They were the only Queensland Railways class to be fitted as a whole, from new, with two sand-domes. They were restricted to the Brisbane suburban area with boundaries of Ipswich, Ferny Grove, Pinkenba, Shorncliffe, Petrie, Kingston and Lota. This area was later extended beyond Ipswich to Grandchester. Initially, all were attached to Mayne depot but later several were transferred to Woolloongabba.[1]
Cylinder and steam chest castings are identical to C17 Class. The ‘6’ was dropped from the classification in 1937. The engines were often unofficially referred to as ‘black tanks’ after the introduction of the DD17 class. Engines constructed in 1937 had boilers with a pressure of 170 pounds-force per square inch (1,172 kPa). Earlier engines were altered to that pressure as they passed through workshops. A wooden crate was fixed to the centre of the bunker to slightly increase the coal capacity from the original 3 long tons (3.0 t; 3.4 short tons).
Engines of this class were some of the last to receive electric headlights due to them being restricted to running in the Brisbane suburban area. Fitting of electric headlights commenced in 1951.
The entire class was displaced from suburban duties by diesels during the 1960s. The first was withdrawn in November 1961 with the bulk of the class withdrawn during 1967 and 1968.[1]
Preservation
Two have been preserved:
268 by the RAILCO, Ravenshoe, currently stored along with rolling stock because operations have been suspended.[4]
