South Australian Railways & Commonwealth Railways
Narrow Gauge
Class operators: South Australian Railways, Commonwealth Railways
Condition: Excellent
Entered service: November 1912
Entered the museum: 11th November 1988
Length (over coupling points): 17’ 9’’
Load Weight: 12 tons
Ownership: Port Dock Station Railway Trust
Provenance: South Australian Railways
Tare Weight: 5 tons 5 cwt
Withdrawn: 1988
General freight was carried over the narrow-gauge rails of the South Australian Railways in large numbers of small 4-wheel wooden open wagons. Wagons 5017 and 5019 belong to this type and were built at the Islington Workshops in November 1912.
Known as the Y-class these wagons were the final development of this type of wagon on the 3’ 6’’ gauge. Built for the Northern System, later the Peterborough Division, they were finally isolated on the Gladstone - Wilmington line with the opening of the standard-gauge line between Port Pirie and Broken Hill in January 1970.
5019 was placed in the Mile End Railway Museum on 24th July 1986, but 5017 came under Australian National ownership on 1st March 1978 and was not obtained by the museum until 1988.
They were sent to the museum on 5th June 1987 and 11th November 1988 respectively.