| Weight | 59t 2cwt |
| Driving Wheels | 4ft 3ins |
| Boiler Pressure | 185psi |
| Cylinders | Outside – 16½in x 20in Rebuilt 16½in x 22in |
| Tractive Effort | 15,801bf Rebuilt 17,381lbf |
This locomotive was built by Beyer Peacock at Gorton, Manchester in 1915 and delivered to the Silverton Tramway Company. It was the last of four locomotives supplied to this design by Beyer Peacock. The locomotives were supplied with small tenders to enable them to use the turntables on the railway. They were the main motive power on the major duties on the Silverton Tramway and were used to haul both passenger and heavy ore trains.
The South Australian Railways built a 3ft 6in gauge railway to the New South Wales border at Cockburn. This followed the discovery of rich silver, lead and zinc ores at Broken Hill in the far west of New South Wales in response to the demand for a railway link to support the mining and smelting operations. As the New South Wales Government declined to provide a railway link the private Silverton Tramway Company was formed to connect Broken Hill to Cockburn via Silverton. Whilst called a tramway for legal reasons, the Silverton Tramway was in fact a heavy-haul railway. A lengthy branch line known as the Tarrawingee Tramway was also constructed to supply limestone to the smelters at Broken Hill.
The Silverton Tramway opened in 1888 to carry the silver ore from the recently discovered ore deposits at Silverton to the smelters at Port Pirie. The line was later extended to Broken Hill when further deposits were discovered.
Major traffic on the line included passengers, livestock, bullion, ore and concentrates. In 1913, 844,477 tons of ore and concentrates were carried on the tramway and another 843,307 tons of other goods including coke, coal, timber, crude oil and livestock, and by 1933 twenty steam locomotives were owned by the company, along with 660 goods wagons.
After the arrival of the W class 4-8-2 locomotives in 1951 the A class engines were relegated to trip working between the various mines in Broken Hill. During the Second World War and again in the 1950s, they were leased to the South Australian Railways for shunting duties at Peterborough.
This locomotive was withdrawn from service in October 1960 after which it was displayed at the Australian Railway Historical Society’s Mile End Railway Museum in Adelaide.
In 1988 the exhibits at Mile End were relocated to what is now the National Railway Museum at Port Adelaide.
Preserved locomotive A 21 (Beyer Peacock & Co B/N 5913 of 1915) was withdrawn in October 1960, with sister A 18 the last of the class in service when withdrawn in January 1961, being outlived by a number of the older Y-class locomotives which remained in Silverton Tramway shunting duties. A 18, 19 & 20 were scrapped but fortunately A 21 was saved for preservation and displayed at the Australian Railway Historical Society’s Mile End Railway Museum in Adelaide.
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