| WAGR Q class | |
| Powertype: | Steam |
| Builder: | R&W Hawthorn Leslie & Co |
| Totalproduction: | 6 |
| Rebuilder: | Midland Railway Workshops |
| Rebuilddate: | 1905, 1909 |
| Numberrebuilt: | 4 as Qa class |
| Whytetype: | 4-6-2T |
| Length: | Q: 34feet Qa: 35feet |
| Locoweight: | Q: Qa: |
| Fueltype: | Coal |
| Fuelcap: | Q: Qa: |
| Watercap: | Q: 1200impgal Qa: 1600impgal |
| Boilerpressure: | Q: 1602NaN2 Qa: 1752NaN2 |
| Firearea: | Q: 14square feet Qa: 17square feet |
| Tractiveeffort: | Q: 149082NaN2 Qa: 163062NaN2 |
| Factorofadhesion: | Q: 3.9, Qa: 4.3 |
| Operator: | Western Australian Government Railways |
| Fleetnumbers: | Q138-Q143 |
| Firstrundate: | 19 August 1896 |
| Withdrawndate: | 31 March 1925 |
| Disposition: | All scrapped |
The WAGR Q class was a six-member class of 4-6-2T tank engine steam locomotives operated by the Western Australian Government Railways (WAGR) between 1896 and 1925.
In April 1896, the WAGR placed an order with R&W Hawthorn Leslie & Co for four 4-6-2T locomotives. Meanwhile, the builder had two very similar locomotives that had been built in 1895 for the Portos e Caminhos de Ferro de Moçambique, Mozambique as part of a cancelled order. A deal was done in May 1896 for the WAGR to purchase them and they entered service in August 1896. The other four entered service in 1896/97. The 1895 built locomotives had different shaped cab windows and side tanks.[1]
They were employed as shunters at Fremantle and Midland. In 1905, Q140 was rebuilt with a new boiler and converted to 4-6-4T configuration with water and coal capacity increased to make it suitable to operate on the Upper Darling Range Railway, Q141-Q143 followed in 1909. They were reclassified as the Qa class.[1]
They operated branch line services on the Mundaring, Mundaring Weir, Pinjarra-Holyoake and Upper Darling Range lines as well as on the Eastern Railway to Northam and South Western Railway to Bunbury. All were withdrawn in 1924/25.[1]
The numbers and periods in service of each member of the Q class were as follows:
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The Q class designation was reused for the Q class locomotives that were introduced in 1931. It was reused in the 1990s when the Westrail Q class diesel locomotives entered service.