Recent content by Addington

That's correct, Woodford would have been planned but never built. At this location they would have been able to take advantage of the unused original single track alignment.

Quadding of the line west to Penrith was started from Westmead in the 1940's but the project was shelved once the four tracks got to Seven Hills, it took another forty years to extend to St Marys. Westmead to Granville was the final (and hardest) section to quad as the track configuration had to...

Incompatibility is a NSW trademark. We had the original single decks. When the Sputniks were built, they were a different voltage so they were able to be MU with anything except their own. Tulloch double deck trailers had three voltages, this making some incompatable with others within their...

Ummmm....no, I think not :-) When the Brisbane XPT started in 1990, I thought the 0615 arrival was bad. Then when Queensland ditched daylight saving, the summer arrival went to 0515. Right now, with daylight saving again in force in NSW, the arrival in Brisbane has returned to a very early 0353...

Agreed, the line is particularly picturesque between Brooklyn and Gosford. The XPT's are great for short journeys. But the 11 hour train trip to Casino, along the slow, curving tracks, and looking at nothing but trees, gets a bit boring after a while :-)

In our terms, going to Hamilton from Sydney, while one of the longer journeys, at 160km's, its not a long way. Opal is rapidly becoming the only way to travel. Coal trains in the Hunter are awesome. 100 odd wagons long, between two and four engines on the front, and they run very frequently. If...

It depends which line you are on. Most of the expresses from Penrith are packed inbound at Parramatta. Similarly, the Illawarra line is close to capacity. I have yet to see an air conditioned set on the Carlingford line, even though all four car sets are supposed to now be run by either 4DD...

Sydney is the only Australian city to still have non-air conditioned rolling stock. Whilst only now "officially" rostered on the Olympic Park line (one stop on a branch), they are still in regular service.

Well, the Royals are in for a surprise this week when they visit Elizabeth :) As for the EMU's, I once took the Cooroy service that was run by an EMU back in the 1990's. Between Eumundi and Cooroy it screamed its head off.

Hi DownSouth, My interest in railways is announcements, I frequently visit Adelaide, as their system, and PRIDE in Melbourne, are my favourites. The button's themselves have changed many times since the old system went in 2006. --- old post above --- --- new post below --- The old stock...

A small number of sets, around sets 60 to 70 were built with a driving cab only at one and, but the front end molding was built as standard, I believe the cab can still be used by the guards. Originally they an as six car non divisible sets, now they can be mixed with a normal three car set.

I never thought I would find myself saying that anyone could be worse than Connex, but that was until MTR started the Melbourne franchise. My fear is that the will be awarded a franchise extension in a couple of years time.

There is talk of it....yet again. The NSW Premier would like Sydney's second airport to be in Canberra, with High Speed Rail linking the two cities. The grand plan is to link Sydney and Melbourne, then Sydney with Brisbane. I would cost billions and take decades. Given previous studies and...

Privatising the freight operations in most of Australia has turned freight movements into something far more interesting, with engines from most states travelling all over the country. Originally I was into stills and video, but in the last five or so years have moved over to audio. After...

Melbourne now has the "Myki" electronic ticketing system. The initial outlay is $6 for the card. The Myki Money card allows you to top it up and use as required, as opposed to Myki Pass is set for a particular number of days. Travel on Saturdays and Sundays is $3.50. The Ghan is reduced to...