Aussie Trains

[manna]

G'day Gents
After a request for some more Aussie trains here they are ---but first!

[52D]

Manna can you tell us a little about what gauge is used and where.

[manna]

G'Day Gents
Good question, The southern part of SA, had at one time narrow gauge 3'6" but now converted to broad gauge 5'3", Adelaide suburban and mainlines broad gauge, north of the state had a mix of gauges, narrow 3'6", standard,and broad 5'3" and in some places you had all three, Gladstone had a three gauge turntable, PW must have been a nightmare. the narrow gauge has now almost gone, in future I'll give you the gauge with the photo discription. I'll have a look for the other photo's
manna

You know it's summer in South Australia when your garden go'es brown overnight

[manna]

G'Day Gents
We've seen a bit of the narrow gauge in the mid north of SA, now for the broad gauge, The main line in SA was/is the line from Adelaide to Melbourne, but the first fifty odd miles is over the Mount Lofty Ranges, and within twenty miles locos had to lift there trains up to 1600', which lead SA to develop BIG steam locos, the first big locos were the Rx Class a 4-6-0 which were usually double headed on the Melbourne express's, these gave way to the powerful the 500 class loco's a 4-8-2, but rebuilt to a 4-8-4, 600 and 620 class pacifics handled the lighter passenger trains, freight was handled by the 700 and 710 2-8-2s and later the huge 720 class 2-8-4's (my favourite) also know as Berkshires, and with a 59.5 sq ft fire box, a booster and a all up TE of 52,000lbs, they had the power to haul long freights up the long winding grades of the Mount Lofty Ranges
manna


You always know it's summer in South Australia when everyone tapes over there sunshine roof with cardboard

[manna]

G'Day Gents
I could'nt get everything in so here the are

[52D]

Keep them coming. What are forums members opinions on the aesthetics of the Australian loco.

[manna]

CG'Day Gents
New South Wales railways 4'8 1/2", Silverton Tramway 3'6" ran from Broken Hill to the SA border, where SAR locos took over the train (usually minerals for Port Pirie)
manna

[chaz harrison]

Keep them coming. What are forums members opinions on the aesthetics of the Australian loco.

Aesthetics? Most of the world looked on the steam locomotive as a functional machine - pure and simple. Looks were an irrelevance. If it made a locomotive more efficient to festoon it with pipes, pumps, tanks etc then this would be done. Hiding the equipment away only made it more difficult to maintain.
I understand that continental designers would look on the British pre-occupation with aesthetics as misguided. You only have to compare Tornado with the German 01.10 Pacific that used to be at Carnforth (where is it now?) to see the difference in approach. I make no judgement in the comparison, but you have to understand that the engineering culture differs.
As enthusiasts we often adopt a parochial attitude, you only have to see the humorous manufactured outrage that is provoked by any suggestion that Churchward and Collett might have had one or two good ideas.
Can I make one final point? - To make a fair assessment of any machine one must see it at work. Some of the most elegant, even beautiful locos ever built were notorious failures (your own example here!). On the other hand those German three-cylinder Pacifics were magnificent machines but I don't think even the most biased of acolytes would describe them as beautiful.

Chaz

[Ferrybridge Flyer]

Hi Manna,love the pic at Wilmington.We put scarecrows in our fields,the Aussies put trains in them!!Guess all their scarecrows will be speccin' at the ashes!!

[manna]

G'Day Gents
Love the idea of using a 4-8-0 as a scarecrow, walk out into the field every hour and put a round in the box, pop the whistle a couple of time, to scare the birds, yes I could do that, Hey FF do you still need a job???

Chaz, Love is in the eye of the beholder, personally I like the look of South Australian locos, don't mind some of the Victorian and NSW locos, but Queensland locos to me look weird, some of there locos look like a cross between a English and American, and 3'6" gauge to boot. The larger SAR locomotives were designed by an American called Webb, so have the look of an Amercan loco, but the 500 class, 600 class and 700 class were all built in England the later 520's 620's 710's 720's etc were all designed and built in South Australia, which for the time was a big achievement for a small state like South Australia, seeing that all motor vehicles, car and truck had to be imported, ironic really, can't build a car but can build a 225ton loco. Even today SA only has a population of 1.2 million.
The 520 class streamlined 4-8-4's have been timed at 90mph, on our poor track, imagine what they could have done on the ECML, given the chance.
manna

[chaz harrison]

The 520 class streamlined 4-8-4's have been timed at 90mph, on our poor track, imagine what they could have done on the ECML, given the chance.
manna

Don't let 'em in! We can't have 'em going after 4468's record!

Chaz

[manna]

G'Day Gents
I think the records safe, the one in the Port Adelaide museum (google it) is'nt going anywhere and the one at Bridgewater, needs it's boiler lifted and repaired, a million bucks worth, about the same as the Scotsman, and the've stated that, the engine is really to large to be hauling five and six car trains on a small seaside train, so there's a good chance that'll never run again.
manna

[61070]

but the 500 class, 600 class and 700 class were all built in England

In LNER territory by Armstrong Whitworth at Scotswood Works, on Tyneside. Here are some pages from one of their catalogues.

[manna]

G'Day Gents
Thanks for those pics I've not seen them before, like the fact that it's also in Spanish, I think there was a hope of selling some in South America, I wonder if they managed to, would be interesting to find out, South Australian locos pounding across the pampas??
I have a pic of the later 620 class locos waiting to go for scrap, they were parked next to the old running foremans office, next to the ashpits, we went in there just after taking some pics and sitting in the corner was a pile of number plates off of the locos, parked outside, I was tempted to take one home as there was no body around, two of us tried, but could hardly lift one, there about 3'x2' and an inch thick, I would love to have one hanging on the wall!!
702 is the preserved loco in Pt Adelaide museum of the 700 class
manna

[richard]

I have a reprint of a Manning Wardle catalogue and it is in English, French, Spanish, and Portuguese - yes Manning Wardle sold a lot of locos to South America!


Richard