Re: Far northern tilt train on schedule

["William Walker" <willwalk@tpgi.com.au>]

> I'm a bit confused.  It sounds like you're talking about Forsayth?  Are
you?

Yes, that's the one.  I went with my father on a drive I have never been
before, from The Lynd, through a small township called Einasleigh on the
copperfield river, that the one, which I just mentioned about the dam.
While there was no railway to the Kidston mine near Einasleigh, but a old
railway line runs through the township on way to Forsayth.

I stayed at Einasleigh for a few hours, on a easter saturday and watch the
horse racing.  The races there showed a vastly different and country feeling
more different than the city races.

Oddly the road from Einasleigh to Forsayth is a nice drive across the
Newcastle Ranges, and they had put a new bitumen section there although the
road is not entirely bitumen.

The State government years ago were talking about shutting and ripping up
the railway line, but outcries and a change of government later prevented
it.

But the country around the Lynd, Einasleigh, Mount Surprise, Forsayth and
Georgetown, is very desolate cattle country.  You can barely see any shops
except one pub at Einasleigh between the Lynd and Forsayth.  The only big
attraction in the area is Kidston Mine (which is due to be shut in June
2001), and the dam which is due to be decommissioned thereafter.

> > But the line between Normanton and Croydon still operates as a tourist
> line.
>
> And a damn good one it is too.  Far better than that "Savannahlander"
> thingy...
>

I tend to agree, the Savannahlander which runs through Einasleigh is set in
rugged cattle country, with nothing around it except the mine (the railway
line didn't even connect to the mine), and due to the setting of the country
the railway line is not in very good state, and IMO badly in need of repair.
The country around Normanton and Croydon is more flatter, which makes the
trip a lot easier and smoother, weather permitting, and the railway line I
believe is better looked after than the line between Mareeba and Forsayth.

Even the road between Croydon and Normanton is better than between Mt Garnet
and Georgetown.

William Walker