85 Class

The New South Wales 85 class were a class of 10 electric locomotives built by Comeng, Granville between May 1979 and July 1980 for the State Rail Authority.

Design
At time of introduction, they were the most powerful locomotives in Australia with a rating of 2880 kW. They were double ended locomotives with two pantographs. As they were similar in shape to the diesel 80 class locomotives, some were fitted with an illuminated "E" on the nose to reduce the number of incidents where shunters sent the locomotive onto an unwired track.

In Service
Based at Lithgow depot, they were purchased principally to haul coal trains. They also hauled other freight trains and on occasions passenger services including the Indian Pacific. Following the Illawarra line being electrified in 1986, 85s began to operate coal trains from Lithgow through to Port Kembla. They also occasionally hauled coal services from Glenlee Colliery on the Main South line to Port Kembla and Rozelle. They did not operate on the Main North line although in 1993 some were hauled to Taree for repainting into the FreightCorp blue livery at Landsdowne Engineering.

In later years, National Rail elected to use diesel locomotives on electrified lines and a move to an open access model in New South Wales resulted in electric traction being priced out of the market. As a result, the 85 class were withdrawn in April 1998 and stored at Lithgow.

In July 2000, FreightCorp moved three of the class to Werris Creek. Two were sold for preservation, 8501 to the Sydney Electric Train Society and 8507 to the Dorrigo Steam Railway and Museum. As of November 2018, both are stored at Werris Creek. The remainder were sold in 2003 to Silverton Rail and scrapped at Broken Hill.