Rx 5 is plinthed in a park at Kapunda, as seen in this photo contributed by Scott Hillan and dated 1 January 2004.

Rx 5 was built by the South Australian Railways at their Islington Workshops as builder's number 13 of 1909, ^a  as the first new-build member of the highly successful Rx-class of 4-6-0 mixed-traffic locomotives. ^b

The Rx-class were developed from the earlier R-class 4-6-0 design of 1886 via adoption of a larger Belpaire boiler.  A number of the class also received superheaters. The Rx-class ultimately grew to 84 examples comprising the 30 original R-class locos rebuilt to Rx specification, together with a further 54 built new (starting with Rx 5), becoming the South Australian Railway's most numerous class of broad-gauge steam locomotive.  The Rx-class were assigned to both passenger and freight turns until the arrival of larger locomotives in the 1920's, after which they settled in to branch line, suburban and shunting roles. In this capacity they lasted to the end of regular SAR steam operations. ^a

Rx 5 was condemned by the SAR on 25 November 1965, having run 1,118,770 miles. It was placed on display in Kapunda in 1966. ^a

Page updated:  29 September 2011