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Pacific National NR 84

(Based on how the real NR 84 looks in her post-December 2019 condition. This variant of the Pacific National livery is also carried by NR's 14 and 34).

NR 84 is part of a class of 120 locomotives. They were all built by A Goninan & Co. between 1996 and 1998, with NR 84 being one of the sixty engines built at Bassendean in Western Australia. NR's 1 to 60 were built at Broadmeadow in New South Wales. More information on the NR class can be found on the 'SeaTrain NR 56' page:
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2078546976

The entire class was originally outshopped in National Rail orange and grey. Over the years, some of them received special liveries while most of the class is now in the standard Pacific National blue. NR 84 was one of two locomotives that received the Southern Spirit livery back in 2010. The other one was NR 85, and a while back I made a Southern Spirit re-skin which I will eventually link to.

The Southern Spirit was a luxury tourist train introduced by Great Southern Rail in June 2008, with the first service scheduled to run in November 2008. It was intended that the train run all over Australia and run from November one year to February the next.

The first train ran ended up being delayed until the 9th of January 2010, running from Uluru (otherwise known as Ayers Rock) to Brisbane over 13 nights. The itinerary included visits to several notable locations, including Alice Springs, Coober Pedy, Kangaroo Island, Philip Island and the Hunter Valley. The trips cost between 7,000 and 14,000 Australian dollars, depending on the cruise and class of travel.

As part of the project, NR's 84 and 85 were repainted in the distinctive Southern Spirit livery of green and white. Passenger coaches for this service were built by Commonwealth Engineering in the 1960s, and originally used on The Ghan and Indian Pacific.

In its short lifespan, the Southern Spirit's tours mainly focused around Adelaide, Melbourne and Brisbane. The service didn't last very long, as it was given the axe in February 2012.

After the cancellation of the Southern Spirit, NR's 84 and 85 continued running in their distinctive green and white livery, but were used primarily on freight trains. This made them stand out from the normal engines in Pacific National blue.

The Southern Spirit livery ceased to exist in 2019. In November of that year, NR 84 was repainted into a modified version of Pacific National blue. This 'modded' livery carries an advertisement to try and encourage the use of freight trains in Australia.

As for NR 85, she has now been repainted in standard Pacific National blue. Both engines are now used on run-of-the-mill Pacific National freight trains.