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    Rails Across Australia: A Journey Through the Continent
    Rails Across Australia: A Journey Through the Continent
    Rails Across Australia: A Journey Through the Continent
    Ebook156 pages48 minutes

    Rails Across Australia: A Journey Through the Continent

    By David Cable

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    About this ebook

    Rails Across Australia is an album of photographs taken by David Cable, a well regarded British author of several picture albums of train pictures throughout the world. The photos were taken initially during the period 1967–1973 when David lived in Adelaide, and then during several visits around the Commonwealth during the 21st Century. The photos cover a wide variety of trains in the mainland states from Queensland to the Pilbara region of Western Australia, and include pictures showing trains in the landscapes as well as close up photos of different gauges originally established in a various states are illustrated by the individual classes designed for them, in addition to the newest designs for the standard gauge tracks now linking them.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOpen Road Integrated Media
    Release dateOct 31, 2015
    ISBN9781473844377
    Rails Across Australia: A Journey Through the Continent
    Author

    David Cable

    David Cable was born in 1929, and lives in Hartley Wintney, Hampshire. He has had an interest in trains since the age of three, which developed into an interest in train photography in 1947. David is the author of many photo albums, covering modern traction in the UK since the 1960s, as well as volumes based on his visits to the other countries over the last 40 years. He has visited countries throughout Europe, North America and Australia, as well as some Far Eastern countries and Morocco.

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      Book preview

      Rails Across Australia - David Cable

      Introduction

      This is a book of photographs of trains that I have taken in various parts of the mainland of the Commonwealth of Australia, firstly of mainly preserved steam operations in South Australia, where I lived between 1967 and 1973, and then at the main lines in the five mainland states during nine holidays taken throughout the twenty-first century. Schedules have never allowed time to visit Tasmania or the two territories.

      The comments about rolling stock are largely from my own observations of what I regard as a dynamic set of operations in a country full of fascinating and attractive locations, even if the sun didn’t shine every day! The book will be primarily marketed in Australia, but also elsewhere such as the USA and UK. The text below is therefore written to provide background for those people, so I am afraid that Aussies will find it like telling your grandmother to suck eggs, but I hope they will enjoy the pictures.

      The Railway Systems

      The early history of Australian railways led to one of the most chaotic situations relating to transport systems anywhere in the world.

      As railways started to become a reliable means of transportation, each of the original state cities on the continent employed engineers to initiate a railway system based about the city hub and into its environs, but failing to recognise that, in time, development would require links between the states and the cities.

      So it was unfortunate that each engineer had his own ideas as to what track gauge to use. The net result was that only two states – Victoria and South Australia – chose a gauge that allowed straightforward interconnection, whereas at every other state boundary on the mainland, people and freight had to be unloaded and reloaded.

      The individual choices were that New South Wales selected standard 4’ 8 1/2 /1,435mm gauge, Victoria and South Australia the ‘Irish’ 5’ 3/1,600mm, and Queensland, Western Australia and parts of South Australia the ‘light’ 3’ 6" /1,067mm version. Later-built lines, such as the link across the Nullarbor desert between SA and WA and the iron ore lines in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, have been of standard gauge.

      As a result, once the original imports of locomotives and rolling stock to get each system established were up and running and the systems expanded, each of the states developed their own designs to deal with the extra requirements.

      It was not until the 1960s that the decision was made that the state capitals should all be connected by one standard gauge track system, and to be able to generate standard locomotives and rolling stock to operate throughout the new lines. These have now been enhanced by the line through Alice Springs to Darwin, and the short branch from Port Augusta to the steel-producing town of Whyalla in South Australia.

      However, most of the original lines are still extant and often well used. For example, in Queensland, the state capital Brisbane is close to the state border, so that the standard gauge from New South Wales hardly penetrates the state, which therefore still uses the original 3’ 6" /1,067mm lines. In Western Australia, the narrow gauge tracks still carry almost all traffic around Perth and the south western parts of the state. Suburban and country lines in Victoria are broad gauge operated, and there is still one broad gauge branch in South Australia, plus the remote narrow gauge system based on Port Lincoln. So it is only in New South Wales where the interstate and intrastate operations are fully integrated.

      The complications of different track widths are exemplified by this old triple gauge turnout at Gladstone SA. (DC Collection)

      In establishing the systems as they developed, what might be called the standard British Empire methods of track laying were used. To be as economical as possible, these were based on following the contours of the land with the minimum of engineering works in terms of cuttings, embankments, tunnels and viaducts, level crossings providing access for road vehicles and animal stock. Single tracks with occasional passing loops provided sufficient capacity outside of conurbations, although with the passage of time, widening these to double tracks became necessary as traffic grew. And between Newcastle and Maitland in New South Wales, traffic is now of a density to require four tracks.

      What is, perhaps, surprising is that in spite of the very few overbridges and tunnels, the loading gauge still restricts the use of double-stacked containers as widely used in North America, apart from between Adelaide and Perth, even though the cost of enlarging them would be relatively small, and would give a substantial increase in some line capacity.

      The infrastructure is quite varied, with lightly laid

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