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PT. ·4 - AUSTRALIA'S FIRST 100 YEARS i'OF RAIL 'I'HE EVOLUTION OF ELECTRIC RAILWAYS Australia entered the railway age around 1850. In the following years, railways changed the face of our country, sometimes at a startling rate. By BRYAN MAHER In Sydney, a start was made at Redfern and a ceremonial sod was turned in 1850, but progress was slow and arguments raged over what gauge to choose. The companies knew full well that the English Parliament Bill of 1840 required all railways to be built to the standard 4ft 8-1/2in, but were also 80 SILICON CHIP aware that the same Parliament had ratified Ireland's decision to adopt the 5ft 3in "Irish" gauge. Now the Sydney Railway Company had employed an Irishman, Mr. Shields, as chief designer who promptly decided that Sydney's railway should be built to 5ft 3in gauge. Simultaneously, another group, the Hunter River Railway Company, was formed to construct a standard gauge system from Newcastle to Maitland and north, while three different companies were making plans to link Melbourne with Port Melbourne and Geelong. Of the three Melbourne starters, only one, the Melbourne And Hobson's Bay Railway Company, actually built a railway. They also had an Irish engineer who, reinforced by the Sydney Railway Company's choice of a 5ft 3in gauge, chose that gauge for Victoria. Their first train ran from Flinders Street to Sandridge in September 1854, winning the honour as the first train in Australia. THE NSW "58" CLASS steam locomotive weighed 228 tonnes, developed 2475 horsepower (1.85MW), and produced 51,000lhs drawhar pull. (Photo courtesy ◄ SRA, NSW). By 1857 a service was opened from Geelong to Melbourne, partly by train and partly by ferry. Sad to say, by 1861 the Railway Company was no longer financially viable and a State Government takeover was necessary. Meanwhile, back in Sydney town, engineer Mr. Shields had been succeeded by Mr. Wallace, an Englishman and proud of it, a staunch believer in Rule Britannia and English laws and customs. Yes you guessed it, bemused reader, their new engineer would have no part of this 5ft 3in nonsense and pointing out the error of their ways told his masters, the Sydney Railway Company, that he would build to the English standard 4ft 8-1/2in gauge. And he did. The next year, 1855, some 379 days behind the Victorians, the first train in NSW ran from Redfern to Granville (then called Parramatta). Within five years the line had been extended to Blacktown, with Penrith reached by 1863. In Newcastle, the Hunter River Railway Company opened its line in 1857. This was after four years of planning, surveys, financial troubles and building, but the company had been forced to accept Government intervention. Both the Sydney and the Hunter r TRAINS IN THE STREETS: the "space-age" 520 class 4-8-4 express locomotive was once the pride of the South Australian Railways. It is shown here standing at Port Pirie station in 1947. (Bryan Maher photo). River Railway Companies remained solvent for less than one year from their start of operations. By the end of 1855 both had been taken over by the NSW Government, believed to be the first time ever a Government had owned and operated a railway. South Australia joined the club only 210 days after Sydney's big opening ceremony by building a 5ft 3in gauge line from Adelaide to Port Adelaide. This extended to Gawler the next year, 1857, and to Victor Harbour by 1864. Queensland, for economy, chose the narrow 3ft 6in gauge for their first line which was nowhere near Brisbane, but ran west from Ipswich to Grandchester in 1865 and to Gatton the next year. Construction of the next westward stage to Toowoomba involved the ascent of the Great Dividing Range but remarkably that task took only one more year, in 1867. Turning south, the builders constructed their line along the western side of and roughly parallel to the range to reach Warwick in 1871. Only then was Brisbane City to enter into the railway age, the extension from Ipswich to Brisbane being completed in 1875. PICTURED AT Port Pirie Junction in 1949, the Commonwealth Railways Class CN 75 was a 4-6-0 locomotive of American-style design. (Bryan Maher photo). FEBRUARY1988 81 THE FIRST FIVE NSW "38" class steam locomotives were streamlined, weighed 201 tonnes, produced 2250 horsepower and were built by Clyde Engineering. The one-piece cast steel mainframe included the front buffer beam, all cylinders and the main air reservoir, as well as mountings