Spotting this video of the Australian diesel hydraulic 2000/2100 class railcars running from Adelaide to Gawler - and thought "I've done that trip".
Looking through my Australia photos, I found a couple of shots of these interesting looking vehicles. What I can't remember is if I travelled on them. More head scratching required.
Greetings from John in Adelaide, Australia! You can no longer rides that 'Jumbo'. Lines have been electrified and we have new trains.
ReplyDeleteFYI We have broad gauge suburban tracks 4'81/2". So, yes, we have wider carriages. The driver was 'upstairs'. Bit like the Golden Pass in Switzerland. The first batch were terrible (2000? series). Underpowered diesel in centre of three carriages. Could not operate on some lines because of that! The last series (3000?) has decent diesel electric motors. All gone.
Re broad gauge. SA, NSW and Victoria made an agreement to use broad gauge. NSW had a change of government and reneged.
Interstate is now all standard gauge. Suburban and country vary across Australia.
Queensland is still narrow gauge. Decades ago they worked out it was 1/8th the cost of standard gauge because of all the earthworks etc needed - larger radius, larger tunnels, bigger and heavier bridges, etc.