My Grandfather (or so I understand) was in charge of designing the town of Leigh Creek in the 50s and chose the route for the railway. It went downhill the entire way so the trains didn't need to do much pulling once the train was started. (Happy to be corrected if my understanding is wrong.)
I have watched many ,many aussie train videos and even made a few myself ,so when I say this is best aussie train video I've ever come across I don't say it lightly.A totally enthralling video framed within majestic South Aus desert scenery. Thanks for covering the last of the Leigh Creek coal trains. One of my greatest and most memorable train experience was of the LC coal train about 25 years ago.I was on a camping trip out Parachilna way ,and as I always, whenever near,set up camp a rail line..I had propped near a rail bridge over when of the many dry creeks running westwardly off the Flinders.It was a very dark,moonless night and as usual in wide open aussie desert areas you can see lights for tens of miles off in the distance.In the dark I could see a bright light in the far distance to the south west.As always it is very hard to judge the distance of bright lights in the distance in the desert.But I knew whatever it was it was a long ways off.A look at my map made it clear it would have to be a train's light. Any way after half an hour passed and I could just start to perceive the familiar rumble of some serious locomotive power an innumerable steel wheels on steel rails headed my way on that still,mild and beautiful desert night.After ten minutes that distant rumble had become a bone shaking,visceral cacophony and ground literal began to shake as the massive beast of a train drew level with me and passed over that small bridge.It literally must have been doing 110 kph and even at that massive speed the damn thing took at least ten minutes to pass. I figured later that at that sort of speed it must have been at least 50 or 60 kms away when I first spotted its head light in the distance. It was a truly memorable experience and one that has ever since etched a vivid and lasting impression in my mind. So I can only feel great regret at the passing into history this iconic train of the South Australian landscape. With kind regards,Trev.
Thank you for posting!! As an American, I have a concept of DISTANCE. Europeans can never seem to understand how just how much bigger the world is compared to their ELITIST patch. 👍👍👍👍
Thanks for the upload. It reminded me of my childhood in South Africa. One of my favorite pastimes was to count the number of wagons while my thoughts ranged far and wide. As for the landscape - very familiar. Appreciate the photography and the editing. I wish you well.
First time I've seen a compressor wagon, or at least knew what it was. They don't use them here in Canada that I know of. Had to look this place up on Google Earth. That is a massive mine, about 7 km wide! Thanks for posting and the very good description of locos and wagons.
Thanks for actually reading it. Most people don't even bother, they find it's just easier to ask even though the answer is right there in front of them !!
@@emd645e3c ,i was going to ask about the out-of-place wagon at the end of the train till i read the description. lovely stuff this video. and leigh creek isn't in your backyard either. a lot of time and effort to make it.
Those are ex NSWGR's coal hoppers, I remember them from the 1980's on the hunter valley coal trains. We use to ride them, all through the night. Great fun.
GREAT Video as always😃 but those 12-710's are 3030BHP, so 2850ish for traction? I'd like to know do the 81 Class pull any more weight than the 82 Class. 🤔
Do you know what sucks, when you are coming back from Kalgoorlie after a holiday you decide to stop over because it is getting late and stay at the Kunderdin caravan park next to the grain depot and and where the train tracks run along side Great Eastern Highway and next to the caravan park, what sucks is that every F¥€$£# hour a freight train drives past, honks it's bloody horn; MUAAAAAAAAAA, MUAAAAA, AND THE CLICKETY CLICK NOISE OF THE CARRIAGES DURING THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT! Hmm... Good sleep...
That will become valuable historic footage of the last days of South Australia before it became a third world state. You managed to get some fantastic angles and lighting with this video, it's beautiful country and you have shown it at it's best. Pity about the flies! What has happened to the rollingstock? Was it abandoned at Leigh Creek or left down at Port Augusta for reuse somewhere, not too many coal mines in SA?. Ray.
cool video - good one for posterity. It must be pretty flat to have hauled so much with that horsepower: to get 48 of those same wagons up to Waterfall (Southern Sydney, NSW) they need 4 x 82s for 48 of them! Damn 1 in 40 grades.
Australia has got to come up with some new state names. The title had me baffled cause I was thinking, that’s just central Australia, why didn’t they say that. It would be better if it was like ‘north Kansas’
what is the max grade on the rail line in Australia? a very outstanding video. love to watch in on wide screen the view of the country side is something else. what was on the flat car at the end of the train? thanks
according to the description it's a compressor car so the brakes work optimally at the rear of the train (so far from the locos!). As for the grades, it really depends on where you are. In the Blue Mountains west of Sydney it's as steep as 1 in 33, and the other main lines out of Sydney all have sections of 1 in 40.
Many thanks for the vid Steve! Was at Parachilna a few years ago and saw that the old Ghan line passed through there before it was more further west. Do you know if these coal trains out of Leigh Ck used part of the old Ghan line down to Port Augusta? Cheers, Stu
g'day mate my name andy bowen from taree in nsw i am very interested in wanting to find out how many coal wagons are on these big bloody monsters newcastle on the nsw hunter valley coal train carry 90 wagons long it will be great to here back from you
Replying to Dennis Latter Greetings from South Africa As an old driver I can tell you The feeling of controlling all that power is so unbelievable Either with electric or diesel Your adrenalin goes up a notch or 2 with the roaring of the diesels but either one it it just unbelievable Sure miss those days
yeah/nar. it was the original ghan track that was reconstructed from 3'6" to 4'8" and realigned in places. so yeah/nar, mostly yeah. i think the original ghan used to get piggy-backed on sg wagons as far as about leigh creek then meander to alice springs from there. until the new track to alice springs was built. i may stand to be corrected on this. best of luck finding video or pikkys of the piggy-back service. they are rare.
It's because some of the mining companies have us rail lines in australia. So they don't comply with australian standards but us standards in every way so procedures, signaling, guage etc are all usa standard. It's easier to just buy a us Loco then ship it over and start using it, they do change dust filters etc on them and train drivers to the usa standards, if you were a us driver you would probably find it easy to just start driving as you'd already know 95% of everything. As far as I know it's the only place with full us standard rail lines not in the usa.
Near stock American in the Pilbra. The 82 Class JT42C Clyde-EMD is the predessor of British Rail's Type 66 Class, you can still get them in 2023 brand new as JT42CWRM EMD's from Progress Rail for EU use.😀
The real reason is that the state Govt is totally for Renewable Energy and wanted to close all Coal powered electricity generation. Mine closure & no Coal generation , has led to higher energy cost, sucking on power from other States and more blackouts...........
@@1arritechno Rubbish. The 'coal' was crap but the owners Alinta closed the station and mine for pure economic reasons. SA's wholesale power price dropped due to solar and wind and is sometimes negative. The state regularly runs on 100% renewables, blackouts are rare and we export a lot to Vic and soon NSW.