#VR H-Class H220 “Heavy Harry”

[engineer-gunzelpunk]

Traintober 2023: Out Of Service

Heavy Harry’s Last Train

1956

A sad day for Harry, for he was to pull his final revenue raising train to Melbourne before his overhaul. But the way things were going, everyone doubted if he would actually get it.

He had slept overnight at Seymour before the trip, which was OK because Newport had taken on a charnel house-like atmosphere. The scrap roads filled with exhausted, sad locos ready to be taken apart. It was basically his second home anyway.

Is this the day I finally get to cry? It would be an acceptable excuse to do it.

The tears would not come. He felt drier than the Simpson Desert. Numb.

His cylinders on the other hand, always felt slightly ticklish. And not from those weird happy butterflies he got in them when he saw VR Hudson R700 Nucklevee again, but bad sort of ticklish.

Steam was leaking into them, his regulator was probably broken in addition to his sore, in-need-of-replacement boiler and if it wasn’t for the Westinghouse brake, venting as much steam as he possibly could through his cylinder cocks, safety valve and his sheer willpower in locking them, he would careen off by himself with an 800 tonne load.

He did not want this to happen.

Please, please, please I need my overhaul so bad! Even if you put me in mothballs, at least make me safe!

That’s not going to happen isn’t it?

I’m now an actual danger to myself and people. You can’t really be this negligent, VR? Say it ain’t so? Its one thing to let us get caked in filth, its another thing to lag behind on overhauls just because you want to be rid of us.

You don't care, do you?

I’m about to have my last ride and I’m actively a danger to everyone. I’m trying so very hard…

He was washed and cleaned for his final ride, which didn’t improve his mood a jot but at least he didn’t look as shabby as he did. His paint did shine a little duller though, whether from sadness or from neglect was difficult to tell.

“How are you, Harry…”, asked Driver

“Not great…” he said as if under water.

“I can understand… its a sad day for everyone…”

“I’m shit scared… my regulator is leaking…I can feel the steam in my cylinders even with the regulator shut… I don’t want to do this…”

“Lets try get through today, Har’, we’ll work our darndest to make it safe and get you home...”

“I’m not going to get that overhaul, won’t I…”

“I don’t think so, boy...”

30th of April, 1958

“What are they going to do with me? I’ve been sitting here for two years...I’m bored and antsy… and I haven’t heard from the Historical Society in weeks… Do you have any news, Driver?”

“I’m so sorry, Harry...there’s no nice way of saying this… you are being withdrawn…”

Harry didn’t quite hear Driver say these words, terrible overwhelming fear and confusion flooded his smokebox.

The physical pain that was in his boiler that was now constant but low, suddenly stabbed him and he exhaled sharply.

“No reprieve?”

“No, big fella”

Driver squeezed his knuckle coupling sadly, in an attempt to give him comfort.

“What is to happen to me, Driver…”, he said in a voice that was barely above a murmur.

“We don’t know…the preservationists are working on something… but it will take time…”

That emotional pain that was already there, more of it was being added. But he had to push that aside and think.

“What will you do, Driver…”

“I’m a railwayman, and always have been…

“There’s no place for us in the brave new world of swappable roles they are going to create… easy to drive, easy to train, which was what I suspect was going on the entire time they were doing this diesel introductory thing anyway...

Not a word of thanks for the work and love we put into you and yours, Harry…

I’ll never forget you, big fella…”

Harry wanted so very badly to cry, but the pain could not flow outwards. Instead, it settled back into his cold firebox and burned as bitterness.

The pain in his side flared, as if expressing what he could not.

He just cast his eyes downward and sighed.

There is no light at the end of this tunnel, just another, even bigger fuck-off train ready to barrel through you and out the other side, leaving you in pieces all over the track.

[engineer-gunzelpunk]

Heavy Harry moodboard

I did a thing and made a moodboard of Harry, bits and pieces that reflect what he is and what he is fond of...

(The Victorian Railways seriously put out a poster about demonic vandals... I want a copy of it so bad!)

[engineer-gunzelpunk]

For Greeniebeanie96

For @greeniebeanie96, thank you for drawing my big bloke! Have a drawing of Marija playing with Harry in monster form!

