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The Ghan
''The Ghan'' is an experiential tourism oriented passenger train service that operates between the northern and southern coasts of Australia, through the cities of Adelaide, Alice Springs and Darwin on the Adelaide–Darwin rail corridor. Operated by Journey Beyond Rail Expeditions, its scheduled travelling time, including extended stops for passengers to do off-train tours, is 53 hours 15 minutes to travel the .Timetables Great Southern Rail The Ghan has been described as one of the world's great passenger trains. Etymology The service's name is an abbreviated version of its previous nickname, ''The Afghan Express''. The nickname is reputed to have been bestowed in 1923 by one of its crews. Some suggest the train's name honours[...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Outback
The Outback is a remote, vast, sparsely populated area of Australia. The Outback is more remote than the bush. While often envisaged as being arid, the Outback regions extend from the northern to southern Australian coastlines and encompass a number of climatic zones, including tropical and monsoonal climates in northern areas, arid areas in the "red centre" and semi-arid and temperate climates in southerly regions. Geographically, the Outback is unified by a combination of factors, most notably a low human population density, a largely intact natural environment and, in many places, low-intensity land uses, such as pastoralism (livestock grazing) in which production is reliant on the natural environment. The Outback is deeply ingrained in Australian heritage, history and folklore. In Australian art the subject of the Outback has been vogue, particularly in the 1940s. In 2009, as part of the Q150 celebrations, the Queensland Outback was announced as one of the Q150 Icons of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Steam Locomotive
A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, oil or, rarely, wood) to heat water in the locomotive's boiler to the point where it becomes gaseous and its volume increases 1,700 times. Functionally, it is a steam engine on wheels. In most locomotives, the steam is admitted alternately to each end of its cylinders, in which pistons are mechanically connected to the locomotive's main wheels. Fuel and water supplies are usually carried with the locomotive, either on the locomotive itself or in a tender coupled to it. Variations in this general design include electrically-powered boilers, turbines in place of pistons, and using steam generated externally. Steam locomotives were first developed in the United Kingdom during the early 19th century and used for railway transport until the middle of the 20th century. Richard Trevith ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Standard Gauge
A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), International gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge and European gauge in Europe, and SGR in East Africa. It is the most widely used track gauge around the world, with approximately 55% of the lines in the world using it. All high-speed rail lines use standard gauge except those in Russia, Finland, and Uzbekistan. The distance between the inside edges of the rails is defined to be 1435 mm except in the United States and on some heritage British lines, where it is defined in U.S. customary/ Imperial units as exactly "four feet eight and one half inches" which is equivalent to 1435.1mm. History As railways developed and expanded, one of the key issues was the track gauge (the distance, or width, between the inner sides of the rails) to be used. Different railways used different gauges, and where rails of different gauge met †... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Narrow-gauge Railway
A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curves, smaller structure gauges, and lighter rails, they can be less costly to build, equip, and operate than standard- or broad-gauge railways (particularly in mountainous or difficult terrain). Lower-cost narrow-gauge railways are often used in mountainous terrain, where engineering savings can be substantial. Lower-cost narrow-gauge railways are often built to serve industries as well as sparsely populated communities where the traffic potential would not justify the cost of a standard- or broad-gauge line. Narrow-gauge railways have specialised use in mines and other environments where a small structure gauge necessitates a small loading gauge. In some countries, narrow gauge is the standard; Japan, Indonesia, Taiwan, New Zealand, South Africa, and the A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Central Australian Railway
The former Central Australia Railway, which was built between 1878 and 1929 and closed in 1980, was a 1067 mm narrow gauge railway between Port Augusta and Alice Springs. A standard gauge line duplicated the southern section from Port Augusta to Maree in 1957 on a new nearby alignment. The entire Central Australia Railway was superseded in 1980 after the standard gauge Tarcoola–Alice Springs Railway was opened, using a new route up to 200 km to the west. A small southern section of the original line between Port Augusta and Quorn has been preserved as the Pichi Richi Tourist Railway. Naming Whilst officially the ''Central Australia Railway'', it has been known by a number of names. Initially the northern end point had not be determined. Government acts and the press used a number of terms prior to construction including * The Port Augusta Railway * The Northern Railway * The Port Augusta to (far) North Railway After construction, railway was referred to as ''Por ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Australian National DL Class
The DL class are a class of diesel locomotives built by Clyde Engineering, Kelso for Australian National between 1988 and 1990. Five remain in service with Pacific National. History The first of the 15 commenced trials between Clyde Engineering's, Kelso plant and Lithgow in February 1988. The last was delivered in February 1990. They were used on Australian National's standard gauge network on Freight and Passenger traffic from Broken Hill to Adelaide, Alice Springs and Kalgoorlie. In 1995, all 15 were transferred with Australian National's interstate operations to National Rail. In January 1996, DL37 was destroyed in the Hines Hill train collision. In June 1999, National Rail began operating blue metal trains in New South Wales from Dunmore to Cooks River and in November 1999, from Marulan to Port Kembla both with DLs. All were included in the sale of National Rail to Pacific National in February 2002. As of January 2014, operational class members were being used on Pac ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Australian National AN Class
