 By 1970, only seven of the class remained intact.R 707 and R 761 continued to haul various special trains until both were withdrawn in 1974 as their boiler certificates expired, and with their withdrawal came the end of over a century of mainline steam locomotive operation on Victorian Railways.R class locomotives saw a relatively brief but notable return to operation of regularly scheduled mainline passenger rail services when in the late 1990s, two of the remaining locomotives were extensively modified and returned to service.