Railway Digest Magazine Jun-15 Back Issue

The Perfect Storm: The NSW Lower Hunter Floods
The violent storm that developed off the NSW east coast on the night of Monday 20 April, and continued unabated during the following day, was at its most destructive in the lower Hunter region, causing damage to the regional rail network comparable to the 1955 flood.
As Robert Driver reports, an extraordinary effort by ARTC and local shire authorities saw the last of the rain-damaged tracks back in action on Saturday 9 May.

Inlander, our last run
With the imminent withdrawal of sleeper cars from the Townsville to Mt Isa Inlander, Larry Zanker decided to take one last run on the ‘full service’ train, and while he was up there, also took a ride on the Spirit of Queensland and had a look at current activities on the Goonyella system west of Mackay.

Museum Pieces: Ipswich and Thirlmere
Recent visits to two of Australia’s biggest rail museums provided Darren Tulk with food for thought on the nature of rail industry conservation. Some of the questions that came to mind were simple; some were complex, others were unprintable. But to simplify, it could in essence reduce to a couple of basic overviews: where did these two come from? Where are they going? Can they get there from here?

Cowra remembers its fallen railway soldiers
The annual Anzac Day ceremony at the Lachlan Valley Railway’s Cowra Locomotive depot museum is always a solemn and moving event. However, this year’s commemorations, on the 100th anniversary of the Anzac landing at Gallipoli, took on special significance with the completion of a project to restore and interpret the depot’s unique memorial fountain. Lawrance Ryan reports.