Lots of love, Gunzel XXXXXOOOOXXXXXXXXXX

[engineer-gunzelpunk]

Heavy Harry monster engine form comparison chart

Here's he, in his various sizes... the in-between form in my AU is called the "switch" (because an monster engine in this form can go both ways, as engine and as monster), and yep... he, like SpookyHenry, is demonic...

(I kinda noticed that his size and weight in human form is a bit obscured ... 7.1 ft. 550 lbs), he is pretty massive in all his forms as befits the heaviest loco in Oz.

CW: Blood

Yes, he is a big fucker.

This one is a bit of a work in progress...

[engineer-gunzelpunk]

Harry in the style of @rouxipanda's humanoid engines. I just couldn't help myself, I just really, really like how you depict a humanoid engine, Rouxi!

[engineer-gunzelpunk]

Railway Yards With Chaotic Auras

This picture of H220 exiting the Newport Erecting Shop sometime around late Jan/early Feb of 1941 has kind of a ‘Railway Series’ vibe to it. A bit of ‘confusion and delay’, maybe?

@sodorsteam’s Rook is the face model for that domeless sad D2 on the right!

[engineer-gunzelpunk]

And last but not least, some H220 arts...

Here he is, chilling with @sodorsteam's Rook in his pjs, while SpookyHenry sits in the crook of his arm.

He argues with his driver over Lithgow coal which is too ashy for his big self and requires cleaning his firebox, sometimes two or three times in a single journey. The special coal he prefers is Maitland coal, the high quality anthracite thats similar to Welsh coal.

""C'mon on Harry, we have to use this coal!",

""NO!"

"Its good coal, Har! Highly calorific!",

"Well then, you eat it then! Go on, take a big fucking bite of it!"

"Harry, stop being such a big baby...". "I'M NOT A BABY!"

And now a couple of pictures other people have done, top fellas both!

A commish of my big lad from @ohjeeztrains, thank you soooo much Moff I love it!

"You'll have to excuse me truculence, I just think you are a wanker..."

From my very good mate, @sodorsteam!

[engineer-gunzelpunk]

Happy Birthday Moffitt!

A little gift for a top fella, @ohjeeztrains/@moffittarts, Maximus the Iron Ore engine arm wrestles Heavy Harry. Hope yer birthday has been a good one, mate! 🚂🖤🖤🎂

[engineer-gunzelpunk]

’I lose me teef from time to time…’

Occasionally Harry gets into situations where he does lose some teeth, usually an altercation or falling face first into something. They grow back, cuz he’s a monster and all, but he’ll just be walking around with gaps in his teeth.

[engineer-gunzelpunk]

Happy Service Day H220 ‘Heavy Harry’!

On this day, the seventh of February 1941, Victorian Railways H-Class 4-8-4 (Pocono) H220 "Heavy Harry" was launched at the Newport Workshops, making this his 83rd birthday.

Below is a Fox Movietone cine-reel of that day (no sound).

This above is the only color footage that exists of H220 while he was in service.

And now a few docos...

And a poem, from the official Victorian Railways Newsletter, May 1958 after his withdrawal from service.

Here's to you Heavy Harry; the last remaining three cylinder 4-8-4 tender engine in the world (edited to include : thank you @galushanationalrailways for pulling me up on that error, I have no idea how I shaded that, sorry!) , the first and last of the H-class, the biggest, heaviest engine in Australia; who shook the earth as he ran and the thunder of his passing was like onto a great wind...

[engineer-gunzelpunk]

Heavy Harry AEG-ified, TakeAlong version(WIP)

I’m gonna keep tinkering with him,… so call him Heavy Harry Mrk 1; the character you absolutely don’t want in AEG.

[engineer-gunzelpunk]

Traintober '23: Young Iron

VR H-Class H-220 "Heavy Harry", without his smoke deflectors ,with Dynometer car off screen at Seymour, five days after his entering service on 7/2/1941

"Why do I have to have my smoke deflectors off?".

