Railway Digest Magazine January 2023 Back Issue

Bound for South Australia
Though its rail network is much reduced from its peak length, South Australia still has plenty of rail action. Adelaide Metro operates electric and diesel suburban services and light rail services, a remnant of the once extensive Eyre Peninsula narrow-gauge system still runs from Thevenard to Kevin, there are the narrow-gauge iron ore lines from Whyalla, and the northern part of the state is the meeting place for the north-south and east-west standard-gauge transcontinental routes. We present a collection of recent images from around ‘The Festival State’.

Qtectic (Queensland Rail) 700 EMU
John Beckhaus profiles the New Generation Trains (700 Series) EMU sets owned by the Qtectic consortium and operated by Queensland Rail. The 75 six-car trains were built by Bombardier Transportation (now Alstom) in Savli, India, and delivered between December 2017 and January 2020. As the first QR electric multiple units not manufactured in Queensland, they were mired in controversy from the start, and their subsequent non-compliance with disability legislation only added to their problems.

A family trip to Camden, 1962
Sixty-one years ago, in January 1962, the Belbin Family decided to go on an outing, travelling by rail all the way from Pymble, on Sydney’s north shore, to Camden, in the rural south-west. The highlight of the journey was the final eight miles (12.9 km) along the charming, bucolic branch line from Campbelltown to Camden, as Bruce Belbin recalls.