Re: 140 years of VR to Sunbury.

[David Johnson <trainman@ozemail.com.au>]

MarkBau1 wrote:

> If you listen to the Irish Engineer he will say it was the Scottish Engineers
> fault.
>
> If you listen to the Scottish Engineer he will say it was the Irish Engineers
> fault!
>
> Basically, before federation the separate colonies were very insular. When rail
> building started in Australia they simply never foresaw the day when travel
> between the colonies might occur. In many ways NSW and Victoria were like
> separate countries.
>
> Same with Vic and SA, there are many stories about the fights over where
> exactly the border was, or is. I assume it is now settled!

When things started, they all agreed on standard gauge.  Then NSW said, No, let's
go to broad gauge, so the others did too.  Then NSW changed their mind again and
said let's go back to standard gauge.  As Victoria and SA had already started
building their railways, they decided to stick with broad.  Queensland built to
narrow for purely economic reasons - thousands of kilometres of pioneer
branchlines.

--
David Johnson
CityRail Guard
trainman@ozemail.com.au
http://www.ozemail.com.au/~trainman/