Once upon a time railways were considered to be an essential part of the public infrastructure and as a result they were run by governments. This gradually changed over the years as components of our railways have been sold off to the best connected bidders... oh, I'm sorry, I'll read that again... to those best able to maximise efficiencies of scale and provide value added services in a way that the public sector is completely incapable of doing, which is why we end up paying an $11 supplement for the privately owned airport railway stations and don't for the government Station one stop further down the line. And why we once had rail lines running to all parts of the State and now have all that freight being carried on roads rather than by rail. Less fuel efficiency, more risk from loading heavy vehicles onto the road, more pollution, but at least it's no longer done by the government and that has to be a good thing, right? Right?

Of course, governments used to need to order locomotives and rolling stock. And, believe it or not, Australia used to actually be able to build those here rather than ordering them as flatpacks from China.

This may look like the archetypal mid-20th century diesel locomotive known (around these parts at least) as the 42 class. It isn't; it is in fact a spinoff from that class. Specifically, it's a member of the 421 class. An unusual feature of these was the flat faced rear end of the locomotive which included another driver's cabin. The 42 class was built for NSW Government Railways (as it then was) in the mid-1950s. The 421 class was built in the mid-60s. This particular one, the first in the series, was built in 1965. Most of them were eventually sold off to private railroads. The ones which are still operational are currently owned by a company named Aurizon which holds the assets of the former Queensland government railways but is now, you guessed it, a privately owned company.

Out of the 10 built, three have been scrapped. This particular one, 42101, is owned by a historical rail company called 3801 Ltd (3801 being the number of the steam train that the company originally operated) which uses it (along with some other refurbished diesels) to conduct train tours. It has been repainted in the original "Indian red" livery that was used when it was first introduced a service.

I think it's a safe bet, though, that 42101 is kept much cleaner and shinier than she ever was during her labours for the government along the freight lines of New South Wales.