Hot Rails — 𝕏/acc
@hot_rails
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Aerospace engineer, economist, farmer and aspiring railway tycoon. Grow or die ⏩⤴️
YADG
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I've just published a new review of global air-rail market share, with over 200 datapoints for 133 unique city-pairs across 5 continents, demonstrating that rail begins to capture significant market share at travel times below 5-6 hours (not 3 hours as often claimed).
Short 🧵
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@GrayConnolly
Counterpoint:
Australia's east coast has almost the exact same area, population and GDP as Scandinavia.
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In its first ten days of service, the new
@Amtrak
Borealis service between Chicago and Minneapolis/St Paul hit a market share of over 15% against airlines; there are typically 25 flights in each direction each day between the two cities.
First ridership numbers for the Borealis are in, on average 604 passengers per day.
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Australia has five major city pairs within the "competitive" distance band for high-speed rail, all of them located in a rough crescent along the south-east coast. Three of them are in among the global top-100 air routes by ridership. We could *not* be better placed.
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The story of Australia's long railway platforms is the story of Australia's rail system itself - the tyranny of distance, the gauge muddle, the hope for the future, and the unfulfilled dreams. Here are the top-10 longest rail platforms in Australia -🧵
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Australia's east coast has almost the exact same area, population and GDP as Scandinavia.
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Inland Rail is going to be ***by far*** the most spectacular rail infrastructure ever built in Australia. Let's take a look at some of its most impressive structures, and the wider implications this has for the future of rail in Australia.
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@1micky_v
@the_transit_guy
Are you kidding? 3hrs CBD to CBD is not only competitive but actually faster than flying.
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I present: Lake Bradfield, larger than Lakes Superior and Michigan combined. Pool height of 45m, Marree & Birdsville on waterfront, and a navigable outflow to Spencer Gulf via Lake Torrens. Inflow of 10,000m3/sec is required to offset evaporation (about 12 River Murrays).
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@jachaseyoung
That map is not topographically accurate. But this one is.
I present: Lake Bradfield, larger than Lakes Superior and Michigan combined. Pool height of 45m, Marree & Birdsville on waterfront, and a navigable outflow to Spencer Gulf via Lake Torrens. Inflow of 10,000m3/sec is required to offset evaporation (about 12 River Murrays).
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Absolutely bonkers stat: South Australia's *entire* regional public transport network costs the state about $18 million per annum. For that expenditure, the region's 400,000 residents make 912,000 trips per annum - an average of 2.3 per person, per year, at a cost of $19 per
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In Australia, iced coffee is considered among the manlier class of beverage. It’s branded with strong words like “Oak” or “Dare”, marketed to construction workers, and sold in cartons out of which you are expected to drink directly from the spout.
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Keep this in mind next time you see some factoid about the supposed "low density" of Australian cities. Chances are you're seeing the stats for the "Greater Capital City", instead of the more useful "Urban Centre / Locality".
🧵
Greater Sydney vs Sydney, (area ratio 5.6):
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Incredible result for a 7.5hr service. Even modest speed upgrades would obviously capture a significant market share.
Check out my website for a more detailed look at air/rail market share throughout the world:
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Fast rail can’t work because it needs super advanced building techniques like, uh, continuously welded rail, apparently. This is the level of ignorance we are up against.
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This is how HSR was actually built in every country that has it, and the Australian conception of it as a singular megaproject is the primary reason we don’t.
high speed rail is hot but when minister king says delivering it in australia you know she means melbourne to bendigo and sydney to newcastle right? not melbourne to brisbane...
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@waitbutwhy
Sporting codes were all formalised shortly after the widespread adoption of railways. Formerly, sports were mainly played to local rules, as it was impractical for distant teams to travel to compete.
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A head-to-head comparison of The Overland and the XPT based on my observations from catching both over the weekend... 🧵
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A very well-patronised southbound XPT arriving at Wagga Wagga about 33 minutes late. Estimate maybe 50pax on and the same number off.
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Skitube is Australia’s only alpine railway, providing car-free access to
@PerisherResort
. The unique railcars were designed and built in New South Wales, with special features for high capacity and fast boarding, moving up to 4,500 skiers and snowboarders per hour.
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Good news guys, the High Speed Rail Authority is going to release a report! It will be finished in two years! “Doing nothing is not an option”! Wow all those Utopia cynics sure have egg on their faces….
