#3797
South Australian Railways 500 class (diesel)
🇦🇺 Australia ·built by Islington Railway Workshops· from 1964· class of 34 Australian diesel-electric locomotives
2 photos from Wikimedia Commons · credits & licences
- 1. 500 class South Australian Loco: John Masson· CC BY-SA 3.0
- 2. Locomotive 518 at Newport, 1-3-26: Alzaar Ahmed· CC BY 4.0
what is it?
The 500 class is a class of South Australian Railways diesel shunter locomotives built at Islington Railway Workshops between 1964 and 1969.
who runs it
base stats
Bars compare against all trains: 600 km/h (maglev), 1,700 seats; power, weight and number built on a log scale up to 20 MW, 1,000 t and 20,000 built.
fun facts
- First built 62 years ago, in 1964.
- 410 kW is about 5 family cars (~85 kW each) flat out.
- 11.6 m long: about 3 cars parked nose to tail.
diesel locomotive: A diesel engine on board drives the wheels, usually through a generator (diesel-electric).
spec sheet
- built
- 1964–1969
- in service from
- 1964
- status
- preserved
- number built
- 34
- kind
- Diesel-electric
- traction
- diesel
- origin
- 🇦🇺 Australia
- builders
- Islington Railway Workshops
- operators
- South Australian Railways
- top speed
- 64 km/h
- power
- 410 kW
- gauge
- 1,435 mm standard gauge
- wheel arrangement
- Bo-Bo
- length
- 11.6 m
From the Wikipedia infobox and Wikidata. Blank means the sources don't say.
Sources: Wikidata Q7566137, Wikipedia: South Australian Railways 500 class (diesel) (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-25.