Armistice Day Friday 11th November 2011
With this Friday being Armistice Day, I think it is important we all pause and remember those who made the supreme sacrifice. Railways played an important part in World War 1, with many Australian railway personal involved both here and abroad. ANGRMS has a direct link to WW1 as we have a genuine WW1 war relic in our collection – a Hunslet 610mm gauge steam locomotive which saw active service in France. Light railways played an important part in WW1 in France. In the environment of the Western Front, main line railways could get no closer than five to eight kilometres from the trenches, as they were a prime target for artillery and were very expensive to install and maintain.
Narrow gauge ‘light railways’ served as the vital connection between the main line railheads and the forward areas. By 1917, an average of 165,530 tons of war material was being moved per week on the light railways. A peak of 210,808 tons was reached in October 1917 in connection with the Battle of Ypres. By the Armistice in Nov 1917, these light railways totalled about 6000km of track in the British sector alone, to which about 750 steam locomotives and a similar number of small internal-combustion locomotives had been delivered. Australians played an important part in the operation of these “Light Railways”, with several Australian Light Railway Units. Below is a very interesting “YouTube” link to some great old WW1 war footage showing these “Light Railways” …
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A common question asked around the traps is ‘what do they do at the Mackay Heritage Railway?’ It turns out there is quite a bit, with a fair bit of innovation and application of some modern thinking and processes to old equipment. This will be important for when they realise their dream of running BB18 1/4 1037 on the mainline again. Instead of wasting words about the MHR, we’ll let some pictures do the talking.
The slideshow below has been taken from a power point presentation done by Peter Ford. There are 36 pictures in the presentation, each lasting 6 seconds. I don’t think the captions will display in the slide show, so if you want to read the comments that are associated with each image, click through to page two on the continue reading link, and you will see the image gallery posted there. Click the thumbnail to view the full size image and caption.
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The Workshops Rail Museum wins two Queensland Tourism Awards
Arts Minister Rachel Nolan today announced The Workshops Rail Museum has scooped the pool wining both the Heritage & Cultural Tourism award and the Tourist Attractions award at the Queensland Tourism Awards.
Ms Nolan said the rail museum continues to go from strength to strength and last night’s awards recognise its outstanding contribution not only to Queensland arts and culture, but the local economy.
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The story is copied here in full, with the link below navigating to the source. There is a another link at the end of this post that will take you to a story from the News Mail from two years ago, where this issue was flagged earlier.
VOLUNTEERS and community members are furious after Queensland Transport shut down the railway line at the Botanic Gardens without warning.
Officials stopped the tourist train, which has operated for 23 years, in the middle of a run as it helped out with a charity walk supporting diabetes on Sunday.
The Australian Sugar Cane Railway has been told the shutdown was because the railway did not comply with strict safety regulations.
Critics have labelled the move “bureaucracy gone rampant”.
Passengers on the Botanic Gardens tourist attraction, including a disabled woman and her carer, were ordered off the train by officials on Sunday afternoon.
The shutdown came about without warning and relates to safety accreditation the department said the 23-year-old railway attraction – which has never had an accident – must comply with.
Australian Sugar Cane Railway committee secretary Ross Driver said the group had been talking with Queensland Transport for months over compliance with their system of safety…
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What’s Happening in Preservation?
News from our member organisations and upcoming ATRQ and ATHRA events will be published on these pages. We’ll also dredge up articles of interest from the mainstream media that is relevant to T&H Railway operators. Scroll down to read more!
