Model Trains and Things

Garratt steam locomotives are fairly well regarded the world over but in every family there has to be a black sheep and for the Garratt family of fine steam locomotives the black sheep has to be what was known as the Australian Standard Garratt.

On paper the Australian Standard Garratt should have been an absolute winner but in fact it was an absolute lemon. The Australian Standard Garratt was built during WWII under the auspices of the Commonwealth Land Transport Board at the Newport Workshops in Melbourne, the Islington Workshops in South Australia, the Midland Workshops in Western Australia and Clyde Engineering in New South Wales.

The first Australian Standard Garratt took a mere four months to build and while they were quick to impress railway staff with their pulling power their design faults soon showed through. The lack of a flange on the leading driving wheels contributed to their habit of derailing and a long list of other faults soon had railway unions calling for industrial action.

The locos saw service in Western Australia, Queensland and Tasmania. In Queensland the Australian Standard Garratts were withdrawn as soon as the War ended and in Western Australia they lasted into the early 1950s and several of the Western Australian engines were then sold to South Australia for crew training to prepare staff for the arrival of the 400 class Garratts 

In Tasmania the Australian Standard Garratt was a little more popular and they lasted service until 1957. And that’s where we see this official photograph of one of the Tasmanian Government Railway locos. There’s no mention of just where the photo was taken but, as you can see, even official photographers have trouble with poles and lighting.

Photo used with the permission of the National Archives

A number of Australian Standard Garratts passed into private ownership and the largest private operator of these locomotives was the Emu Bay Railway. They liked the Australian Standard Garratts so much that, when one was wrecked in a derailment, they went out and bought another one as a replacement.

The Emu Bay Railway scrapped their last Australian Standard Garratt around 1966.

Looking back from this point in time it’s perhaps difficult to understand just what a disaster the Australian Standard Garratts really were … especially in Queensland … but perhaps this slide presentation from YouTube will help you understand.

If you’re building a model railway layout then sooner or later you will realise that you’ve embarked on a massive exercise in problem solving … and sometimes you’re going to struggle to find the answers to some of those problems.

The Wolf Valley RR is one man’s journey into the realm of problem solving and you can join him as he slowly solves his problems and builds his layout. Follow the link and you will find out more about the problems that he’s solved along the way.

Here’s an interesting training video from British Railways back around 1990 - it takes you on a short cab ride on one of the suburban networks.

Brian Millar from the On30 Conspiracy group on Yahoo! drives a cane loco in north Queensland during the cane cutting season.

Here is some video he shot from the cab of his 40 tonne Eimco diesel. The track gauge is 2 feet or 610mm.

As the Savannahlander says, it’s “a remarkable and unique rail journey into Far North Queensland’s savannah country”

You will find their website here and it’s quite interesting to read of a tourist railway’s struggle to provide a decent service in the face of official bumbling.

The video below shows part of the trip through the Delaney Gorge.

We headed off to Bundaberg again yesterday for our regular stationary fix at Office Works. Between Childers and Bundaberg the highway crosses several cane lines at crossings that are well-protected by flashing lights and bells.

Both crossings are on long straight stretches so it’s pretty hard to miss the lights and bells but, as I mentioned here after our last trip to Bundie, there are idiots who do miss them and once again, yesterday was no exception.

We were bopping along with nothing very close behind when the lights at the first crossing out of Childers went off. Toni began to slow as I started rummaging around for my camera … and the lumbering 4WD that was a couple of hundred metres back before we began to slow started to overtake.

Fortunately the driver of said 4WD finally woke up to what those flashing lights and ringing bells really meant and managed to pull up just before he got past us. That meant that instead of photographing a bloody mangled mess - and possibly having the wreckage pushed into our car - I got to grab this photo of Isis Mill Number 5 heading for the mill with a very long rake of loaded cane wagons.

I am now coming to the firm believe that the size of the vehicle that some people drive is in direct inverse proportion to the size of their penis and the size of their brain … both of which are probably so small they would be difficult to find without the help of some visual aids.