"So the engineers can shimmy up to your front and read the instruments near your face...", said Driver

"I feel silly... can we hurry this up so I can get them put back on..."

"You look fine, Har'... and no we can't..."

"Hey Rookie, nice haircut... really shows off how fuckin' flat your head is... ha ha ha ha..." yelled a voice off to the side.

Harry could not tell who it was that sledged him, whether it was a human passenger or another engine, so busy was Seymour Yard.

Too late for a riposte.

He sighed unhappily and looked up, trying and failing not to show that it stung.

[engineer-gunzelpunk]

I keep seeing this ad for this white wine "Fat Bastard" at my local train station...

and I couldn't fucking help myself...

Heavy Harry would so get in on it...

Watch this for the full effect...

[engineer-gunzelpunk]

VR H Class Pocono H220 Heavy Harry, the Antipodean Behemoth ("Red And Black Steam On Southern Metals" OC)

Once the bad boy prince of the Victorian Railways fleet, the heaviest engine in Australia; Heavy Harry of Newport Works was a marvel of Australian engineering, built to surmount inclines and run the breadth and width of Victoria. He was powerful, rambunctious and unique… sole extant member of his class, too heavy to take to any track other than the North Eastern line but did his job as a crack fast goods engine well, pulling 800 tonne consists with ease. He clocked over a million miles in his short career, making the earth shake and humans topple over in his wake.

In his day, he was almost as well known to the Victorian people as the Flying Scotsman was to the British, referenced in political cartoons and interviews in The Argus ... and then he simply vanished.

Gone.

Forgotten.

Alas, he almost scrapped along with thousands of others, stripped of his plates and headlamp and left for dead on the scrap roads of Newport Works with a deteriorating boiler. Even as he rotted and slowly lost his sanity on the scrap roads, he was a powerful presence.

He gained his reprieve in 1961, but he was shorn of his naivety; he never forgot the human caprice that laid him low. He is in constant physical pain from his deteriorated boiler which carries over into his human form.

“Heavy” Harry Jack Haining; Mightiest Loco in Australia, hooligan, Anarchist and every bit the picture of an Australian larrikin, an inveterate bogan who loves his beer, footy and smokes… who also happens to be gay and very complicated. And probably a daemon. Even he isn’t entirely sure.

(“Old Harry” is an old English nickname for the Devil, and ‘to play Old Harry’ means to bring ruin, chaos or destruction on something. Appropriate for a very, very angry engine with a habit of derailing and smashing into things during his working life.

Interestingly, a “Harry” in Norway is their equivalent of a bogan, or a yobbo, someone who is working class and vulgar. He finds this very funny. )

He lives over in Newport along with his best mate, the eternal cynic A2 Class No 986 "Pluto"; his brother in arms R707 Cerberus and his sister Andri, R 761; his adopted little sister Prudence, a K-class Consolidation; and the other locos of the Newport Railway Museum/SteamRail/707 Operations… but he is coming to prefer the Island of Sodor, though he cannot ever run as his engine self there or anywhere (boiler in need of replacement, lives with constant pain; also simply too big, the poor state of Victorian rails means he could so easily break them as he did back in the day) , so he goes there as human to visit his boyfriend SpookyHenry every so often.

[engineer-gunzelpunk]

Harry In The Night RWS-ified

Or "Heavy Harry out of Violet Town", a repaint of a photo that was already heavy manipulated to make it look like Heavy Harry was running by night.

(The volley at the Museum said there was hardly any extant footage of Harry in operation as he ran mainly at night on freight trains).

[engineer-gunzelpunk]

Someone beat me to the punch…

… of making a Heavy Harry OC in RWS style.

It’s accompanied by an article under the cut.

The Argus, Tuesday 30th of May, pg 3, 1950

Apparently we had our own version of the Railway Series running in The Argus newspaper, complete with locomotives with faces?! (and arms…! @ohjeeztrains you have to see this…) And it’s interviews with Ol’ H220 himself?

I have to investigate this further, because this is not a one off. I’ve seen at least one other article of this type in old issues of The Argus featuring Heavy Harry as a character.

"Repressions", huh.... hmmmmmm. *side eye*