700 class diesel locomotive No.703
South Australian Railways
Broad Gauge
Class Operators: South Australian Railways, Australian National, One Rail Australia
Condition: Excellent
Entered service: 1971/72
Entered the Museum: January 2023
Length (over coupling points): 18.67 m (61 ft 3 in)
Class: 700
Class builders: AE Goodwin, Auburn, New South Wales
Number in class: 6
Number series: 701-706
Ownership: Port Dock Station Railway Trust
Provenance: South Australian Railways, Australian National, One Rail Australia
Tractive Effort: 69,916 lbs
Wheel arrangement: Co-Co
By December 1970, the New South Wales Government Railways took delivery of the first of forty DL
500G locomotives from AE Goodwin. The new locomotives were classified as the 422 class and were
the first 2nd generation Alco diesel locomotive to enter traffic in Australia. At the start of the 1970s,
the South Australian Railways (SAR) needed more locomotives and placed an order for six DL 500G
locomotives with slight modifications to the SAR’s operating requirements. These locomotives were
to become the 700 class, and they ended up becoming the last class of locomotives to be purchased
by the SAR.
The six 700 class locomotives were delivered to the SAR between June 1971 and March 1972, with
locomotives 700 to 702 being allocated to Broad gauge and locomotives 703 to 705 on Standard
gauge. The six locomotives were painted Regal Red and silver upon delivery, though the three
standard gauge units were quickly repainted into Mustard Pot livery to match the 600 and 830 class
diesels on Standard gauge.
When Australian National Railways (AN) took over the country lines and interstate operations in
South Australia in 1978, ownership of the 700 class was transferred to them. During their time
operating under AN, the 700 class were regularly gauge converted between Broad and Standard
gauge based on operational requirements. The first member of the class to be withdrawn was
Locomotive 702, when in 1994 it sustained extensive fire damage. 702 was then placed in store
pending work, but was later scrapped in 1997. With the sale of Australian National in 1997,the local
operations and locomotives were sold to Australian Southern Railroad which was eventually bought
out by major shareholder Genesee & Wyoming becoming Genesee & Wyoming Australia (GWA). In
2020 GWA was renamed One Rail Australia.
Locomotive 703 entered service with the South Australian Railways on 16th of December 1971 and
in 1975 it was involved in a major accident at Crystal Brook when the new Standard gauge railway
bridge collapsed during heavy rain and flooding. Locomotives 703 and 830 class diesel locomotive
No.868 made it across the bridge before it collapsed, while the second 830 class locomotive No.874
did not. Locomotive 703 was transferred to Australian National Railways on the 1st of March 1978
and was eventually sold to Australian Southern Railroad on the 1st of November 1997. In 2016
locomotive 703 and all remaining 700 class locomotives were stored. In 2022 One Rail Australia
donated Locomotive 703 to the National Railway Museum. It arrived in January 2023.