| The small size and isolation of Perth compared with other cities might have made it a professional backwater, but when it came to Railways, the Western Australians were often found in the vanguard of change. In the locomotive department, they were early adopters of Walschaerts valve gear, Superheating and roller bearings on steam locomotives. They were one of the first customers for the new Beyer Garratt in 1911, and by 1930 were building some in their own Workshops. In 1949 they built a diesel electric train, with a power car that was almost a locomotive. The X class diesel electric built by Metropolitan Vickers of Manchester in 1954 was the world’s most powerful diesel within the limitation of a 10 ton axle load, but it threw oil about and gave a lot of trouble. In 1957 Midland Workshops converted a ten year old Pacific into an impressive Baltic tank to see if steam could maintain diesel railcar schedules on the Perth suburban lines. It certainly did, but it cost a lot to run! If sometimes their innovations went awry, more often than not they got it right. They became a very efficient outfit.
But in the Sixties there were heaps of delicious incongruities on the WAGR! As late as 1969, they were meeting the very flash “Trans Australian Express” at Kalgoorlie with the wonderful “Westland Express”. We heard howls of dismay from girls alighting from the superb air-conditioned cars of the Com Rails train when they saw their overnight accommodation for the run to Perth. Wooden bodied carriages with lift up windows and water bags hanging from the end platforms! But next morning they were having a ball, letting their hair fly from open windows and crossing from car to car on open platforms. Breakfast in the dining car was cooked on a wood fired range, and the fuel was stacked outside the kitchen on the open platform! By that time, the steep and tortuous Eastern Goldfields main line over the Darling Ranges had been abandoned in favour of a new double track, dual gauge line through the lovely Avon Valley. It was built as part of the inter-capital gauge standardization scheme, but was opened some years before the whole route to Kalgoorlie was finished. It was one of steam’s last holdouts in Australasia, as big green 3’6” gauge MacArthur’s worked uphill on one thousand ton goods trains, passing brand new high horsepower GM’s coming downhill on standard gauge iron ore trains. It was quite a show! |
The Midland Gym |
Steam Generator |
Innovative Fireman |
Hot Day on the Escarpment |
Cool Foot |
Short Sighted |
Steam’s Imprint |
Vantage Point |
Mount Helena Local |
The Big Surprise |
The Terrible Turk |
Small Pacific Big Baltic |
Geraldton Transfer |
Black Pacific |
A Well Earned Thirst |
Wheat Belt Run By |
Colour Me Green |
Between Rosters |
Diesel Electric Pioneer |
Beginning of the End |
Tall and Skinny |
The Green Submarine |
The Mullewa Lounge |
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© 1998-2009 Michael Venn - All copyrights rest with the Author [ descript.ion | Index ] |