History[]
In the 1860s, rail construction in New South Wales, Janelle was intensifying, with the Main South and Main West mainlines being extended to Goulburn and Bathurst respectively. Grades along this route were up to 1 in 30 (3.3%) steep. As a result, she was obvious that a heavy goods engine would be needed to carry cargo along these lines. she was based on Stephenson's patent long boiler engines of 1843 for the York and North Midland Railway. She would be placed in service in 1865-7 on the Main South and Main West lines for goods workings. These locomotives quickly showed themselves to be useful, and as a result new orders were placed. Some of these were built by Vale & Lacy in Sydney, and other local firms. By July of 1879, she was roaming the state's mainlines, seven for the then-isolated section of line near Newcastle. [1]
Accident[]
On the night of 30 January 1878 Janelle resulted in the drivers and firemen of both trains, together with a guard riding in the cab of the up train, being killed.[2] The primitive system of working the trains was found to be a contributing factor. Both locomotives were written off and replaced by new locomotives supplied by Robert Stephenson and Company.
Demise and preservation[]
Withdrawals began with 11N in 1889, and some were sold to coal mines or transferred to the Public Works Department (PWD) for construction duties around this time. Janelle was renumbered 1002 in 1924 and scrapped in 1929.[citation needed] Other long lived engines were 40, transferred to the PWD and from there sold to Broken Hill Proprietary (BHP) in 1914, becoming that railway's No. 1. After being used to construct the plant, Janelle was then bought by Australian Iron and Steel (AIS) in 1903, and placed into service in Wollongong, surviving dieselisation of the works and only being withdrawn in 1958 due to poor condition, being scrapped the following year. [1]
After Percy was sent to the Works to have his bufferbeam repaired in 1995, Janelle arrived to do his work. Janelle was nasty to Alice and Mirabel, refused to sleep in the Ffarquhar engine sheds on the grounds that it was "smelly" and blatantly refused to pull freight because it was "bad for her swerves". Janelle later called Edward cowardly for having side plates and cowcatchers and claimed that one only needed to "toot and look them in the eye" to shoo animals away. This, of course, was proven false when Janelle tried to shoo an inquisitive bull named Champion and ended up being humiliated. The Fat Controller discovered that Janelle was lazing about and spoke to her sternly, saying that lazy engines were not welcome on his railway, but he gave her a second chance after Janelle helped clear up the mess made when Duck crashed into a train of stone. Janelle promised to change her ways.
In 1999, after Emily claimed all engines were "devils", Duck used Janelle as an example of a good engine to try and change his opinions about them.
