above) and is found directly behind the locomotive cab.

We have been researching and making project drawings for many years and it is finally time to start to build the frst component – the locomotive cab. 

To realise this we need this funding Au, which will cover the cost of construction and delivery of the entire cab unit to our project base. We are aiming at having the unit constructed by April 2016 and with your help we can achieve this milestone goal.

The fabrication company who will be constructing the cab of V499 are going to sponsor a majority of the cost of the steel for the cab, however the things that we do need to pay for are labor (which is the vast majority of where the funds will be spent) and delivery.

The estimated time period of the build is 1-2 weeks once the steel has been delivered to the fabrication company. 

The biggest challenge that we have faced has been drawing the cab from the limited V Class drawings that are in our possession. 99% of the V Class drawings no longer exist as they were destroyed by the railways in the mid-1950s. However through constant research and consultation with other preserved railway operators and engineers we have finally designed the cab of V499 to it’s exact proportions.

If we do not raise the total needed to build the cab it will certainly push the time of the build back a fair way. This will in turn delay other plans and goals that we have for 2016, so it is vital that we raise the money needed to complete this first brand new component.