South Australian Railways '600c' class 4-6-2

Designed by Chief Mechanical Engineer Fred Shea.
Built at Newcastle-on-Tyne 1926.

CYLINDERS (2) 24 ins x 28 ins (610mm x 711mm)
COUPLED WHEEL DIAMETER 75 ins (1,905mm)
TOTAL HEATING SURFACE 4,026 square feet (374.02m²)
(including superheater)
GRATE AREA 55 square feet (5.11m²)
BOILER PRESSURE 215 PSI (1,482 kpa)
TRACTIVE EFFORT 39,300lbs (17,826.5k)
TOTAL WEIGHT 200 tons (203.2 tonnes)
LENGTH OVERALL 79 feet 6 ins (24,231.6mm)

The second of the 'Webb' engines but not as well known by the South Australian public as the 500 class 'Mountain types'. A couple were stationed at Mile End to work the Northern expresses to Port Pirie and Terowie. The remainder spent their time at Tailem Bend working Southbound passenger and freight trains as well as 'The Overland' to Serviceton.

Bigger than all the famous British 'Pacifics' the 600's were never able to show their true worth as a high speed express passenger locomotive due to limitations imposed on most South Australian mainlines, although 80 mph was rumoured to have been exceeded on more than one occasion.

Modifications carried out over their life time included the fitting of smoke deflectors, boiler upgrades increasing their starting tractive effort and the provision of automatic stokers on five whilst the remaining five were converted to burn oil fuel as well as coal, greatly reducing the fireman's workload.

As with the 500 class the 600's also suffered initial teething problems but once these were sorted out they gave excellent service from 1927 until all of them had been scrapped by 1960. Unfortunately not one of these noble machines were retained for preservation.