Re: QR going national?

["John McCandless" <johnmc@topend.com.au>]

Bill McNiven <wmcniven@gunzel.ozemail.com.au> wrote in message
qnZM3.4453$D33.23830@ozemail.com.au">news:qnZM3.4453$D33.23830@ozemail.com.au...
> John McCandless wrote in message <38043e91.0@news.topend.com.au>...
> >QR had a historical advantage in this area.  Whilst other colonies
started
> >their railways from their capital and worked out (Sydney-Parramatta,
> >Melbourne-Pt Melbourne) Qld did things different (nothing much has
changed,
> >has it?)
> >Lines started out from Ipswich, Maryborough, Bundaberg, Rockhampton,
> >Townsville and Cairns, and prior to the building of the North Coast Line
in
> >the 1920's, QR lines were isolated port-to-inland affairs.
> >Compare the WA system with QR.  My knowledge of WAGR history is fairly
> >sketchy, but I would assume that WAGR
> >radiated their lines out of Perth?  I wonder if a QR-style decentralised
> >system would have worked?
>
>
> The history is getting a bit rubbery here!
>
> The first WAGR line was Northampton - Geraldton (1874?).  Guildford -
> Fremantle, then the Great Southern Railway to Albany, then the Mildland
> Railway from Midland to Walkaway near Geraldton were private.  The state
> network grew later!
>
> NSW had separate port-based systems from Sydney, Newcastle and Lismore /
> Ballina.
>
> S.A. had separate port-bsed systems, with Port Lincoln still isolated and
> Darwin (yup!  S.A. when it opened) isolated forever.
>
> I'm sure that QR is a fine system, but it doesn't need reconstruction of
> history to support it!

I stand corrected, chastened, and plead guilty to believing that the
civilised world only goes
as far west as Camooweal and as far south to Wallangarra......... ;-)



--
John McCandless
Never play leapfrog with a unicorn...
Cloncurry Qld Au