Re: Cane: Tramways or Railways?

[John Dennis <jdennisNOjdSPAM@acslink.net.au.invalid>]

AFAIK all the sugar cane railways are just that these days,
officially known as "railways".

The "General Tramways Act, 1884" decreed that only the government
could build a railway - anybody else could only build tramways.
In South Australia examples include BHP's Iron Knob (Whyalla) and
Coffin Bay (Port Lincoln) Tramways, whilst in NSW the Silverton
Tramway, connecting Broken Hill with the SA Border at Cockburn
was for many years part of the direct east-west railway

Silverton's safeworking was at least the equal of that used on
the SAR Peterborough Division, and better than that of the Port
Lincoln Division, where Brill railcars operated over facing
points operated by nothing more than cheeseknob levers.

Cheers...JD

In article <3934cb09.0@news.topend.com.au>, "John McCandless"
<johnmc@topend.com.au> wrote:
>
>> Not true. Generally speaking, a tram is a rail mounted
>> vehicle that can operate without a government approved
>> safeworking system. This is why the North Queensland cane
>> industry runs "trams", not "trains". This is true for any
>> other type of industrial tramway, whose primary haulage is
>> not passengers
>
>Re cane haulers, I'm not sure whether they are still referred
>to as tramways or not... I do know that the "Tramway Crossing"
>signs in the Bundaberg area (at least) have been replaced with
>"Railway Crossing" signs.
..
>Remember, Silverton was a tramway, and I would assume that they
>would have HAD to use safeworking....



--
John Dennis
Home of the Dutton Bay Tramway
http://members.optusnet.com.au/~jdennis/dbt.html
* Sent from RemarQ http://www.remarq.com The Internet's Discussion Network *
The fastest and easiest way to search and participate in Usenet - Free!