Railway Digest Magazine

Sydney Station Stories – Epping
In the latest instalment of his Sydney Station Stories series, Chris Walters looks at Epping. A station that has found itself at the centre of multiple crossroads, for not only does it sit at the confluence of Epping, Carlingford, Beecroft and Blaxland Roads, but since 2009 this Main North location has also become a junction station thanks to the opening of the new underground Epping-Chatswood Rail Link (ECRL). Since 2019, the ECRL has been absorbed into the new Northwest Metro from Tallawong, which will shortly be extended from Chatswood through the Sydney CBD to Sydenham.

JUST TOURING AROUND – The AK Cars visit regional Victoria
Over the past 30 years, several railway lines around North-West Victoria have been converted to standard gauge. Although still part of the V/Line Network, these lines usually enjoy an annual visit by the AK Track Recording Carriages (V/Line having no equivalent vehicle to perform this necessary inspection role for standard gauge tracks). A hot tip combined with several free days allowed Bill Arkell a chance to visit this region, enjoying some splendid weather, cloudless skies, great lighting, and a chance to enjoy the sights and sounds of some ancient GM class locos running around Victoria hauling this train.

Ten days or so around Brisbane
You will sometimes hear Brisbane-based rail enthusiasts lamenting about the ‘sameness’ of trains in the Brisbane area and the lack of locomotive variety with 2300 class on coal trains, 2800 and PN class on container trains, WRA class on grain or cattle trains and very few steam trains. While this is true to some extent, you can – as Mike Martin shows – with a bit of imagination, luck and short-distance travel, capture quite a good variety of long-distance passenger and freight workings