South Australian Railways 500 class (diesel)
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The 500 class were a class of South Australian Railways diesel shunter locomotives built at Islington Railway Workshops between 1964 and 1969.
History
[edit]Thirty-four 500 class locomotives were built, all incorporating English Electric traction and control equipment. The first 27 were built with broad gauge bogies; the last seven with standard gauge bogies. They operated in yards at Gladstone, Murray Bridge, Naracoorte, Peterborough, Port Pirie, Tailem Bend and Wallaroo, and were deployed extensively in Adelaide.[1]
In March 1978 all were included in the transfer of the South Australian Railways to Australian National. Some were transferred to Port Augusta. In 1986, a new computer system required the class leaders of the former South Australian Railways to be renumbered as the last member of the class, with 500 becoming 534.[2]
Most were scrapped in the mid-1990s, and the remaining locomotives were included in the sale of Australian National's South Australian operations to Australian Southern Railroad in October 1997.[3][4][5][6]
Surviving locomotives
[edit]- 507 owned by SteamRanger, where it is commonly used on Cockle Train duties between Goolwa and Victor Harbor
- 508 owned by Aurizon, stored at Whyalla, South Australia[7]
- 515 preserved at the National Railway Museum, Port Adelaide as their standard gauge shunter[8]
- 517 was donated to the National Railway Museum, Port Adelaide by Genesee & Wyoming Australia, stored
- 518 is privately owned, stored at the Newport Railway Workshops, Victoria.
- 527 was donated to SteamRanger by Australian Railroad Group in October 2010[9]
- 532 was donated to Steamtown Heritage Rail Centre by Genesee & Wyoming Australia in June 2012[10][11]
- 533 (renumbered 53) owned by Bluebird Rail Operations, Islington Railway Workshops, stored.
References
[edit]- ^ Oberg, Leon (1984). Locomotives of Australia 1850s – 1980s. Frenchs Forest: Reed Books. p. 250. ISBN 0-730100-05-7.
- ^ "Australian National Broken Hill Line Report" Railway Digest October 1986 page 314
- ^ Broad & Standard Gauge 500-class diesel electric locomotives Chris' Commonwealth Railways Pages
- ^ 500 Class (diesel, South Australia) Railpage
- ^ 500 Class Rail SA
- ^ 500 Class Vicsig
- ^ "Australia Wide Fleet List" Motive Power issue 96 November 2014 page 67
- ^ 515 National Railway Museum
- ^ HRSA November Meeting Report Archived 21 February 2014 at the Wayback Machine Heritage Rail South Australia November 2010
- ^ Shunter returns home The Flinders News 21 July 2012
- ^ Annual Report 2011/12 District Council of Peterborough