The two South Australian Railways F Class (1st) locomotives were built in England in 1869 by the Avonside Engine Company of Bristol. No. 21 entered service on the South Australian Railways in September 1869; no. 22 followed in October. They were scrapped in 1892.
The locomotives' initial role was to take over hauling goods trains from the A class locomotives on the new Roseworthy to Tarlee line. They then operated on the Port Adelaide and in the Adelaide hills, where they pulled passenger and goods trains. Near the end of their short working life they shunted in the Adelaide Yards. In 1892 they were damaged beyond repair when, during a rebuild, a workshop crane lifted them without using hornplates.[1][2][3]
Ten years later, a second group of locomotives, a suburban tank with a 4-6-2 wheel arrangement, took on the "F" class classification.
References[]
^Fluck, R. E.; Sampson, R.; Bird, K. J. (1986). Steam locomotives and railcars of the South Australian Railways. South Australia: Mile End Railway Museum (S.A.) Inc. p. 46. ISBN0959 5073 37.
^Turner, Jim (1998). Early Australian steam locomotives 1855-1895. South Australia: Kangaroo Press. p. 34. ISBN0-86417-875-1.