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@peterrhague
I used to do a lot of editing there 10+ years ago, and still do from time to time, but mainly on esoteric articles that aren’t magnets for zealotry. But even those articles aren’t safe; as they have fewer eyeballs on them they are thus more vulnerable to bullshit being inserted
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While everyone's debating how much of a Sydney-Newcastle high speed railway would have to be in tunnel, it's a good time to revisit the
@beyondzeronews
concept alignment from 2014, showing a mostly-surface, 300km/h alignment.
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Upgrading the Adelaide Hills railway to 160km/h standard could be done with just 15km of new track to avoid the worst of the existing curvature, whereas a full bypass would require between 62km and 144km! That's why the upgrade option is so much more affordable than previous
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50 years of ridership for The Overland - reconstructed from the annual reports of the SA Railways, Commonwealth Railways and Australian National, annual subsidy data, and the occasional news snippet or parliamentary committee hearing.
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This infrastructure pipeline is just batshit insane. SA has the highest spend in the nation on road projects (absolute, *not* per capita), and is simultaneously the only state to have zero major rail projects.
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@1micky_v
@the_transit_guy
That's gate to gate, if you're lucky. Destination to destination is easily over 3hrs, probably 4 depending on where you're going and if you have luggage.
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44,000 people in this development, on top of the ~40,000 in pre-existing development plans, would turn Murray Bridge into a Ballarat-sized city. I like it, but they need to be talking about a modern, fast commuter railway with population numbers like that.
#BREAKING
Developers have unveiled a bold plan for a $7.5bn satellite city near Murray Bridge, and are hopeful the area could become home to Adelaide’s second airport. Find out more: ️What do you think?
#saparli
#TheAdvertiser
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Murray's Coaches fare grid vs. Trainlink, five days out. Yeah, tell me again how there'd be no demand for a somewhat faster and more frequent Sydney-Canberra train.
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Australia is in the middle of an unprecedented infrastructure boom. South Australia needs to quadruple its current spend just to remain proportional with the eastern states.
via
@Macromonitor1
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Driver’s view in a
@TalgoGroup
high-speed train at 250km/h, on the single-track Olmedo-Zamora line, Spain.
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The Talgo-250 bi-mode train would be ideal for Australian long-distance, medium-high speed services. 🇦🇺🤝🇪🇸
Seen here on non-electrified railway near Nava del Rey, northwest of Madrid. Countryside (and track!) reminiscent of the eastern Mount Lofty Ranges.
📸 - Oscar Lopez
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The new Albula Tunnel in Switzerland is almost six kilometres long, with a total project cost of 345 million Swiss francs (about AU$577m). A beautiful piece of engineering for reasonable cost in one of the highest-cost regions in the world.
And here it is, the new Albulatunnel II, ready to connect regions and people for the next 100+ years.
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A fleet of these up the east coast of Australia would take a double-digit percentage of the 20 million + annual passenger movements, without spending a cent on trackwork.
Apologies for being slow yesterday. A thing happened: My Facebook post about the new Nightjet trains accidentally reached 9.4 million people. Seat61 users up 120%, all looking at the new Nightjet page .
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Regular reminder that in the '90s, 160km/h at 25 tons axle load was universally agreed as a reasonable near-term goal for the Australian rail industry.
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An image published by a resident's group opposing the bikeway overpass at Goodwood Station - this is an absolutely peak NIMBY advocacy graphic, 10/10 lmao
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1⃣ Flinders Street, Platform 1
📏708m
🌏Melbourne, Victoria
🚉Hurstbridge & Mernda Lines
📸Hugh Llewellyn
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By the second half of this decade, Australia will be ready for a national rail revolution, not only fixing decades of underinvestment, but also starting on high-speed rail. And we'll need to, if we don't want those workers to take their skills elsewhere. 📸
@abcaustralia
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We don’t need subsidised air travel, we need modal choice.
Half of Australians believe the Federal Government should support low-cost airlines in the wake of Bonza’s collapse, according to new YouGov data.
#aviation
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The Overland at Sleeps Hill, with the sun setting over Brighton. 5:53pm, 4 September 2023
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“Open but not currently in use.”
Pinnaroo Line, near Tailem Bend.
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The 145km double-track, high-speed railway, 63km of which is in tunnel, will cost A$66m/km.
