What a great job it must have been! Driving the Silver City Comet Train from Parkes to Broken Hill in Western NSW years ago! Life On the open tracks of western New South Wales!😃👍👌🚇🚃🚃🛤️🐑🐑🥈⛏️⚖️
TWO gauges? No. Three. 3'6 had the greatest number of km of track in the largest number of states. ( 5 states) 5'3" was laid in two states ( with a bit in Tasmania as well) And a single state used 4'8 1/2". So can you guess what was chosen to be the future standard for all Australia? The same illogicality that created the problem remained when the problem was to be solved.
I live out at coonanna in western Australia, and remember the tea and sugar train and the steam train,my dad was a fettler I was 7 when we moved to Kalgoorlie and then to port Pirie he was a chef on the IP as well as the Ghan .
That Earthquake at Meckering might have been Australia's biggest earthquake but in 1989 a more devastating Quake happened In Newcastle which claimed 13 lives sadly most of them in The Workers Club in Newcastle NSW
Excellent document and especially for its countdown apropos Australia’s triple gauges history. Candidly, I’d vote for Victoria and South Australia’ s preference for Broad Gauge, perhaps the only time I’d vote for anything described as “Irish” given their murderous history not to say 7’ is twice the narrow gauge of 3’ 6”....and “Irish” broad gauge only half as much again.... And I find the three different gauges of Oz part of the railway charm of the great Country down under! Nothing against Standard Gauge but how come they didn’t think of 4’4 1/2” ie 25% on /up from established narrow gauge and / or 6’1 1/2” up from ENG by 75% from ENG and the GM of Brit Engineering Prowess for a Broad Gauge or even his at exactly double an ENG at his choice of 7’ ? I know NG has its advantages on high ground and on curves, but so has BG on the flat for higher speeds, security,stability, comfort and profitability by passenger number. Take the sub continent by way of example, they favour BG perhaps because they need more space given that where electrification has solved the problem of non-paying “passengers” travelling on the carriage roofs where ticket inspectors dare not venture unless by “bonus” ( ! ) ....
15.50 & 16.06 that guy always crack me up losing is tickets but all the time they were in the pocket that he said top left hand pocket what an idiot lol
Thanks for posting. Brings back GOOD memories to an 80 year old guy.
What a great job it must have been! Driving the Silver City Comet Train from Parkes to Broken Hill in Western NSW years ago! Life On the open tracks of western New South Wales!😃👍👌🚇🚃🚃🛤️🐑🐑🥈⛏️⚖️
I love chasing trains 🚂
Excellent show, many thanks for posting.
TWO gauges? No. Three. 3'6 had the greatest number of km of track in the largest number of states. ( 5 states) 5'3" was laid in two states ( with a bit in Tasmania as well) And a single state used 4'8 1/2". So can you guess what was chosen to be the future standard for all Australia? The same illogicality that created the problem remained when the problem was to be solved.
Yes changing Trains at Albury NSW was a way of life for many people in days gone by!🤨🚂🚆🚇🛤️
Michael Forbes from the Zig Zag Railway also featured on Ted Egan's Railways Of Yesteryear in 1990!🤨🚂🚃🚃🛤️⛰️🐑🐑
I live out at coonanna in western Australia, and remember the tea and sugar train and the steam train,my dad was a fettler I was 7 when we moved to Kalgoorlie and then to port Pirie he was a chef on the IP as well as the Ghan .
I've got a Block Mounted Poster of the Zig Zag Railway on my bedroom wall!😀🚂🚃🚃🛤️⛰️🐑🐑
That Earthquake at Meckering might have been Australia's biggest earthquake but in 1989 a more devastating Quake happened In Newcastle which claimed 13 lives sadly most of them in The Workers Club in Newcastle NSW
a great series, many thanks indeed :)
Notice the train passed through Haig Railway Siding in Western Australia named after First World War Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig!🏚️🛤️🏜️🦅
The rail gauge mess is the greatest mistake this country has ever made. We are still paying for it 150 years later.
Now I commute to Melbourne on trains that can travel as fast as the XPT was allowed to travel back then.
I still catch the XPT time to time, and nothing much has changed from 33:19
i don't know... its changed a lot since this film.....
it's blue now.
Tony Soprano on the train at 4:14?
Terry Soranno from Kalgoorie had the chicken in this instance.
Excellent document and especially for its countdown apropos Australia’s triple gauges history. Candidly, I’d vote for Victoria and South Australia’ s preference for Broad Gauge, perhaps the only time I’d vote for anything described as “Irish” given their murderous history not to say 7’ is twice the narrow gauge of 3’ 6”....and “Irish” broad gauge only half as much again....
And I find the three different gauges of Oz part of the railway charm of the great Country down under!
Nothing against Standard Gauge but how come they didn’t think of 4’4 1/2” ie 25% on /up from established narrow gauge
and / or 6’1 1/2” up from ENG by 75% from ENG and the GM of Brit Engineering Prowess for a Broad Gauge or even his at exactly double an ENG
at his choice of 7’ ?
I know NG has its advantages on high ground and on curves, but so has BG on the flat for higher speeds, security,stability, comfort and profitability by passenger number.
Take the sub continent by way of example, they favour BG perhaps because they need more space given that where electrification has solved the problem of non-paying “passengers” travelling on the carriage roofs where ticket inspectors dare not venture unless by “bonus” ( ! ) ....
9:43 how some of the best nights start...
I use to work as a fetler in wirrappa south australia1974
The bloke on the piano sounds like Chad Morgan!😆🤠🎹🎼🎼🎼🎼
Ah yes the Longest Section of Straight Railway Track in the World 477.14 KMs the perverbiable "Straight and Narrow"!😀🛤️🚇🚆🏜️🦅
These people are mental hilarious
"the Bo Derek of trains"
No moustache?
Great series. Today's railways in Straya are so boring by comparison.
15.50 & 16.06 that guy always crack me up losing is tickets but all the time they were in the pocket that he said top left hand pocket what an idiot lol