Railway Digest Magazine June 2022 Vorige editie

The 2022 RTAA Rail Industry Field Days
After a three-year hiatus due to Covid restrictions, this long-standing rail industry event finally returned – and at a new, more spacious venue. Unfortunately, though the venue and exhibits were great, the weather was not! With a camera in one hand and an umbrella in the other, Bruce Belbin braved the elements to witness this popular event’s welcome return.

NSW Regional Infrastructure 2022 Update
Since the last NSW Regional Update, in our May 2021 issue, several rail projects have been completed while others remain in the planning stage. Located all over the state, most of these are products of the NSW Government’s successful Fixing Country Rail program. John Hoyle brings us up to date with their current progress.

North East Corridor Railway upgrades
The term ‘North East Corridor Railway’ includes Victoria’s railways from Melbourne into New South Wales at Tocumwal (broad gauge) and Albury (standard gauge). Broad- and standard-gauge lines run as parallel tracks to Mangalore (109km), then diverge. David Campbell takes a look at some major upgrades currently underway.

How did the S in Sydney come to be?
To celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Southern Aurora, St James Rail organised a tour from Sydney to Melbourne and return for late April, using Transport Heritage NSW as the operator. However, an embankment collapse at Picton in March during ‘The Big Wet’ trapped the Transport Heritage locomotives (though fortunately not the carriages) at Thirlmere. Seymour Rail Heritage Centre was asked if it could supply suitable vintage Victorian Railways motive power for the train, and while the answer was “yes” it proved to be not such a straight-forward exercise, as Max Michell explains!