Commonwealth Railways 4-6-0 No. G 1
Port Adelaide, South Australia, Australia 		Location: National Railway Museum Port Adelaide
Status: Display
Related Notes
Photo Copyright © Rod Hawkes
Here are the notes for Commonwealth Railways No. G 1, a 4-6-0 located in Port Adelaide, SAUS. If you have additional information about this locomotive, and would like to share it, click the Add Note button.
Posted: Sep 3, 2023 @ 15:09:01 by Steve Frost, European Editor
The Museum appears to think that the locomotive is Standard gauge. It would be very unusual to alter a vehicle so radically, destroying its originality just for display.
Posted: Aug 12, 2017 @ 15:08:28 by Robin R Beck
G1 is a member of a class of 26 built by American & Australian firms between 1914 & 1917 to work the new standard gauge railway from Kalgoolie, Western Australia to Port Augusta, South Australia which was built 1912 to 1917. The first arrivals of the G class worked railway construction trains on the line. Once the line completed, the class operated all the passenger trains. Working the line for 20 years. By then trains were heavier and more powerful locomotives were required. In the early 30s they ran without a loco change over 500 mile sections - the run from Port Augusta to Cook and the section from Cook to Kalgoolie. The end of World War Two found them worn out. Some ended there lives as shunters but all withdrawn by 1957.

G1 was withdrawn in August 1945 but stored at Port Augusta. December 1969 was in the Mile End, Adelaide with the rest of the museum collection. It moved in 1988 to Port Adelaide. G1 is the only standard gauge steam locomotive at the National Railway Museum, Port Adelaide.

The urgent need was for a railway connecting Western Australia to other states. With no private company able to finance the 1,000 plus mile line the Federal Government financed the line and set up the Commonwealth Railway to run it. Commonwealth Railway later took control of the Northern division of South Australia Railways.