F Class locomotive
F Class locomotive
After the Second World War, the Victorian railways embarked on an 80 million pound program, named Operation Phoenix, to rebuild the network due to overuse and lack of maintenance/investment during the depression and wartime. Part of this investment was the purchase of ten 0-6-0 shunting diesel locomotives in 1951. The locomotives were built by the English Electric Company at the Dick Kerr Works in Preston, England and were based upon the British Rail Class 11.
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The F Class locomotives were mainly used in shunting service around Melbourne but were also used at Geelong, Seymour, Wodonga and Bendigo.​​
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F 208
F 208 entered service on the 2 December, 1951 but due to numbering system of the time, worked as F 317 until 18 May 1958 when more S Class diesel locomotives entered service and the numbers were transferred (this was also due to more F's being transferred from the State Electricity Commission and not interfering with the numbers of the 1st series T class.
The locomotive spent much of its career working at Spencer Street, shunting passenger carriages and freight wagons around the yards and preparing trains. While other members of the class were set to regional depots to replace steam in the 1960s and 70s, F 208 continued being rostered as the Spenser Street passenger pilot, Princess Bridge pilot and North Melbourne Workshops truck pilot with other members of its class.
F 208 finished its service life as the South Dynon Loco depot shunter, where it had been given the un-official name 'Dynon Donk'. In March 1986, F 208 was withdrawn from service and was stored with all of its class members.
The locomotives time in storage was short and was the first F to be purchased from the Victorian Railways. Seven-O-Seven Operations immediately painted the locomotive black, returned its original number of F 317 and used it at the yard shunter at the Spotswood Workshops, the original home of Seven-O-Seven Operations.
F 208 has now returned to its original red with gold strip livery and can mainly be seen as our resident shunter at our Newport workshops.
