South Australian Railways 700 class (steam)

The South Australian Railways 700 class was a class of ten 2-8-2 steam locomotives delivered by Armstrong Whitworth of Newcastle upon Tyne in 1926 as part of William Webb's rehabilitation of the South Australian Railways. They were designed to run on broad gauge branch lines laid with 60 lb rail. The first, number 700, reached Port Adelaide in March 1926 and made a trial run in April, and the other nine arrived that June. They worked mostly freight trains but also hauled passenger services. In 1927 locomotive 706 was given a cast Delta trailing bogie and a booster, and ten near-identical 710 class engines built at the Islington workshops in 1928 had boosters from new. The weight of boosters brought restrictions on the 60 lb lines in the 1930s, and coal shortages after the Second World War led to some of the class being converted to oil. The first two were withdrawn in June 1959, and 700 ran the last farewell tour, Sayonara Mikado, on 1 and 2 June 1968. Number 702 is preserved at the National Railway Museum in Port Adelaide.