The South Australian Railways 500 class was a class of

4-8-2 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents the wheel arrangement of four leading wheels, eight powered and coupled driving wheels and two trailing wheels. This type of steam locomotive is commonly known as t ...

steam locomotive A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, oil or, rarely, wood) to heat water in the locomot ...

s operated by 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 ...

. They were rebuilt as

4-8-4 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents the wheel arrangement of four leading wheels on two axles, eight powered and coupled driving wheels on four axles and four trailing wheels on two axles. The type w ...

History

The 500 class were part of larger order for 30 steam locomotives placed with

Armstrong Whitworth Sir W G Armstrong Whitworth & Co Ltd was a major British manufacturing company of the early years of the 20th century. With headquarters in Elswick, Newcastle upon Tyne, Armstrong Whitworth built armaments, ships, locomotives, automobiles and a ...

, England, in 1924, as part of the rehabilitation of the state's rail system being overseen by Railways Commissioner William Webb. They replaced the Rx and S class locomotives, many dating back to 1894, that were still performing mainline duties, meaning that double and even triple heading was common. All ten 500-class locomotives arrived in

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 ...

in 1926, and entered service on the Adelaide to Wolseley line as far as

Tailem Bend Tailem Bend (locally, "Tailem") is a rural town in South Australia, south-east of the state capital of Adelaide. It is located on the lower reaches of the River Murray, near where the river flows into Lake Alexandrina. It is linear in layout s ...

. All were named after notable South Australians.

Rebuilding

In May 1928, 506 was experimentally fitted with a booster, included in a newly created four wheel

trailing truck On a steam locomotive, a trailing wheel or trailing axle is generally an unpowered wheel or axle ( wheelset) located behind the driving wheels. The axle of the trailing wheels is usually located in a trailing truck. On some large locomotives, ...

. This American-inspired modification proved highly successful, increasing the locomotive's tractive effort from to . This modification was subsequently fitted to the nine remaining locomotives, resulting in the class becoming the

class 500B. Throughout the mid-1930s all but two of the locomotives in the class were semi-streamlined and had valances fitted. The first two 500-class locomotives were withdrawn from service in 1955 and the last was withdrawn in 1962. 504 is preserved as a static exhibit at the

National Railway Museum, Port Adelaide Australia's National Railway Museum is the largest railway museum in Australia. More than 100 major exhibits, mainly from the South Australian Railways (SAR) and Commonwealth Railways and their successor, Australian National Railways Commissio ...

History

Rebuilding

Class list

References

Further reading