Meanwhile in Australia, a 128km single-track, standard speed, non-electrified freight railway, with just 8km in tunnel, will cost $77m/km.
Our infrastructure costs are indefensible.
Grottaminarda tunnel excavation on Naples – Bari HS/HC line begins
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Based on this map, you’d be hard pressed to guess that Adelaide exists. Lotta rebuilding to do in this state.
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Dear southern states: Be more like Queensland.
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Reminder that Australia could do this pretty much tomorrow.
We finally did it! 🎉From September, European Sleeper will be one of the very few night trains in Europe equipped with a dining car! Thanks to our dedicated investors, our highly anticipated dining car is now a reality!
#thegoodnighttrain
#connectingeuropebynight
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6 car VLocity passing under The Overland at Sunshine Road overpass, Tottenham.
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Hypothesis: costs are out of control in this country because during the GFC governments started conceiving of infrastructure projects as stimulus packages (ie, get maximum cash out the door, fast), and the consultant-industrial complex has successfully memory-holed this fact.
Light rail Stage 4 to the Gold Coast Airport is being forecast to cost up to $7.6 billion in a giant blowout on what City of Gold Coast expected and budgeted for, with the State Government forced to release early costings. via
@couriermail
#qldpol
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9⃣ Southern Cross, Platform 2
📏440m
🌏Melbourne, Victoria
🚉The Overland, XPT, Albury Line
📸MrHoff
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The Cockle Train, which runs between Victor Harbor and Goolwa on Australia’s oldest railway*, is a heck of a fun day out. Come along for the ride.
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A 🧵of big Overlands: from the days when the train was the main way to get between Adelaide and Melbourne.
21 April 1981: A double-headed Overland led by S313 and S315 with 16 carriages in tow climbs Warrenhip Bank into the rising sun, east of Ballarat.
📸 Ron Woods
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I recently applied to
@DataTfNSW
for NSW regional train patronage by station, for the five years 2019-23. The data reveals some very interesting insights over the COVID years, and allows us to make an estimate of the percentage of interstate travellers at each station.
Some key
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Seaford is a great case study of efficient engineering, with a total cost of $291m, including two stations, five road overpasses, a stabling facility and a 1.1km bridge.
Happy anniversary to the Seaford line! 🎉🥳🚆
10 years ago today the first passenger services rolled out of Seaford train station on the newly constructed 5.7km-long extension between Noarlunga and Seaford and the fully-electrified line to Adelaide!
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Journey Beyond will be introducing new interiors on The Ghan by the end of the year, following a $10m project to refurbish the ageing carriages. I love the renders for the lounge and cabins, but the dining car is a bit laminex-retro. What do you think?
Via
@Woods_Bagot
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My problem with fantasy rail maps is that they generally boil down to "I wish, in my wildest dreams, for a small fraction of what we once had."
South Australian rail map, 1951
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⭐️Honourable Mention⭐️
🍹Berrimah Terminal
📏1,150m (hardstand)
🌏Darwin, Northern Territory
🚉The Ghan
📸Journey Beyond
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=6⃣ Albury, Platform 1
📏454m
🌏Albury, New South Wales
🚉XPT, Albury Line
📸Darren Schiller
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Reminder: Japan's rail network is the result of seven decades of incremental, cumulative improvement, and they're not done yet. When is Australia going to start?
Oshamambe Station in Hokkaido in December 2022. It's hard to believe that in about 8 years, this will become a Shinkansen station and will have a direct service to Tokyo.
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Three very different cityscapes, each at 20,000 people per square kilometre:
🇫🇷 Latin Quarter, Paris - contiguous medium-density city blocks
🇦🇺 Elizabeth Bay, Sydney - mixed density
🇨🇭 Le Lignon, Geneva - a few monumental apartment blocks set in parkland
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#OnThisDay
in 1971: The Hume Highway / Federal Highway Interchange, north of Canberra, was opened to traffic. It replaced a quaint, two-lane at-grade intersection, at a cost of $2.5 million ($29m adjusted for inflation).
📸 via
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@MostlyMonkey
Aviation has a good claim to the title of most underrated cocktail. Should be on the classics list with martini, mojito and the like.
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@stableshaman
Now selling future waterfront condos in Marree.
