South Australian Railways

The first railway in South Australia was laid in 1854 between Goolwa and Port Elliot to allow for goods to be transferred between paddle steamers on the Murray River and seagoing vessels.

The locomotives and rolling stock were small, wagons and carriages were of wooden construction, the track and bridges were unsuitable for heavy loads, the workshops had antiquated machinery and the signalling system was inflexible.

Webb introduced a rehabilitation plan based on American railroad principles of large, standardised locomotives and steel bodied freight wagons, with automatic couplers to enable a significant increase in productivity.

Lightly patronised passenger trains would be replaced by self-propelled rail cars, enabling faster, more frequent and more efficient services.

Apart from some initial teething problems (mainly to do with overheating bearings and rough riding due to excessive play allowed on driving axles) the new locomotives settled in nicely to their assigned positions.

[2] The 500 class was rated to haul 400 tons over the Mount Lofty Ranges immediately east of Adelaide, where a 19-mile (31 km) continuous 1-in-45 (2.2%) gradient faced trains heading for Victoria.

In the pre-Webb era the Rx class - a 4-6-0 with a Belpaire firebox was rated at 190 tons for this line, with three of them required to lift a heavy Melbourne Express - two at the front and one banking from the rear.

In 1949, the diesel era started, tentatively, with two Bo-Bo 350 class shunting locomotives, designed and built by Islington Works and incorporating British components.

Subsequently, and coincidentally, the SAR exclusively purchased American Locomotive Company products made under licence in Sydney by AE Goodwin: the 930, 830, 600 and 700 classes.

A major change occurred in 1970, when the remaining 400 kilometres (250 miles) length of the Sydney-Perth rail corridor that was not built to 1435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) standard gauge, the Port Pirie-Broken Hill line, was gauge-converted.

The Government of South Australia took up the offer, but elected to retain the Adelaide metropolitan services, which were transferred to the State Transport Authority.

Y71 steam locomotive on display at the Western Australian Rail Transport Museum
The horsedrawn Goolwa to Port Elliot railway, in 1860
William Webb , who transformed South Australian Railways in the 1920s
A 500 class locomotive introduced by Webb to haul heavy trains over the Adelaide Hills
The SAR 900 class diesel-electric locomotive , built by the SAR and designed particularly for the demanding Adelaide Hills route, entered service in 1951
John A. Fargher, a mechanical engineer by profession, became the Railways Commissioneer in 1953. He was Assistant to his predecessor in 1949 on an inspection of gypsum loading facilities at Kevin , on the narrow-gauge Port Lincoln Division . [ 11 ]