For the past 3 weeks I have been working on site, this week I had the opportunity to ride on 3 ALCOS all belonging to Silverton rail. We were using these to test the new signalling system installed at Sefton Park Junction. The first two locomotives are 48 class while the 3rd is a South Australian 600 class locomotive.
nice shots Paul, I'll be taking a run on Friday to Liverpool via Bankstown and then return to the City via Regents Pk so I'll get to see your handy work [ January 25, 2006, 06:01 PM: Message edited by: Sten ]
Well being Alcos they had a good sound to them but never under load as they were only travelling alone, the only load was me
Well being Alcos they had a good sound to them but never under load as they were only travelling alone, the only load was me </font>[/QUOTE]I have in a 48 class with an Alco 44 calss on a passenger tour between Griffith and Junee
Well being Alcos they had a good sound to them but never under load as they were only travelling alone, the only load was me </font>[/QUOTE]A quite considerable load required to ensure proper shunting of the track.... I believe...
Well being Alcos they had a good sound to them but never under load as they were only travelling alone, the only load was me </font>[/QUOTE]A quite considerable load required to ensure proper shunting of the track.... I believe... </font>[/QUOTE]That explains why three locomotives were needed
Colonel, please tell mewhat is the longest trains that run in Australia. I´ve heard about 500 cars. Is it true? Here in Brazil we use 240 and 320 cars at EFVM. Pedro
Pedro, BHP-Billiton Iron Ore in northern Western Australia on the Newman line. Upwards of 334 cars in normal service and they hold the record for the longest and heaviest with 682 cars and 8 locos at 7.4 km long and near 100,000 tonnes gross. http://ironore.bhpbilliton.com/repository/operations/rail.asp
I do not know if I am out of topic, but how many gauges does Australia have? I ´ve heard about three. Is it true? Are there dual gauge lines like here in Brazil?
What is the heritage of those units? They look very similar to the WWII era US military MRS1. Boxcab E50
National Network - Standard guage - 4ft 8.5 Victorian State Network - broad - 5ft3 Qld state network, SA state network, WA state network - narrow guage 3ft6. there are some dual guage lines where the networks intersect - a bit in Brisbane, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth.
National Network - standard 4ft8.5 Qld, SA, WA state networks - Narrow guage 3ft6 Vic state network broad - 5ft3 there is a some dual guage where the networks intersect mainly around Melbourne. Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth
sorry sent that twice, couldn't remember what the narrow guage size was - it's larger than D&RGW narrow guage which is 3ft
Ken, they are DL series units but Australian made. The NSW 45 class/SAR 600 class were DL-541's and the Silverton/NSW 48 class/SA 830 class were DL531's. Australian ALCos
Thanks Sten, Brazil also have three gauges: # Broad - 1,600mm # metric - 1,000mm # standard: 1,435 mm (only at Amapá rwy about 200 km long). # Also we have 0,760 mmm at former EFOM steam site, but just 20 km for tourism operation). Pedro
Pedro, what was the reason in Brazil for the multiple guages??? In Aust, the original railway systems were built by the state governments and choose the guage that best fit the budget or Influences (England/Ireland) The national system has choosen standard guage (as most of the world we deal with has) and some areas are being standardised as part of a national system (being that the federal govt controlled ARTC now owns/leases most of the track in the country)
Well, When Brazil starts to build railroads it received influence from England, who sold us locomotives, tracks and cars in 1600mm gauge. The poor companies prefered to use narrow gauge like one meter, 60 cm, 66 cm, or 76 cm gauge because it is less expensive to build. In fact, some railroads started to use broad gauge but changed to meter gauge after economic problens, and became dual gauge. Meter gauge is most economical than broad, that´s why most of our network is meter gauge today. . Some companies stated as 76 cm gauge, as EFOM. It reaches more than 700 km long using this tinny gauge. The only standard gauge railroad in Brazil is Amapá rwy - EFA. It belonged to a big steel company in US (Betleheen Steell, I think). The line is isolated in Amapá state, a very distant place, separeted by Amazon river from the rest of the country. So the americans preffered to use american gauge there, because it doesn´t have chance to connects EFA to any other line here. Bu Brazil today decided for broad gauge. I means all new companies here must be built in broad gauge, like Ferronorte and EFC, bolth built in the 1980´s. The meter gauge lines like FCA and EFVM intends to enlarge their gauge in the future to connect to the other companies. In fact, EFVM and EFC are sisters, and belong to the same mining company CVRD _ Vale do Rio Doce Co., the main rival of BHP.
They were built here by A E Goodwin which was an ALCo sub. The main difference to other Alcos is that the 48's and the 45's have C trucks as opposed to the usual A-1-A that 6 axle Alcos have.
