Vol. I, Issue 5
The Railways of Australia
Part 1 Overview

PLEASE BE PATIENT WHILE OUR FANTASTIC RAIL PICTURES LOAD, thanks

Puffin Billy Railway, Melbourne, Australia

All Aboard for the fifth Issue of RailNutterNews! In this issue, Part 1 of the Railways of Australia, we present an overview of our travels on the trains down under.
The Indian Pacific Railway travels from Sydney across the expanse of Oz to Perth, crossing the great emptyness. We rode it thru the Blue Mountains to Adelaide, under the stars and seeing Kangaroos in the bush alongside the tracks at dawn.

Indian Pacific Railway

In Adelaide we made new friends aboard the vintage tram line from Victoria Square to the seaside at Glenelg. Greetings to the friendly Tram drivers of Adelaide!

The legendary Ghan travels from the Red Centre of Australia at Alice Springs (Ayers Rock) to Adelaide. Service on the Ghan is expanding to new routes from Sydney to Alice Springs and from Adelaide to Melbourne. Spectacular Scenery on all routes. The staff aboard the Ghan are so attentive that when I saw a poster of the Ghan Locomotive that was unavailable, a hospitality attendant said that she would send it to me. When it became available 7 months later, the promise was kept; it was sent all the way from South Australia to New York!

Melbourne Australia is Tram and Train Paradise! The City is linked together with an extensive tram system as well as a suburban rail system with 17 lines or spurs.

flinders Street Station, City Centre

Take the Belgrave line to the Puffin Billy Railway, the most fantastic Steam Railway on Earth! Imagine a railway run by railfans and you will begin to understand why the fellow acting as guard is actually an executive at Puffin Billy.

We were fortunate enough to hear about one of the many excursions by Steamrail Victoria from Melbourne to the surrounding countryside.

West Coast Railways ran fantastic Diesels to the coast at Warnambool. Later, Steam Loco service was restored.

photo by Steve Dalton

R707 operated by 707 operations in Spotswood Vic, recently supplied their R class to run the 9.55 dn Geelong passenger service and the 1335 up Geelong service, It is shown here leaving Lara

photo by Steve Dalton

train leaving Colac on the Down to Warranmbool
grey overhead Gantry: delivers water up to 3000litres a minute;
so watering takes only about 2-3 minutes

And the Railroad Museum at Williamstown is photography paradise with lovingly restored Diesel and Steam Locomotives.