End of the Line: V1220 Pulled the Last WAGR Steam Service — Now It's on a Coin
Some locomotives retire quietly. V1220 didn't. It hauled the very last Western Australian Government Railways steam service in 1972, handed over to diesel, and never ran again. That's a finish worth remembering.
This 2025 50c Coloured Uncirculated Coin from the Royal Australian Mint's Steam Giants – Australian Rail Heritage collection features V1220 — a V Class locomotive with an unusual history and a clean ending.
V1220 was built in 1955, a decade after the war, when Western Australian Railways was rebuilding its fleet. The V Class machines were substantial. V1220 was specifically built with standard gauge conversion in mind — the WAGR wanted the option to re-gauge if the network ever shifted. That's a level of planning you don't often see written into a steam locomotive's design, and it tells you something about how the V Class was regarded at the time.
Diesel came anyway. V1220 was retired earlier than it might have been, pushed aside before it had run its useful life out. But it got one last job. In 1972 it hauled the final WAGR steam service, closing out decades of steam operations in Western Australia. After that, preservation. It's now on display at the Railway Museum in Bassendean, well maintained and properly recognised.
The coin: 31.51mm diameter, 15.55 grams, copper-nickel, uncirculated finish. Mintage is capped at 35,000. Price is $17.50.
For WA collectors this one needs no explanation. For collectors elsewhere, the draw is the history — a locomotive designed for a future that never arrived, finishing as the last of its kind on the system. There's something in that worth owning.
The Steam Giants series covers locomotives from across Australia. Individual coins can be bought without committing to the full series, though the range is broad enough that most collectors end up going back for more.
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