The AN class are a class of diesel locomotives built by Clyde Engineering, Somerton for Australian National in 1992–1993. They entered service on Australian National's standard gauge network from Broken Hill to Adelaide, Alice Springs and Perth."The AN class locomotives" ''Railway Digest'' September 1990 page 38 In 1995, all were leased to National Rail with the transfer of Australian National's interstate operations. In January 1996, AN10 was destroyed in the Hines Hill train collision. In November 1997, the remaining 10 were sold to National Rail. passing to Pacific National with the sale of National Rail in February 2002. In 2004, they began to operate to Darwin following this line opening. As of January 2014, AN class locomotives are generally used as trailing locomotives with AN3 previously having been painted in the Ghan livery. They are commonly used as second locomotives on steel trains in New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia Western ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
NR Class
The NR class are a class of Australian diesel locomotive built by A Goninan & Co for National Rail between 1996 and 1998. They are currently operated by Pacific National. The C44aci model locomotives built by UGL Rail at Broadmeadow adopted the design from the NR Class. History When National Rail commenced operations in April 1993, it inherited a diverse collection of rolling stock and locomotives from various operators to operate interstate freight services in Australia. The fleet included locomotives of mixed age and power, leased from FreightCorp, V/Line and Australian National. In September 1995, National Rail awarded a contract to A Goninan & Co for 80 locomotives, which later became 120. NR1-NR60 were built at Broadmeadow, and NR61-NR120 were constructed at Bassendean."National Rail Loco Contract Signed" ''Railway Digest'' October 1995 page 6 The frames were built at Hexham and the bogies at Goninan's Landsdowne Engineering subsidiary in Taree. The first ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pacific National
Pacific National is one of Australia's largest rail freight businesses. History In February 2002, National Rail's freight operations and rollingstock (owned by the Federal, New South Wales and Victorian Governments) were combined with FreightCorp (owned by the New South Wales Government) and sold to a joint venture between Patrick Corporation and Toll Holdings as Pacific National. In February 2004, Pacific National purchased Australian Transport Network, operator of ATN Access and AN Tasrail. In August 2004, Pacific National purchased Freight Australia, giving Pacific National control of the Victorian non-urban rail track, excluding the interstate network which is controlled by the Australian Rail Track Corporation. As part of the sale conditions, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission attached special conditions to the sale to ensure competition in the rail freight industry. The company was required to provide a 'starter pack' of locomotives, wagons, train p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Motorail
A motorail train or accompanied car train (ACT) is a passenger train on which passengers can take their car or automobile along with them on their journey. Passengers are carried in normal passenger carriages or in sleeping carriages on longer journeys, while the cars are loaded into autoracks, car-carriers, or flatcars that normally form part of the same train. Motorail services are not the same as car shuttle trains or car-carrying train services. The latter usually operate over relatively short distances, on lines passing through a rail tunnel and connecting two places not easily accessible to each other by road. On car shuttle train services, unlike on motorail services, the occupants of the road vehicles being carried on the train usually stay with their vehicle throughout the rail journey. Examples Europe In Europe, many motorail connections are running cross-border between different European countries. To be mentioned are trains between Austria—Germany, Austria— ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Indian Pacific
The ''Indian Pacific'' is a weekly experiential tourism passenger train service that runs in Australia's east–west rail corridor between Sydney, on the shore of the Pacific Ocean, and Perth, on the shore of the Indian Ocean – thus, like its counterpart in the north–south corridor, ''The Ghan'', one of the few truly transcontinental trains in the world. It first ran in 1970 after the completion of gauge conversion projects in South Australia and Western Australia, enabling for the first time a cross-continental rail journey that did not have a break of gauge. The train has been rated as one of the great rail journeys of the world. Its route includes the world's longest straight stretch of railway track, a stretch of the Trans-Australian Railway across the Nullarbor Plain. The service was originally operated jointly by four government railway administrations: the Department of Railways New South Wales, South Australian Railways, Commonwealth Railways and Western Au ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Granville, New South Wales
Granville is a suburb in western Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Granville is located west of the Sydney central business district, split between the local government areas of Cumberland City Council and the City of Parramatta. South Granville is a separate suburb. Lisgar, Redfern, Heath and Mona Streets form the approximate border between Granville and South Granville. The Duck River provides a boundary with Auburn, to the east. History In 1855, the Granville area was known as Parramatta Junction, named after the final stop of the first railway line of New South Wales. The Sydney-Parramatta Line ran from Sydney terminus, just south from today's Central railway station to the Granville area which was originally known as 'Parramatta Junction'. This led to the development of this area, which attracted speculators and some local industries. In the early days of European settlement, timber was harvested to fuel the steam engines in Sydney and Parram ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
