Railway Digest Magazine May 2022 Back Issue

The Big Wet
In late February, Queensland and NSW were hit by extreme flooding following multiple rounds of heavy rain. By the end of the first week in March, southern Queensland and northern New South Wales had each received more than a year’s worth of rainfall in a week. The result was major disruptions to normal rail services.

V/Line’s fastest
Frequent trains making numerous stops a few kilometres apart characterise V/Line’s timetable, so fast start-to-stop average speeds are difficult to achieve but look carefully and there are some services that run very fast over specific sections. Malcolm Simister takes a close look at some of these.

AB1535 on the mainline again
Veteran Clyde/EMD locomotive AB1535 was on display at the Wheatbelt Heritage Rail Discovery Centre at the former Minnivale CBH bin in the Shire of Dowerin. On the 20 February 2022 it was transferred (working) with Watco’s DR1564 and DR1565 from Minnivale to Midland. Watco has commenced a three-year contract with Rail Heritage WA for the AB’s use on works trains, as Phil Melling reports.

The return of R766 – on standard gauge
Possibly the biggest event on the rail heritage calendar this year was the official relaunch at Maitland on Friday 18 March of ex-Victorian Railways R class Hudson R766, following its conversion from broad gauge to standard gauge. Peter Clark provides some background to the story of R766 and how this major milestone was achieved.

A flaming good train trip
The Seymour Railway Heritage Centre’s ‘Western Daylight Tour’ on Saturday 26 February should have been a straightforward, enjoyable day trip to Ararat and return. However, events conspired to make the day far more eventful than anyone imagined, as Max Michell relates.