Eleven were built all for use on the Western Australian narrow gauge network, primarily to haul mineral trains in the south east.[1] Between July 1982 and June 1983, the first four members of the class had their vacuum brake equipment replaced with Westinghouseair brake systems, and were redesignated as the NA class. While liked by crews for their ride quality and power, they suffered from reliability problems and most were withdrawn in the early 1990s. The last were withdrawn in 1997.[2][3][4]
In January 1995 two of the NA class were converted to standard gauge using bogies from Mount NewmanAlco M636s, and redesignated as the NB class. In February 1998 these two were sold to Austrac Ready Power, Junee.[2][5] These were sold in 2004 to Patrick Port Link, Adelaide and again in September 2011 to Australian Locolease who redesignated as the 18 class and leased them to El Zorro for use in Victoria.[6][7][8] After both locomotives remaining unused for some years, 1872 was scrapped in early 2020, whereas 1873 languished for another two years before being scrapped in mid-2022.
Austrac also purchased NA1874 but it was sold without use to South Spur Rail Services in 2001 and converted for standard gauge operation in January 2006. It was scrapped in 2014.[2][6][9][10]
^Dunn, John (2010). Comeng: A History of Commonwealth Engineering Volume 3: 1967-1977. Kenthurst: Rosenberg Publishing. pp. 215–219. ISBN9781877058905.
