Trans-Australian
The Trans-Australian was a passenger train that initially ran the Trans-Australian Railway between Port Augusta and Kalgoorlie .
route
The Trans-Australian Railway went into operation in 1917. It was built in standard gauge and was thus an island operation between the railway of Western Australia and the Great Northern Railway , both in Cape Gauge at that time . The Trans-Australian therefore initially only operated in this section. Connecting trains were available at both ends. The Trans - Australian Railroad was extended to Port Pirie in 1937 , where it was connected to the 1600 mm network of the Railways of South Australia , eliminating one of four transfers on the Perth - Sydney route . In 1968, the Trans-Australian Railway between Kalgoorlie and Perth was extended to the Western Australian capital with a third track for the standard gauge - and thus also the route of the Trans-Australian .
In 1970 the standard gauge track between Port Pirie and Broken Hill was put into operation. This was the first time that the transcontinental connection Perth - Sydney could be used continuously by one train . The Indian Pacific was set up for this. As a result, the number of travelers in the Trans-Australian fell sharply, which initially led to a reduction in the number of journeys and finally to its termination in 1991.
The train
The Trans-Australian was initially a pure sleeper train .
The German train set
In March 1951, the Commonwealth Railways awarded a consortium led by Wegmann & Co. the contract to build two new train sets for the Trans-Australian. It was the first contract to build passenger coaches from Australia to Germany . The trains were manufactured in Kassel . They consisted of nine cars each , which were firmly coupled as units and equipped with transitions similar to the VT 08 and the VT 12 5 . A set consisted of:
- a service car, which is also a pack , generator and staff sleeping car ,
- three second class sleeping cars , one third of which has a social compartment,
- a dining car with 48 seats and a kitchen,
- a first class saloon car with a ladies', music and smoking salon. In addition to a piano , the music salon had a radio receiver , music chest , record player and tape recorder . The walls were decorated with wooden inlays , which also showed the Hercules and the water features in the Wilhelmshöhe mountain park .
- three first-class sleeping cars (two-bed compartments), the final one as a pulpit car with a viewing area at the end of the car.
The train was fully air-conditioned and offered a total of 52 first and 88 second class beds.
The two identical trains were planned and built within 16 months. Then some of the cars were tested in and by the Bundesbahn-Versuchsamt Minden of the Deutsche Bundesbahn and test drives between Kassel and Fulda on the Frankfurt-Bebraer Eisenbahn and the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Nordbahn took place. From August 1952, the trains were shipped to their destination via Bremen and put into operation that same year.
When the Trans-Australian Railroad was continuously passable between Perth and Sydney in 1970, the vehicles were replaced with more modern ones made of stainless steel. The Wegmann train was switched to Cape gauge and was now used between Marree and Alice Springs on the Great Northern Railway. When the line was replaced by the new Central Australian Railroad in 1980 and operations on the old line ceased, part of the train came into the care of The Ghan Preservation Society . A railway museum was built on the former narrow-gauge line south of Alice Springs . There is also an exhibition on the history of The Ghan . Vehicles that were used in The Ghan - including wagons of the Wegmann train - are shown in the outdoor area . The museum led on a path to Mt. rest Ertiva a museum traffic with these vehicles through - both steam and diesel traction. However, after the route was so badly washed out after a rain that it is no longer passable and a repair is estimated at A $ 4 million, but no money can be raised, this remaining operation is probably history.
Further development
The Trans-Australian also introduced seating cars for the first time in the 1960s, a service that was initially abandoned. In 1981, seating cars were reintroduced.
The train was initially operated by the Commonwealth Railways and, after they were incorporated into the Australian National in 1975 , by the latter. The Australian National stopped the train in 1991.
swell
literature
- August Bode: Passenger trains for Australia . In: Eisenbahntechnische Rundschau 1 (1953).
- Lehmann et al. a .: DB's vehicle fleet and new rail vehicles developed by industry . Berlin 1958. [p. 171f.]
- Jim Powe: Trains and Railways of Australia . 2nd edition, Sydney 2009. ISBN 978-1-74110-902-3
Other sources
- English language Wikipedia: Commonwealth Railways
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Bode, p. 1; Lehmann, p. 171.
- ↑ Lehmann, p. 172, note.
- ↑ Travel by user: Reinhard Dietrich 1979.
- ↑ Bode, p. 3.
- ↑ Powe, p. 271.
- ↑ Powe, p. 272.
- ^ Information in the museum on the occasion of a visit in March 2009. However, the folders issued by the museum and the information distributed by the tourism organizations still promote this offer.