A Hagans advertisment of the day, illustrating the huge machine built for Tasmania.
Upon entering service on the North East Dundas, she was the world's most powerful 2ft gauge locomotive, she was the only one of its class, custom designed and built by Herman Hagans. She was also unusual for a Hagans locomotive having a pilot truck. She outwardly looked like a 2-10-0T, but was a swivel frame design, 2-6-4-0T. She became the Tasmanian 'J' class.
Initial trials on the railway had mixed success. Her tractive efforts was unsurpassed, but her somewhat limited frame flexibility cause her to spread the light rails, and damaged trackwork would plague most of her career. She provided excellent service to the tramway until 1928 when her boiler was decommissioned. The line had also been using 0-4-0+0-4-0 Garretts since 1910, but upon the Hagans withdrawal, no locomotives on the line could haul anything like what the Hagans could, and without her power, a lot of strain was put on the line and the remaining locos. Constant requests were placed for the 2nd boiler to be brought to the railway in order to put the Hagans back into service, but the boiler was situated several hundred Kms away, and moving it was too costly. The line temporarily closed in 1928, then reopened to press on with the two K class Garretts alone for the next 4 years, closing finally in 1932. Like many a Tasmanian story, the Hagans was never really scrapped, she just fell apart in the rot yard. Today there only remains the front cab wall of once the most powerful 2ft gauge loco in the world.
The Hagans seen with one of the earlier Sharp Steward locos - a good indication of side difference!
As an interesting note about specs, the Hagans 2-6-4-0T weighed in at 41.38 tons, whereas the small locos she replaced were the Sharp Stewart 0-4-2T of only 19 ton....Yet the axle loading of the Hagans was approx half a ton lighter than the S. Stewart. It was not her weight so much as her length, that caused the rails to spread. She had an unbelievable 23,885 lb tractive effort...that's almost the tractive effort of the D&RG 3ft gauge C-25. In contrast the 0-4-0+0-4-0 K class Garretts weighed 33.5 tons and had an axle load 1 ton heavier than the Hagans, but due to their greater flexibility, did not spread the rails.