The 600 class are a class of diesel-electric locomotives manufactured by

AE Goodwin AE Goodwin was an Australian heavy engineering firm, which produced railway locomotives and rolling stock, as well as roadmaking machinery at its factory in Auburn. History Founded in December 1935 by Arthur Elliott Goodwin, the company was ...

Auburn Auburn may refer to: Places Australia * Auburn, New South Wales * City of Auburn, the local government area *Electoral district of Auburn *Auburn, Queensland, a locality in the Western Downs Region *Auburn, South Australia *Auburn, Tasmania *Aub ...

for the

South Australian Railways South Australian Railways (SAR) was the statutory corporation through which the Government of South Australia built and operated railways in South Australia from 1854 until March 1978, when its non-urban railways were incorporated into Austr ...

between 1965 and 1970.

History

The 600 class were built by

Alco The American Locomotive Company (often shortened to ALCO, ALCo or Alco) was an American manufacturer of locomotives, diesel generators, steel, and tanks that operated from 1901 to 1969. The company was formed by the merger of seven smaller locomo ...

's Australian licensee

and are based on the Alco DL-541 model. Forty similar examples were built by AE Goodwin for the

New South Wales Government Railways The New South Wales Government Railways (NSWGR) was the agency of the Government of New South Wales that administered rail transport in New South Wales, Australia, between 1855 and 1932. Management The agency was managed by a range of differe ...

as the 45 class in 1962-64. Two were built in April 1965 for use on standard gauge construction trains and with completion imminent, a further five were delivered in 1969/70.Standard Gauge 600 class
Chris' Commonwealth Railway Pages They were the only South Australian Railways diesels to never operate on the Broad Gauge. They primarily operated services between

Broken Hill Broken Hill is an inland mining city in the far west of outback New South Wales, Australia. It is near the border with South Australia on the crossing of the Barrier Highway (A32) and the Silver City Highway (B79), in the Barrier Range. It is ...

and

Port Pirie Port Pirie is a small city on the east coast of the Spencer Gulf in South Australia, north of the state capital, Adelaide. The city has an expansive history which dates back to 1845. Port Pirie was the first proclaimed regional city in South ...

. They later operated to

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

and Leigh Creek. In March 1978, the 600s were included in the transfer of South Australian Railways to Australian National. From July 1982 until October 1985, some were hired to the

State Rail Authority The State Rail Authority, a former statutory authority of the Government of New South Wales, operated and maintained railways in the Australian state of New South Wales from July 1980 until December 2003. History The ''Transport Authorities Ac ...

where they were based at

Goulburn Goulburn ( ) is a regional city in the Southern Tablelands of the Australian state of New South Wales, approximately south-west of Sydney, and north-east of Canberra. It was proclaimed as Australia's first inland city through letters pate ...

to operate freight services on the

Main South Main South (or South Main) is a neighborhood in southern Worcester, Massachusetts. The area's eponymous feature is Main Street, the central roadway of the city. Main South experienced rapid economic development from the 1890s until the 1950s. H ...

and

Illawarra The Illawarra is a coastal region in the Australian state of New South Wales, nestled between the mountains and the sea. It is situated immediately south of Sydney and north of the South Coast region. It encompasses the two cities of Wollongo ...

lines. 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 600 becoming 607. In 1994, four were converted to Booster Units by Morrison Knudsen Australia's

Whyalla Whyalla was founded as "Hummocks Hill", and was known by that name until 1916. It is the fourth most populous city in the Australian state of South Australia after Adelaide, Mount Gambier and Gawler and along with Port Pirie and Port Augusta ...

factory to operate with Australian National's ALF class locomotives. This involved removing the cab and engine, retaining four of the six bogie traction motors and filling the engine bay with 30 tonnes of concrete with the idea of increasing traction at low speed. They were not successful and placed in store in 1996. Australian Southern Railroad trialled BU1 in 2000, but it soon returned to store. All were scrapped in 2009. When Australian National was sold to Australian Southern Railroad in October 1997, the remaining 3 units were included in the sale. They were later sold by ASR in October 2004 to

South Spur Rail Services South Spur Rail Services was a Western Australian owned railway company that provides terminal operations and short haul rail services. In February 2006, it purchased Silverton Rail. In March 2007, it was sold to Coote Industrial, then in Ma ...

and were transferred to

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

. SSRS sold the business and locomotives to Coote Industrial in March 2007. As at October 2014 only two remained in service. In April 2016, these were sold to

Southern Shorthaul Railroad Southern Shorthaul Railroad is an Australian rail freight services operator in New South Wales and Victoria. The company also provides workshop services, such as rolling stock manufacturing and wagon and locomotive maintenance. History South ...

and are currently stored, 602 was returned to service in 2017."Greentrans rollingstock sold to Holdco Holdings" ''Railway Digest'' June 2016 page 6

References

{{South Australian Railways locos, state=collapsed A. E. Goodwin locomotives Co-Co locomotives Locomotives with cabless variants Railway locomotives introduced in 1965

600 __NOTOC__ 600 (Roman numerals, DC) was a leap year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. The denomination 600 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar ...

Standard gauge locomotives of Australia Diesel-electric locomotives of Australia