Railway Digest Magazine May 2019 Back Issue

Swan Hill Passenger Train Review
At 345 kilometres from Melbourne, the rural city of Swan Hill represents the longest distance any V/Line passenger train travels. Connecting road coaches serve other large towns in the area, including Woorinen, Piangil, Robinvale and Mildura. V/Line driver (and RD Signalling Editor) David Campbell invites us to (metaphorically) join him on board his N Class locomotive for a journey from Port Phillip to the Murray and return.

…and then there were two
Eyre Peninsula Rail Operations – March 2019
South Australia will soon have no branch lines dedicated to grain – the last two, Pinnaroo and Loxton, succumbed in 2015, ending branch line grain operations of the ex-SAR on standard gauge (and previously broad gauge). It is now the turn of the last narrow gauge (3ft 6in/1067mm) lines – those isolated sections of the old ex-SAR Port Lincoln Division – as after Friday 31 May this year, transport of grain on the Eyre Peninsula (EP) will be undertaken totally by road transport. After that, there will only be two 1067mm gauge operations on the EP: The gypsum traffic from Kevin and the Whyalla ore trains. In March, Bob Grant and Malcolm Holdsworth, made a pilgrimage to the EP.

The Royal Roundabout
Bendigo Art Gallery is becoming well known for blockbuster exhibitions that draw crowds in from afar. Somewhere along the way the bright idea was conceived of having a Royal Train as part of this event - and Seymour, as custodian of the State Cars that have been associated with Royal tours in Victoria for the last one hundred years or so, would inevitably have to be involved, as Max Michell relates.

Four Countries. Four trains
With a recent trip to Scandinavian countries and return via the Trans Siberian Express, and after returning, a trip on the Spirit of the Outback, Larry Zanker compared four train trips featuring with at least an overnight journey.