The Y class are a class of diesel locomotives built by Clyde Engineering, Granville for the Victorian Railways between 1963 and 1968.
History
In 1963, the first of 25 general purpose diesel-electric locomotives was delivered by Clyde Engineering. As a cost saving measure, they were built with bogies and motors retrieved from scrapped Swing Door electric suburban train sets; the re-use of these components reduced the unit cost of the Y class locomotive from around £52,000 ($104,000) to £40,000 ($80,000). Two further orders saw the class total 75 by 1968. A slightly modified version of the design was built for Western Australian Government Railways in 1966 for use as its J class.
Although built to dieselise Victoria's shunting operations and replace steam locomotives on branch line services, they were also used on mainline goods and passenger services, including between Spencer Street and Werribee.
Y123 was the original diesel Commissioner's engine, replacing D3 639, until it was replaced by Y175. The first trip of Y175, re-geared to operate at and hauling Norman, was on the Geelong line on 9 September 1968.
After closure of branch lines across the state and the end of short pick-up goods trains, use of the class dropped.
By Saturday 19 July 1986, engines Y101-106, 108–110, 113, 117, 119–120, 122, 124, 127, 129–130, 132, 134–135, 137–138, 141–149, 152–153, 155–161, 163, 165-169 and 172-175 were painted in V/Line orange and grey. Y121 was being repainted at Newport Workshops and Y146 was stored, while Y128 and Y136 were yard pilots at Newport and Y142 was the yard pilot at Bendigo Workshops.
Engines Y118 and Y121 were noted working Melbourne Hump Yard at the end of September 1989, in lieu of shunting engines F211 and F212 with a comment indicating that narrower wheels must have been used to make the engines compatible with the retarding equipment used to slow individual wagons to precise speeds when rolling downhill.
Withdrawals commenced from 1985, around the same time that a handful of specific T class locomotives were found to be lighter than the rest of the fleet and thus permitted to operate north of Echuca. As at 1 July 1987, Y103, 106, 111, 114, 116, 123, 134 and 162 were placed into storage, while 107, 125, 128, 136, 142 and 146 were all allocated to specific workshops and not permitted outside those compounds. The stored and limited use engines were of both colour schemes; 103, 106, 134, 125, 136, 142 and 146 had all been painted in V/Line orange, while the balance were still in Victorian Railways' blue. At this point, Y101-104 were the standard gauge group, sans Y103 in storage. At 1 August 1987, Y140 had joined the workshop group, while Y105 had joined the withdrawn group, and Y103 may have re-entered service. Y151, 156, 157 and 171 were undergoing repainting at Newport Workshops.
Large-scale scrappings commenced during 1991 and 1992. After the mass-withdrawals of the Y fleet up to 1992, engines 101, 102, 104, 150 and 151 were on standard gauge, as 103 had been withdrawn in the late 1980s. Y101 followed in the early '90s after suffering a collision, but it was not directly replaced.
In 1990 four engines, Y113, 118, 130 and 171, were altered to be coupled pneumatically when in multiple-unit operation for shunting in Tottenham Yard. This was because individual locomotives were no longer sufficient to work longer trains. The modification allowed the second engine's self-lapping brake to be cut in or out and be operated from the first engine in a coupled set.
From 1995, under the newly formed V/Line Freight division, engines Y115, Y151, Y152 and Y169 were running trains on standard gauge, and locomotives Y124 and Y142 were confined to shunting at South Dynon. Within a few years, Y150 had replaced Y115 on standard gauge, with the latter engine shifting to Ballarat as a yard pilot. Around the same time, Y169 replaced Y102, and Y152 replaced Y104. These two engines were stored at Newport workshops, then transferred to South Dynon's "rotten row" where they sat for about a decade.
Only two engines—Y152 and Y165—were repainted into the V/Line Freight scheme, which was essentially the same as previous with a new decal and a lighter grey.
The 1999 sale of V/Line Freight to Freight Victoria included engines 110, 113, 115, 118–119, 121–122, 138, 150–152, 157, 165, 169, 171 and 174. Some of these were upgraded by 2002 using traction motors and gear sets cascaded from the Freight Australia A and X Class locomotive upgrades, permitting operation at 80 km/h. This required replacing the original plain whitemetal axle boxes; in the short term they were modified but eventually they were all replaced with custom units, obviating the need for fortnightly lubrication of the bearings. Air conditioning was also fitted.Hewison, P, Kimpton, R. (2002) Freight Australia's Rollingstock Initiatives, Conference on Railway Engineering, Wollongong, 10–13 November 2002, p.294-295
In 2005, Y109 and Y145 were sold to El Zorro. 145 was scrapped and spare parts used to repair 109, which took on 145's number during its service with El Zorro. In 2014, the unit was sold to the Yarra Valley Tourist Railway and renumbered back to its original number.
On 17 February 2013, a mass move of Y class occurred to Newport to be distributed to various heritage operators; locomotives on the train consisted of Y127/VAN/Y102/Y143/Y104/Y108/Y125.
As of October 2025, two are in service with V/Line as carriage yard shunters and fitted with low speed controls,Newsrail February 1997 p. 89 with others owned by freight operators Southern Shorthaul Railroad and Pacific National. Seventeen units are officially preserved, though only a handful of those are operational.
Use on standard gauge Aside from delivery runs (where engines arrived on standard gauge and were transferred within three days of arrival, allowing for weekends), the following are known allocations of Y class locomotives operating on standard gauge. Common uses early on were to work ballast trains, or as yard pilots at Spencer Street, South Dynon, Seymour and Albury-Wodonga. Very occasionally, the engines would be used to rescue a disabled train. As of September 2026, table entries below are only complete through to the early 1990s and may not reflect liveries applied.
Locomotive Order To SG Ex SG Days NotesY101 1 3,899 May have gone to SG earlier. Not clear when repainted from blue to orange.Y102 1 531 Removed from SG account collision damage.Y102 1 3,592 Painted orange by 31 January 1985Y103 1 478 May have remained on SG laterY103 1 225 Collision damage, moved to Newport WorkshopsY103 1 1,800 By this date, converted to broad gauge and moved to storage at Melbourne Freight Terminal.Y104 1 3,583 Withdrawn and stored at South Dynon after this date. Not clear when repainted from blue to orange.Y111 1 90 Arrived on SG, used immediately as yard pilot. May have remained on SG laterY114 1 , No mention in Newsrails August 1984 to August 1987. Engine withdrawn on or by 1 July 1987.Y115 1 863 Y115 1 , before 17 September 1985 481 Y122 1 1,030 May have gone to SG earlier.Y124 1 1,655 Delivered and remained on SG. May have remained on SG later.Y125 1 1,633 On delivery, based at Seymour as a bank engine. May have remained on SG laterY139 2 1,271 Y147 2 188 Y150 2 53 Y150 2 561 Y151 3 438 Y155 3 2,439 Y155 3 2,439 Y172 3 2,414 To Dynon, later re-entered service BGY173 3 3,540 Y174 3 2,914 May have remained on SG later
Status table Key:In ServiceStoredPreservedConvertedUnknownScrapped