Railway Digest Magazine October 2020 Back Issue

Darkness Falls: Trains by Night
Chris Walters believes that if you love photography and railways, that’s a marriage made in heaven, for trains make fascinating and even dramatic and evocative subjects. However, traditionally when the sun sinks below the horizon, many photographers pack away their gear. Chris has always felt that this was a bit of a shame, for the night time has the potential for some very interesting photographic opportunities, as he discusses and demonstrates.

A bridge too far…The story of the Avon River
A major piece of engineering on the railway into Gippsland in eastern Victoria was the crossing of the Avon River, a short distance on the Up (west) side of Stratford, by a long bridge running roughly north/south with the southern approach being at the Up end. As David Campbell relates, ongoing problems with the bridge – a result of spanning a river that has changed course over the years and is notorious for its ability to transition from a trickle to a flood in a matter of hours – led to the decision to replace it with a new bridge on a more suitable alignment.

Travels along the South West Main
In July 2020, an opportunity arose for Phil Melling to revisit the south west of Western Australia. Trains run there seven days a week, so you would have to be unlucky not to see some rail action, and as Phil discovered, the locomotives in use are different north and south of Pinjarra.

The Quintessential North Coast
To Stephen Miller, the NSW North Coast line is one of the most picturesque in Australia. The tranquillity regularly draws him back, photographing trains amongst some of Australia’s most breath-taking scenery. The charming infrastructure includes wrought-iron truss bridges and A3-style platform buildings surrounded by rolling-green hills and rich eucalyptus forests that bring even the dullest locomotives to life.