South Australian Railways 500 class (diesel)

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]

• 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.