Thread: Train Rides

Joe, I don't think there is a train track on Rotto. I do not remember one when I was there 10 years ago. I maybe wrong, one of the more knowledgeable Sandgropers will know. It maybe the Indian Pacific between Sydney and Perth.

I also have found the website for any interested person.

Hi Joe,
One of my co workers, he's the one shown on "The Footplate" page is involved with a local volunteer organisation Steam Ranger maintaining, restoring and running some old steamers.

Thought you might be interested. A great day out when they run.

Cheers
Mike

Originally Posted by Pat

Joe, I don't think there is a train track on Rotto. I do not remember one when I was there 10 years ago. I maybe wrong, one of the more knowledgeable Sandgropers will know. It maybe the Indian Pacific between Sydney and Perth.

I also have found the website for any interested person.

I'm pretty sure it was on the island; maybe not. Originally built to supply components and ammo for a couple coast artillery installations. Big guns - about 1.5m recoil, but by the time they were done, aerial warfare had superseded gunboats, and those guns didn't do ack-ack IIRC.

Joe

Like th US, Australia is a commonwealth of states. The railways were controlled by each individual state. In the usual bureaucratic way some states used one gauge and others used another.

At one point the train from Melbourne to Sydney had to stop halfway through its journey and the passengers had to gett off one train ,cross the platform and get on a second train and continue the journey

Completely insane but that continued up until the 70's I believe. Go figure. Eventually the Federal Government stepped in and enforced a standardisation of gauge

Melbourne to Sydney? I thought it was much farther West. I vaguely recall a documentary that claimed Irish immigrants arrived in Perth, and proceeded East with Irish gauge. English gauge proceeded West from East coast. At the changeover, the carriages were jacked up and set down on 'tother-gauge trucks. Could be there were several such waypoints, of course. I haven't yet browsed the museum.

We had our own RR nightmare regarding standardisation of time zones.

Joe

Peterborough in South Australia is quite unique in that it was the place where three railway gauges met. Gladstone is another according to this link.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/South-Aus...500204567.html

I worked on a railway line in Western Australia in 1974 changing the narrow gauge to standard gauge, I believe Victoria is or was Broad gauge. he line i worked on was from Kalgoorlie down to Esperance via Norseman, which was a shade under 250 miles.

It is very sandy over there, the tracks were all held on with fish plates on every second sleeper, except on any curve longer than 4 chains, when a fish plate was attached to every sleeper.

A fish plate is a flat piece of metal that you attach the rail to, this is then attached to the sleeper by a minimum of two dogs, sometimes three dogs and a really big fishplate has four dogs, the big ones were used in points and any curve that was longer than 8 chains. A longer curve meant a higher speed could be taken, hence the reinforcement. The speed limit on that line was 22 mph if I remember correctly and there were a couople of sections where the limit was about 17 mph. A dog is what we call a rail spike, or nail.

I watched the first Southern Aurora train travel past our house in the very early sixties. That was on the first trip on a single train from Melbourne to Sydney without having to change trains. When the train went past we saw a neon sign on the back saying, "Southern Aurora" in two lines at about a 30 degree angle, it was navy blue. We talked about it for weeks.

Mick.

We - that is my wife and I did the Zig-Zag train ride about 10 yrs ago and was surprised when the train pulled into the station it turned out that we were getting a ride on an old Queensland railmotor with Yerongapilly on the destination. Sort of took us back in time a little bit. Was an enjoyable ride to the bottom and a number of train buffs ran a interesting commentary on the way down. Another great place to visit is the Don River Railway down in Tasmania just outside of Devonport. Spent a whole day there wandering around their big restoration workshop. Everyone only to happy to talk and pass on information. Can be found here www.donriverrailway.com.au
David

A full comprehensive List of Australia's and OS Railway web sites http://www.arhsact.org.au/misc/links.php#heritage

Try this which is present day train journey's http://www.theoverland.com.au/our-tr...ain-routes.php

2004 besides going on the Don River Train and viewing their museum we went on the Strahun to Queenstown A.B.T http://www.puretasmania.com.au/default.asp?pID=46

Here's a handy site http://www.steamengine.com.au/railwa...801/index.html

http://www.infrastructure.gov.au/rai...s/history.aspx

http://www.cultureandrecreation.gov....cles/railways/

Hope these help Ray

Originally Posted by Pat

Joe, I don't think there is a train track on Rotto. I do not remember one when I was there 10 years ago. I maybe wrong, one of the more knowledgeable Sandgropers will know. It maybe the Indian Pacific between Sydney and Perth.

I also have found the website for any interested person.

There is a train on rottie , though the last time I was there it was stopped for track work / maintance , its the old train the army used to get supplies to the gun emplacements .
The zig zag is now much reduced in length and you are better off to drive and walk it to see the convict built tunnels and sidings etc .
Other great trips for train buffs are the GHAN from Darwin to Adelaide and the West Coast Wilderness Railway ABT
opps wheelin already mentioned this one

Thanks for confirming my memory of the show, Ashore.

An interesting feature of the Zig-Zag was orchestrating the "ballet" of several trains running on single track via switchbacks. Might not be so much of that nowadays I guess.

And lest we forget, the train to Alice Springs is the subject of some world-famous folklore/jokes. I could repeat it from weak memory, but Google [train "alice springs"] should be enough to find it.

Thanks for the links and pic, Ray. Ditto Pat, Mike, Mick, and David.

Joe

Very interesting reading.
A great pity that trainride have become, for most people, a distant memory, a tourist jaunt or an expensive luxury.
I have been on the Kuranda ride but none of the others apart from Sydney -Melbourne on the standard gauge,
I took a trip from New York to Buffalo along the Hudson some years back. Beautiful relaxing journey.
The most spectacular train trip I've taken was from Curitiba to Paranagua in Brazil. In my opinion the engineering of this track and the scenery would rival anything in the world.

Hi Joe, i was just on the Kuranda train a few days ago, below is one of the pics i took





And the old Gulflander, really rattles your bones this one.

Journeyman Mick lives in Kuranda, Powderpost lives between Mareeba & Kuranda & I live about 85Kms from Kuranda, I'll drive past it tomorrow after I finish a job in Mareeba.

Neato, fenderbelly. That bridge on the Kuranda is very reminiscent of the Bailey Bridge kit developed in Merrie Olde during WW2; I have a reference around here someplace, and I think the Bailey Bridge might have had verticals at all the panel points, or maybe not. They, and a successor design, are quite popular in Oosa for temporary works in bridge replacements. The Florida Department of Transportation has several already assembled for loan/rent to contractors. And I saw a permanent installation in Valdez, Alaska in 1985. I expect you'd find them, temporary and/or permanent, in all of the former colonies.

Probably not much room for springs on the Gulflander, eh?

Thanks for the pics.

And hope for some more from Cliff, if he sees this in time.

Joe