for the axle-boxes, boiler, air pumps and firebox. (Photo courtesy SRA). In company with Queensland, and again for economic reasons, Western Australia, Tasmania and Northern Territory all finished up with narrow gauge 3ft 6in systems, although for a short while Tasmania went through a silly period with two different companies building in different gauges, 5ft 3in and 3ft 6in. After a Western Australian logging line had run from Brusselton to Yogamw for seven or eight years, a passenger and freight railway was put into operation from Geraldton to Northampton in 1879. Thus it was not until 1881 that the citizens of Perth saw their first line from Perth to Fremantle. The Geraldton and Perth systems remained separate for another 13 years until finally joined in 1894. 82 SILICON CHIP New South Wales The NSW system quickly extended westwards over the Blue Mountains, reaching Bourke by 1885. Simultaneously, construction proceeded south from Sydney to reach Albury by 1881 with connection to Melbourne two years later. All this time, Newcastle had been the centre of the thriving Northern Railway System. By 1857, the track extended as far north as Maitland, then followed more tracklaying through the lush green Hunter River valley via Singleton, Muswellbrook and Murrurundi. So far so good. But ahead was the steep climb up the Great Dividing Range. Undaunted, the builders attacked the mountain and with many a twisting turn and some large creek bridges managed to reach the summit in the middle of the Ardglen tunnel. From there, the line proceeded down a steep slope to the plateau levels of Willow Tree and Quirindi. To this day that section remains exactly the same steep, single track, but track circuit signalling, heavy rail and centralised traffic control keep trains moving quickly. Loaded trains still require doubleheading over the peak of the grade with the powerful 81 class dieselelectric locomotives. Driving on northwards the track builders reached Tamworth by 1878, famous for having installed the first electric street lighting in an Australian country city. But the proposed line ahead looked awesome indeed. To reach prospective customers the line ascended ever upward to Armidale, Guyra and Glen Innes. And it reached higher still through the tiny town of Ben Lamond, at 4517 feet above sea level, the highest trainline on this continent, and higher than most standard gauge railways of Europe. Thankfully, from this point, the terrain falls all the way to the Queensland border and Newcastleto-Brisbane travel was a safe, comfortable affair by 1888. Farmers Australia-wide then twisted the political arms of every government and in short order branch lines snaked out all over the country, giving rail access to 90% of our sons-of-the-land and their produce by 1900. Built partly as "ballot box expediency", many branches were built too cheaply and quickly, with steep grades, sharp curves and very light rail. Our entire country is even yet suffering the resultant legacy of slow running speeds and high operating costs. Locomotives NSW locomotives began with little No.1, an 0-4-2 type, to be followed by a few small designs until mass production of the fast "12" class began in 1877. The heavier but slower "S" or "30" class, a 4-6-4 tank type of which hundreds were built, was the mainstay of Sydney's suburban steam trains from 1880 to 1930, and of Newcastle's right up to the late 1950's. Between 1890 and the turn of the century, two steam locomotive classes important to the development of the state were built. These were the 4-6-0 "P" or 32 and 33 class for passenger service, and the 2-8-0 "T" or 50 and 51 class built in Sydney by the Clyde Engineering Company. More than 100 of each class were built and all did stirling service for 70 or so years. The pride of the state for many years was the "36" class. Especially at night, their "snorting" sound and the glare of their headlamp gave such an impression of immense power wanting to be unleashed that the lure of being carried to places unknown changed many FI bystander into an avid woulrl-be traveller. Every night the EXPERIMENT AL ELECTRIC tram car No.3, as used in Sydney· during the 1890s. It used a direct current overhead trolley wire system. (Photo SRA/UTA Archives). prestige Melbourne Limited Express roared out of Sydney headed by two of these well-loved machines and who could but not watch in awe. Forty two of this class were built from 1924 on, but around 1942 even they were eclipsed by New South Wales' last steam