Re: article in today's Advertiser

[telljb@ozemail.com.au (< Tell >)]

"Lachlan Smith" <lsmith@senet.com.au> wrote:
[snip}
>rail freight from Adelaide to Perth, Barossa Bluebird etc.. It also claims
>that many thought the sell off of AN would be death of SA railways. Wrong.
>The formation of AN two decades earlier marked the death of SA railways.
[snipped again}

Right on about the death of the SAR, if Dunstan had not
sold it to Whitlam, just how much of the SAR would
exist today.??  It was a money loser, it was forced by
the pollies to help make the unemployment figures look
better, it lacked leadership because the pollies liked
it that way, it had no firm long term plans, the list
goes on.  BUT above all, it was the wrong gauge.!
The East West Standard Gauge across Australia was the
beginning of the end for the SAR.

As a former crow-eater who grew up in Adelaide just
after WW2 in the Steam era, I have many fond memories
of the SAR, in many ways they were years ahead of NSW
and Victoria, thanks to Commissioner W.A. Webb.
  
Fact is, it was destined to die, the politicians that
the croweaters voted for, were to see to that.  
ANR/AN have been the handy whipping boy ever since
1974, particularly amongst SAR gunzels.
  
----Terry Burton
Alice Springs NT