South Australian Railways 4-4-0 Locomotives in Australia

Class D class (Locobase 3798)

From Chris Drymalik's web site ([]) and [] (27 May 2004).

Drymalik notes that they came in singles and pairs. Two landed in 1859, two in 1862, two in 1866, and two in 1867.

All 8 were rebuilt in the 1880s with a smaller boiler (805 sq ft). This was not a tight class for retirements. The first (D11) in 1896, D17 followed in 1900, then D9 and D15 in 1904. For some reason, the others didn't follow until the late 1920s (D16 & D18 in 1928, D12 in 1929, and finally (and improbably, given that she was the first in service) D8 in November 1932.

Class Ge (Locobase 5676)

Data from Douglas Colquhoun's entries presented in the Australian national railway museum site: [] (visited 14 October 2003).

Originally delivered to the Glenelg Railway in 1896 (works # 3873-4, railway # 11-12). , The SAR took them over on 16 December 1899. 165 was condemned on 4 June 1935, more than 6 years after 166, which was retired on 9 April 1929.

Colquhoun's data shows 13 x 16" cylinders, but a tractive effort commensurate with 13 x 18". I've adopted the later stroke.

Class H (Locobase 5678)

Data from Douglas Colquhoun's entries presented in the Australian national railway museum site: [] (visited 14 October 2003).

Small Stephenson 4-4-0s for the Australian broad gauge using the same boiler and running gear as the earlier C-class 2-4-0s from the same builder. The numbering must be retrospective because the locomotives went into service as follows:

SAR # works numbers In service

25-27 1992-1994 May 1871

28-29 2015-2016 October 1872

30-31 2128-2129 August 1874

2-3 2303-2304 June & July 1877

All were rebuilt in the 1880s, with 25 & 26 going out of service soon thereafter. The others all carried on into the 1920s, with 2 the last to be condemned in February 1930.

Class L (Locobase 5681)

Data from Douglas Colquhoun's entries presented in the Australian national railway museum site: [] (visited 14 October 2003). Works numbers were 1883-1886.

This quartet was delivered as 4-4-0T tank engines, but clearly that didn't work out well as all 4 were rebuilt as tender engines within the year. The revision just as clearly satisfied the railroad as all of the class remained in service for at least 45 years and 3 made the 50-year mark.

Class Q (Locobase 5685)

Data from Douglas Colquhoun's entries presented in the Australian national railway museum site: [] (visited 14 October 2003).

This large group of 8-wheelers was supplied in two batches, one from Great Britain (well, Scotland) and one from Australia itself. The first 15 were built as a batch by Dubs & Company of Glasgow (works numbers 2030-2044). Six years later the James Martin company of Gawler supplied 7 more (works numbers 45-51).

No important changes apparently made to the class, although they were soon replaced by the 78" drivered S class in mainline service. But they carried on for decades. Except for #79, which was withdrawn in July 1923, the others were retired in two blocks in 1936. The James Martin engines went first in April (as did Dubs-built 89), and 12 more in December. #90, for some reason, was held off from the scrapper until August 1956.

Class S (Locobase 5686)

Data from Douglas Colquhoun's entries presented in the Australian national railway museum site: [] (visited 14 October 2003).

This class of high-drivered express engines was built entirely in Australia in 3 batches. Six (works # 71-76) were delivered in February-April 1894, six more (works # 93-98) that October, and the last six (176-181) in late 1903-early 1904.

From the time of introduction, these were the SAR's principal express engines. In addition to running between Serviceton and Tailem Bend on the mainline, the S' class worked northern routes to Terowie and Kapunda. In later years, this meant double-heading because of the increasing weight of the trains.

As locomotive artist Peter Ormsby -- [] (visited 25 October 2003) -- notes on his website, the S class was squeezed out of mainline operation in the 1920s both by new 600-class Pacifics and by the acquistiion of American diesel railcars - 12 from Service Motors (Wabash, Ind) in 1924 and 35 JG Brill "Barwell Bulls" in 1926.

Relegated to secondary service, for which their tall drivers didn't really suit them, the S class was superseded in the 1930s by the 620-class light Pacifics. Even so, the locomotives remained in service into the mid-1950s, with a few retiring only in 1960 and 1961.