Railway Digest Magazine October 2022 Back Issue

Inland Rail Spring 2022 Report
In the last Inland Rail report mention was made that the second closure of the 171-kilometre Narrabri to Moree section in north west NSW for Inland Rail upgrading (Phase One) would occur in April this year. The first closure, concentrating on the Bellata to Moree section, occurred between 10 April 2021 and 1 November 2021. The second closure, this time focusing on the Narrabri North to Bellata section, did indeed commence on 1 April 2022 and it is hoped to complete this section by 31 October 2022 although any wet weather could delay completion. John Hoyle takes a close look at how this major project is currently progressing.

The Fortescue Metals Wabtec AC44C6M Locomotives
Fortescue Metals has purchased twenty-eight locomotives of the AC44C6M type from Wabtec, these having been assembled in the former GE Transportation plant in Fort Worth, Texas. These are not completely new locomotives, being rebuilt from GE Dash 9-44CW locomotives, in this case from core locomotives originally used by the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway. Peter Clark reports.

Stawell to Albury – a train tour in two parts
On Monday 15 August Seymour Railway Heritage Centre ran a charter train for Cruise Express from Stawell, in north-west Victoria, to Melbourne, followed three days later by a second leg to Albury. Simple? Not so. As Max Michell explains, it entailed a significant amount of empty running, but in so doing created a few unique situations as well as achieving some very enterprising running.