Upon commencing operations in April 1993 National Rail inherited a diverse collection of rolling stock to operate interstate freight operations in Australia. The fleet included locomotives of mixed age and power leased from FreightCorp, V/Line and Australian National.

In September 1995 A Goninan & Co were awarded a contract for 120 locomotives from National Rail which were built at their Broadmeadow (NR1-NR60) and Bessendean (NR61-NR120) factories. The frames were built at Hexham and the bogies at Goninan's Landsdowne Engineering subsidiary in Taree.

The first locomotive to be completed was NR61 which performed its first trial on 18 September 1996 between Midland and Jumpakine. The first Broadmeadow built unit first ran on 23 September 1996. The first units were delivered without National Rail branding or logos, but later units were delivered in full livery. Testing of the units was carried out on the NSW Main Northern line between Werris Creek and Maitland using ballast wagons and 442 class locomotives in dynamic braking mode as dynamic loads. Each locomotive was required to accumulate 10,000 km of trouble free running before acceptance. In February 1998 Broadmeadow delivered the last NR class.

As part of its contract, A Goninan & Co was required to maintain the fleet. A depot was built alongside the Newport to Sunshine railway in the western Melbourne suburb of Spotswood for this.

NR3 was involved in an accident at Robertson resulting in the death of two crew members, it was rebuilt as NR121. In June 2006 NR33 was involved in level crossing incident, being the third locomotive on a Melbourne to Adelaide freight service, behind DL40 and NR52. It was subsequently written off and scrapped.

Source: Wikipedia

During 2013, Pacific National and UGL Rail began a repowering program for the NR Class at Spotswood (Melbourne, Vic). The program revolves around the provision of a new engine and compressor, as well as the capacity for in-line fueling. External indicators of the rebuilt are LED markerlights, headlights and ditchlights, fitted as part of the rebuild. Also during 2013, some members of the class have been fitted with ECP/WDP braking systems for use on NSW quarry traffic. These locomotives are being reclassified as the NRE Class.

Source: Motive Power (Issue 87, June/July 2013)