design, the "C38" class. South Australia South Australia in 1886 made history by joining the Victorian system at Serviceton using the same 5ft 3in gauge. After further expansion, South Australia declared the broad gauge too expensive for some small lines and built tracks north of Port Pirie in the cheaper 3ft 6in gauge. Years later, in 1917, the Federal Government, to its everlasting credit, built the Trans-Australian Railway from Port Augusta to Kalgoorlie in the English standard gauge, extending to Port Pirie in 1937. Thus it is that Port Pirie (along with the city of Vaxjo in Sweden) qualifies as a member of a very exclusive club - those having railway yards where some tracks have four rails. Parts of the Port Pirie yard use one common rail on the left, a second rail 3ft 6in to the right, a third rail at 4ft 8-1/2in and a fourth rail at 5ft 3in. Wow! The sight of a set of points on such a track is a joy to behold! That changed again in December 1986 when Australian National changed the 5ft 3in Adelaide-Port Pirie track to standard gauge by moving one rail inwards 165mm over the whole 160km length of single track. It also constructed 12km of new track. Islington terminal now has mixed-gauge tracks, including dual-gauge points. South Australia's 5ft 3in Irish gauge system could boast some excellent examples of large steam locomotive design in the American style. This was exemplified in the 520 class streamlined 4-8-4 express locos and the 500 class 4-8-4 which were among the most powerful locomotives ever to run in this country. The 500 class was unique in that they had an extra set of steam pistons and cylinders driving the four trailing bogie wheels under the firebox. This increased the drawbar pull at low speeds, being disconnected for high speed running. The present scene in Queensland holds records for the longest regular trip in one state-operated train, while their coal trains are FEBRUARY1988 83 copper conductors, that span with a 61-metre sag in the middle has each phase supported by a pyramid structure made of three 18-metre wooden poles sunk 4.3 metres into the rocky hilltop. The whole 66kV line from Hamilton substation in Newcastle to St. Leonards substation in Sydney was designed to carry 200 amperes, and at full current 6000 volts was lost over the length of the line. For the first time in Australia, two large cities had their power systems synchronised and joined. Victorian electrics INTRODUCED IN 1923, the LP class was the first electric tram car in Newcastle. (Photo SRA/UTA Archives). believed to be the second largest in the world on narrow gauge, but more of that in a later episode. A side effect of the choice of narrow gauge is the ability to turn a train in a tighter curve, allowing branch and main lines to be laid in a city street and even turn a 90 degree corner. Rockhampton and other cities regret this to the present day. Even Brisbane people suffered freight trains in the streets of "The Gabba" up until 1973. Early electrification The absolute first Electric Traction of any type in Australia was an electric tramway using a direct current overhead trolley wire system in Sydney, from Waverley to Bondi Junction. This was in operation from 9th November, 1890. Direct current supply was generated by the New South Wales Railways at an installation a short distance away in the direction of Randwick. That little DC generator near Randwick marked the first entry into the electricity generating business by the NSW Railways, starting an enterprise which continued to grow for the following seventy years. The Railways Department during that time not only generated all power used by electric trams, trains, stations , yardlighting, workshops and signals in the Newcastle, Sydney and Blue Mountains districts, they also supplied, 84 SILICON CHIP owned and operated at Newcastle the largest electric and hydraulic coal loading wharf system on the Pacific Ocean. Furthermore, in that period the New South Wales Railways operated 50Hz and 25Hz coal burning power stations at Ultimo and White Bay in Sydney and at Zara Street in Newcastle, and for a long time owned some of the largest synchronous motors in Australia, 10 megawatts in Newcastle and 30 megawatts in Sydney. During that time the Zara Street plant supplied 90 percent of all power used in Newcastle and its suburbs by domestic and industrial users. Expanding gradually, the Railways Department built and operated a large system of high voltage feeders from their power stations to many country towns and cities. 