Australia Southern Railroad Pty Ltd
PO Box 2086
Regency Park SA 5942
Tel 08 8343 5455 Fax 08 8343 5454
9 March 2002 MEDIA RELEASE
Embargoed until 11 a.m. 11/03/02
ALICE DARWIN LOCOMOTIVES TO HIT THE ROAD
Another milestone in the Alice Springs to Darwin rail project will be reached
on Wednesday 13 March when Australia Southern Railroad (ASR) delivers its first
locomotive for use on the project construction trains, to the Katherine work
site. Two of ASR's 22 class locomotives named Katherine and Tennant Creek commenced
their historic journey north from Port Augusta on last Wednesday as part of
the weekly rail train to the project railhead t Roe Creek,
located a few kilometres south of Alice Springs.
This Monday 11 March at Roe Creek, Katherine will be driven onto a specially modified road semi-trailer for the 1200 kilometre road journey to the Katherine construction site. It will arrive at Katherine during the afternoon on Wednesday 13 March.
Northern Territory based Slingshot Haulage, who also has the contract for the movement of the rails to be used in the project from Roe Creek to the work ites at Tennant Creek and Katherine, will handle the delicate road transfer of the 115 tonne monster.
Eight locomotives in total will be used on the construction trains, with four based at both Tennant Creek and Katherine. All the locomotives have been fully overhauled and given a new coat of paint by the EDI Rail workshops at Port Augusta Workshops, with a price tag of close to $1 million for each locomotive.
The locomotives will be moved from Port Augusta to Roe Creek two at a time, at roughly weekly intervals until early April. The onward road journey from Roe Creek will take approximately 2 days to Katherine and 1 day to Tennant Creek, travelling at up to 80 km/h. Bob Cush, Project Superintendent for reightlink, the company that will operate the new railway once construction is complete, says "We are delighted to see the first of Australia Southern ailroad's locomotives arriving on site. This is an historic milestone in the construction phase of the project and the development of the Northern Territory. ince the closure of the North Australia Railway in 1976, this is the first time an operating locomotive has been active in the Territory, north of Alice Springs, or over 25 years."
ASR's Alice-Darwin Project Manager Colin Turner said, "Our partnership with Slingshot is part of over $40 million worth of contracts that we have for the rovision of rail and logistics services during the construction phase of the project. The movement of the locomotives by road to the work sites is a major hallenge and Slingshot's local knowledge and innovative solutions are proving invaluable in fulfilling our logistics task."
For further information contact: Colin Turner on 0418 815 618
Australia Southern Railroad is wholly owned by the Australian Railroad Group
(ARG), providing rail transport services from East to West across Australia.
ARG is jointly owned by leading US regional rail operator Genesee & Wyoming
Inc., and WA based diversified industrial Wesfarmers.
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