The 600 class is a class of mainline diesel locomotives of the South Australian Railways

South Australian Railways

South Australian Railways built and operated railways in South Australia from 1854 to the incorporation of its non-urban railways into the Australian National Railways Commission in 1975, together with the former Commonwealth Railways and the former Tasmanian Government Railways...

. They were built by A. E. Goodwin

A. E. Goodwin

A. E. Goodwin was an Australian heavy engineering firm, which produced railway locomotives and rolling stock, as well as roadmaking machinery....

. They have a Co-Co wheelbase.

The locomotive is a hood type with a long and short end and the driving position in the middle.

An automatic staff exchanger

Token (railway signalling)

In railway signalling, a token is a physical object which a locomotive driver is required to have or see before entering onto a particular section of single track. The token is clearly endorsed with the name of the section it belongs to...

 was fitted in the beginning on the opposite side as the NSW equivalent.

Alone among former SAR locomotives these were only ever operated on Standard Gauge - never on Broad Gauge.

After privatisation they have also moved interstate.

The locomotive were similar to the New South Wales 45 class locomotive

New South Wales 45 class locomotive

The New South Wales 45 class are a class of diesel-electric locomotives built for and operated by the New South Wales Government Railways from 1962...

. Differences include lack of buffing plate or buffers.

Hire to NSW Railways

In the 1980's some class members were leased to the NSWSRA to operate in NSW, which had also begun the upgrading of some 45 class which at that point were banned from leading. These were renumbered as 35 class (2 were 451 and then 35 class).

BU class

4 were rebuilt as the BU class which had only the Engine bay filled with cement and Traction motors in the bogies. The idea was to increase traction. They were stored for most of their lives until scrapped in 2009. BU1 did get used with Australian Southern Railroad but was returned to NREC Alco who owned the loco's.

Models

The 600 class was produced in HO scale by AR kit Co in both Ready to Run and Kit. AR kit Co also produced the 45 class of the NSWR in the same fashion.

Present

The three remaining class members are owned by Coote Industral Rail and all are in service in New South Wales and all still remain in AN Green/Yellow Scheme.

Trivia

There was an earlier steam locomotive class with the same numbering.