Thread: Electric Freight Trains

Originally Posted by cjc_td5

There will be no double stacked containers into Sydney from Lithgow any time soon. There are 10+ tunnels through the mountains that would have to be reconstructed. This freight has to do the detour via Yass/Goulburn and up through the southern highlands.

The Rat Holes ( ten tunnels ) are not the main impediment to double stake trains to Sydney.

For a number of years there has been a proposal to build a new longer tunnel from Clarence into Lithgow, But replacing the ten tunnels is just a side show.

The primary reason is to replace the VERY tight curve just below Zig Zag.

This is the tightest curve between Sydney and Perth and has a major drawback on train lengths and speeds.

But even with a new tunnel, there is still a far greater ( cost wise ) cause for not running double stack trains into Sydney ( from any direction ) and that is the electric overhead wiring.

You would need to raise the overhead for hundreds of kilometres before any double stack trains could enter the Sydney metro from any direction.

Originally Posted by V8Ian

Little Doris Creek runs from the waterholes on Oxley golf course, round Wanless's into Oxley Creek.
Downfall meanders its way through West Chermside and McDowell toward The Jinker Track.

Found on Google maps. I never knew it was a proper creek. I thought it was just a chain of mostly dry waterholes in the agricultural station opposite the markets. Google shows it as running into the Brisbane River downstream of Oxley Creek.

Originally Posted by Bigbjorn

Found on Google maps. I never knew it was a proper creek. I thought it was just a chain of mostly dry waterholes in the agricultural station opposite the markets. Google shows it as running into the Brisbane River downstream of Oxley Creek.

I didn't know it ran to the river.

Originally Posted by drivesafe

You would need to raise the overhead for hundreds of kilometres before any double stack trains could enter the Sydney metro from any direction.

The same problem applies to Brisbane and Melbourne.

Back in the day when I was younger in a wall under my grand parents house was a large floor to ceiling poster. Look a bit like the ones the teachers had at school cloth backed paper which was yellowed with age. Had a date on it of from memory 1910. No idea where it came from or why it was there. As a kid you often do not think to ask these questions.

Reason for mentioning it here is that it was a railroad map of Queensland and some of Northern NSW and NT. most of the lines show were the ones we are familiar with today a few that have since gone. What is of more interest is that there were a series of dotted line tracks that connected from NSW to the NT via the western ends of the lines that radiate out from the coastal ports. The legend said there were ‘too be constructed’. Have no idea if the dotted lines were ever more than aspiration or if planning was carried out. As a kid it always seemed an obvious idea to join the tracks up and take produce to the southern markets this way rather than sending it to the coast. Roads and trucks were not what they are today even 25 years ago

Originally Posted by 3toes

Back in the day when I was younger in a wall under my grand parents house was a large floor to ceiling poster. Look a bit like the ones the teachers had at school cloth backed paper which was yellowed with age. Had a date on it of from memory 1910. No idea where it came from or why it was there. As a kid you often do not think to ask these questions.

Reason for mentioning it here is that it was a railroad map of Queensland and some of Northern NSW and NT. most of the lines show were the ones we are familiar with today a few that have since gone. What is of more interest is that there were a series of dotted line tracks that connected from NSW to the NT via the western ends of the lines that radiate out from the coastal ports. The legend said there were ‘too be constructed’. Have no idea if the dotted lines were ever more than aspiration or if planning was carried out. As a kid it always seemed an obvious idea to join the tracks up and take produce to the southern markets this way rather than sending it to the coast. Roads and trucks were not what they are today even 25 years ago

When SA gifted the Commonwealth with the NT, there was an understanding that the Commonwealth would build a railway to connect Palmerston (now Darwin) with the rest of the country. SA always understood that this railway would simply consist of a link between the railway to Oodnadatta and the one going south from Palmerston, both of which had been handed to the Commonwealth together with the NT. But when the Commonwealth railways was asked to produce plans for a railway to connect to Darwin on several occasions over the next fifty years, most of the plans they came up with involved linking railways in NW NSW or western Qld to the NT railway, which was eventually extended to Katherine. It was possible to imagine railways linking Darwin to the east coast actually making money more easily than to imagine their making money linking to Adelaide! And they did not like the country the line would cross north of Oodnadatta. It floods every few years (eventually solved by moving the railway west when it was eventually built Adelaide to Darwin)

However, as far as I am aware, all of the planning only got as far as drawing lines on maps, there was not even any surveying done for any of these lines, but the maps did get published for comment, which is presumably where this map got its data.

AFAIK the written off cars were auctioned.
I ran an auction for some stolen and recovered cars at Brisbane Plant and dealers bought them.
They were stolen by a gang of Qld police officers cutting out the middle man.

I also actioned a Cortina The had broken in half near Coffs Hbr because someone had forgotten to weld the firewall in, and a Falcon broken in half by someone being very overzealous tying it down on a flat top wagon. Another QR effort.

Ah memories.

regards PhilipA

Originally Posted by JDNSW

When SA gifted the Commonwealth with the NT, there was an understanding that the Commonwealth would build a railway to connect Palmerston (now Darwin) with the rest of the country. SA always understood that this railway would simply consist of a link between the railway to Oodnadatta and the one going south from Palmerston, both of which had been handed to the Commonwealth together with the NT. But when the Commonwealth railways was asked to produce plans for a railway to connect to Darwin on several occasions over the next fifty years, most of the plans they came up with involved linking railways in NW NSW or western Qld to the NT railway, which was eventually extended to Katherine. It was possible to imagine railways linking Darwin to the east coast actually making money more easily than to imagine their making money linking to Adelaide! And they did not like the country the line would cross north of Oodnadatta. It floods every few years (eventually solved by moving the railway west when it was eventually built Adelaide to Darwin)

However, as far as I am aware, all of the planning only got as far as drawing lines on maps, there was not even any surveying done for any of these lines, but the maps did get published for comment, which is presumably where this map got its data.

I read a biography of PM Andrew Fisher, who has been sadly overlooked, but was a really impressive leader.
He commissioned the Adelaide to Perth and Adelaide to Katherine railways. The Darwin-Katherine link was also planned, but WWI caused the funding to be diverted to the war effort.
Fisher had heart problems and resigned in 1916 I think from memory, Billy Hughes became leader, but his government collapsed and the rail extension did not resume after the war.