steam locomotive on display at the
Western Australian Rail Transport Museum Colonial period 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
Goolwa station was built on the Wharf precinct, alongside the River Murray. The next railway was laid from the harbour at
Port Adelaide, to the capital, Adelaide, and was laid with
Irish gauge track. This line was opened in 1856. Later on, branch lines in the state's north in the mining towns of
Kapunda and
Burra were linked through to the Adelaide metropolitan system. From here, a south main line extended to meet the horse tramway from
Victor Harbor to
Strathalbyn, and towards the
South Australia/
Victoria Border. The metropolitan lines were built to broad gauge, but the mid north and south-east of the state were laid with
narrow-gauge track. These systems were closely based on British practice, as was the broad gauge system prior to 1926. Locomotives and rolling stock were bought from the United Kingdom and United States, from builders such as
Beyer, Peacock & Company,
Dübs and Company,
North British Locomotive Company, and
Baldwin Locomotive Works.
Rehabilitation , who transformed South Australian Railways in the 1920s In 1922, after the SAR's worst financial deficit, the government appointed American railroad manager
William Webb, from the
Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad as Chief Commissioner. When Webb arrived in
Adelaide with his young family, he found a railway system unchanged since the latter decades of the 19th century. 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. These attributes drove up the ratio of operating costs to revenue. Webb introduced a rehabilitation plan based on American railroad principles of large, standardised locomotives and steel-bodied freight cars, with automatic "
knuckle" couplers (replacing hook-and-chain) to enable a significant increase in productivity. Lightly patronised passenger trains were replaced by self-propelled
railcars, enabling faster, more frequent and more efficient services. He recruited young engineer Fred Shea as his chief mechanical engineer and had him prepare specifications for this new equipment. This resulted in orders being placed for 1200 freight cars of four types from
American Car and Foundry and 30 locomotives based on
American Locomotive Company designs but built by
Armstrong Whitworth & Co in the United Kingdom. These were of the
Mountain,
Pacific and
Mikado wheel arrangements, 10 of each type, which became the
500,
600, and
700 class locomotives. At the same time, 12 petrol-mechanical
railcars from the Service Motors Corporation,
Wabash, Indiana were ordered, to provide services more cheaply than by locomotive-hauled trains. The broad-gauge system was the main focus of Webb's rehabilitation scheme. The narrow gauge systems north of
Terowie and on the
Eyre Peninsula remained untouched, as did the narrow-gauge South Eastern division (although it was subsequently
converted to broad gauge in the early 1950s). Webb decided not to extend his contract in 1930 and returned to the US, having revolutionised the SAR.
Post-Depression period In 1936, the SAR owned 365 locomotives, 51 railcars, 408 passenger carriages, 38 brake vans and 8,219 goods wagons. The following year, ten
620 class 4-6-2 Pacific type locomotives, designed and built at the SAR's
Islington Works – were introduced. Their axle load enabled them to traverse the many rural lines laid with 60-pound rail, but they were also usefully deployed on the
East-West Express between Adelaide and
Port Pirie following the extension of the broad gauge line north from Redhill to Port Pirie in 1937. , built by the SAR and designed particularly for the demanding
Adelaide Hills route, entered service in 1951 Two years later, the SAR's first mainline diesel-electric locomotives entered service: the
900 class, also designed and built by Islington Railway Workshops. Their styling closely followed that of the
Alco PA diesels in the United States. 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. In the 1950s, railcars were introduced: the
250 and 100 class "Bluebirds" for regional services and the
300 and 400 class "Red Hens" for Adelaide suburban services. A major change occurred in 1970, when the remaining length of the
Sydney-Perth rail corridor that was not built to standard gauge, the
Port Pirie-Broken Hill line, was
gauge-converted. In the
1972 election, the
Whitlam Federal Government made a commitment to invite the states to hand over their railway systems to the federal government. 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. Financial responsibility for the remaining services passed to the
federal government on 1 July 1975, although the SAR continued services until operations were formally transferred on 1 March 1978 to the
Australian National Railways Commission. The penultimate head of the SAR, commissioner
Ron Fitch, reflecting on the end of the railway administration, wrote: "The merging of the major part of the SAR into the
Australian National Railways Commission, and the remainder into the South Australian State Transport Authority, cannot but tend to consign the former state railway system into eventual oblivion. But posterity should not be allowed to forget its achievements: • The Goolwa to Port Elliot railway, the first public railway in Australia. • The first publicly owned railway in the British Empire; that between Adelaide and Port Adelaide. • The Darwin to Pine Creek and the Port Augusta to Oodnadatta railways, built ... as part of the grand concept of a north-south transcontinental rail link. • Its gesture, together with the gentlemen of the Silverton Tramway Company, in providing a rail connection to Broken Hill, at a time when NSW declined to do so. • The introduction into the Australian railways in the 1920s of large steam locomotive power. • The installation of the nation's first train control system. • The design and construction of what were then the world's finest sleeping cars. • The placing into scheduled service on the mainland of Australia the first mainline diesel-electric locomotive." ==Locomotive and railcar classes==