Re: South Australia

[John Cleverdon <clev@omni.com.au>]

Edward Slee wrote:

> The Pinaroo line heads up into the Mallee district, which is a very
> productive wheat area.  There are large silos every 50 km or so.  The
> line
> actually passes into Victoria and (used to?) connect into the
> Victorian BG
> network.  It may now be isolated by standardisation on the Vic side as
> well.

No, the line on the Victorian side is still broad gauge, although it has
been officiallyclosed from Panitya (westernmost station on the Vic side)
to Pinnaroo.

The line actually saw heavy traffic when the mainline was standardised
btwn Tailem Bend
and Geelong (?), with broad gauge trains running via Pinnaroo, Ouyen,
and Ballarat
instead of the main.

>
>
> I imagine that the line is seasonal, which would explain the rusty
> rails.  I
> understood trains still ran on this line behind a small stud of
> dedicated
> (land-locked) 830-class machines.
>
> BTW, Tailem Bend is also the home of an Rx class locomotive (Rx 201, I
>
> think), which sits rather forlornly in the park next to the station.
> The
> tender was so rusty that it was removed down to the frames, which
> makes for
> a horrid sight!
>
> regards
> Ed
>
> <snip>


John
--
John Cleverdon: Locomotive & Deep-Sky Nut | Essendon-1998 AFL premiers
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