33kV lines ran from Newcastle to the Hunter River Valley and up the north coast towards Grafton. 66kV lines ran from Sydney to the Blue Mountains and also Australia's first intercity power line interconnector, also a 66kV line, was built in 1942 to join Newcastle and Sydney. One 960-metre long span of that Newcastle-Sydney interconnector across the Hawkesbury River was believed to be the longest power line span on wooden poles in the world. Originally built using 19-strand 10-gauge cadmium- Melbourne became the first Australian city to boast electric suburban trains when in 1918 some wooden carriages , previously steam-hauled, were converted to electric traction by the fitting of pantographs, control gear and new bogies containing electric motors. Overhead wiring construction was proceeding on a number of suburban lines and the first electric train ran from Sandringham to Essendon in 1919. Construction of AC-DC substations and overhead conductors above the tracks continued and Melbourne's 1500 volt DC electric suburban railway system eventually grew very large. Australia's early use of electric locomotives was confined to the coalfields in the eastern corner of Victoria where the very considerable brown coal deposits are mined by open cut methods. Victoria's first electrically hauled coal train ran in 1923. Melbourne trams The Melbourne Electric Tramway system has, since quite early days, been working with the railways in shifting millions of people. Nowadays this system is the only extensive electric tramway system remaining in Australia. A shining example to the rest of Australia, Melbourne has extended its tram-tracks and purchased many new tramcars. The up-to-date "Z" class, of which 215 new cars have been put into service over a ten-year period, are being augmented by the latest order of 52 modern "A" class trams. In 1985, a $100 million contract continued on page 93 New cases from Geoff Wood Problems? As you will quickly find when you start to look for instrument cases, there is not a wide range available. We need more, whether they are wider, higher, smaller or better looking. Now Geoff Wood Electronics have put a range of instrument cases from Spain into stock. These are nicely finished and some have sloping fronts. Our photographs show two of the boxes available, both of which are priced at $41.95. For further information, contact Geoff Wood Electronics, 229 Burns Bay Road, Lane Cove West, NSW 2066. Phone (02) 427 1676. ... and you don't have our 112 page catalogue ... Evolution of Electric Railways: ctd from p.84 was let by Melbourne city's Metropolitan Transport Authority for the supply of 130 Articulated Light Rail Vehicles for use on long tram routes and later on two converted railway routes. These advanced vehicles consist of two cars sharing three bogies. Propulsion by two 600 volt DC 195kW AEG traction motors can speed the 32.5 tonne vehicle with its 182 passengers along at a brisk 72 km per hour. The modern control system uses AEG thyristor DC-to-DC chopper circuits. Melbourne showed the world that the age of construction of 1500 volt DC city underground railways was still alive and well by opening their City Loop Line in 1981. Circling around the city from Spencer Street Station via Flagstaff, Museum and Parliament Stations to Flinders Street or outer suburbs, this new line takes suburban passengers within walking distance of their city workplace, easing street traffic congestion. Adelaide's longest surviving Electric Tramway, the famous fast Glenelg Tram, has always been an example to Australia of the quickest way to move people. The people of Brisbane were for many years served well by an electric tramway installation which reached the peak of its importance about 1930. Sadly, Brisbane eventually followed the lead of many other cities and scrapped all electric trams in favour of diesel buses. Next month, we continue with a description of the Newcastle and Sydney tram systems. ~ RCS Radio Pty Ltd is the only company which manufactures and sells every PCB & front panel published in SILICON CHIP, ET! and EA. you've got real problems! ARISTA ... your one-stop problem solver. Audio leads ... Batteries ... Chargers ... Battery holders ... Cables .. . Car accessories ... CD accessories ... Converters ... "Cutec" ... Earphones ... Fuses ... Headphones ... Intercoms ... Knobs ... Microphones and accessories .. . Mixers ... Multimeters ... Plugs/Sockets, etc .. . 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