South Australian Railways 500 class | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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![]() 522 at Mount Gambier in South Australian Railways paint scheme to which ANR (Australian National Railways) branding has been added | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The 500 class is a class of South Australian Railways diesel shunter locomotives built at Islington Railway Workshops between 1964 and 1969.
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]