I present: Lake Bradfield, larger than Lakes Superior and Michigan combined. Pool height of 45m, Marree & Birdsville on waterfront, and a navigable outflow to Spencer Gulf via Lake Torrens. Inflow of 10,000m3/sec is required to offset evaporation (about 12 River Murrays).
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Fun fact: Paul Keating is also the reason we don't have fast rail in this country. In 1991, the Very Fast Train Joint Venture sought deferral of tax liabilities totalling $550m ($1.2b today) to the operational stage of the project. Then federal treasurer, Keating rejected the
Nancy Pelosi rips into former Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating for calling Taiwan “Chinese real estate.” Labels him “stupid” and “ridiculous.”
Well done Pelosi. Puts the traitor gutter bumpkin Vichy Quisling Keating in his place. Shut up and listen Paul.
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One of the few places where the Hume Highway, the Old Hume, and the Main Southern Railway are visible together in one frame. Just west of Gunning, NSW.
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3⃣ East Perth Terminal
📏620m
🌏Perth, Western Australia
🚉Prospector, AvonLink, Indian Pacific
📸Bahnfrend
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Did SA even submit any projects? Even basic stuff like Outer Harbour / Belair electrification? We should be doing better than this.
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Just $42m in currently committed rail projects for the rest of the decade? There's an opportunity for SA here...
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Northbound XPT crossing the Murrumbidgee River, after departing Wagga Wagga. 24 July, 2023.
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The 34km Cullarin Range Deviation of the Hume Highway, north of Canberra, was opened on April 5th, 1993, 30 years ago this month. It cost $151m ($335m in today's dollars), replacing a two-lane route (red) that closely followed the existing railway (blue).
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The 6.24km Toowoomba Range Tunnel will be the longest non-metro rail tunnel in Australia, almost four times as long as the 1.69km Woy-Woy tunnel, which has held the title for 134 years. Additionally, it has an enormous 10.8m internal diameter; Woy-Woy is about half that.
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🔟Roma Street, Platform 10
📏409m
🌏Brisbane, Queensland
🚉Tilt Train services
📸Lance Castle
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Tenders for high-speed rail!! It's finally happening!!
<reads article>
"Eight work packages... support the delivery of a business case..." <😒> "...planning, participation and Engagement... delivery strategy... engagement...."
Deeply unserious program
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@historyinmemes
Variable gauge trains
Talgo variable gauge system in slow-motion, at the Fuencarral depot, Madrid
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Speaking of Americans, the popular conception that they're too car-brained for trains to work simply doesn't stand up to scrutiny. If anything, Americans are *more* likely to use the train than their European cousins, they just don't have enough decent services - yet.
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Great to see so many people on the platform. Just imagine if this service were fast and frequent! Australia is crying out for better rail services.
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=6⃣ Port Augusta, Platform 1
📏454m
🌏Port Augusta, South Australia
🚉None (formerly Indian Pacific, The Ghan & Iron Triangle Limited)
📸Bahnfrend
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55 years of The Overland's market share versus air travel, showing the decline of rail as a major part of the transport mix. Interestingly, it's only in the last 20 years that it's declined from a minority yet still significant player, to today's ~1% share.
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This is my favourite visualisation, showing evolution of air-rail market share on particular routes over time. Madrid-Barcelona 🇪🇸 is spectacular, but so too is New York - Boston 🇺🇸, even on the old and patched-up Northeast Corridor! The USA is so ready for a rail renaissance.
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In 2023, you can fly from Sydney to Melbourne for less than the government-mandated airfare of 40 years ago.
We live in a golden age.
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4⃣ Kalgoorlie, Platform 1
📏512m
🌏Kalgoorlie, Western Australia
🚉Indian Pacific
📸John Kirk
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@deltaIV9250
747 first flew in 1969. How many flights per day was it doing in 2001 (32 years later)?
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8⃣ Cronulla, Platform 1/2
📏442m
🌏Sydney, New South Wales
🚉Cronulla Line
📸John Cowper
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Overland / XPT / XPL - this is going to be fun! Follow my trip from Adelaide to Canberra completely by train, next Sunday 16th October.
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There’s something so wholesome about these humble monuments to everyday heroes that you commonly find in country towns. 🌹 🫡
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May I humbly suggest we Australians should buy Talgo instead, and build ourselves some decent intercity trains? Absurd value at A$1b.
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A flight over the once-great railyards at Tailem Bend. Trains in the steam era would change locomotives here, from powerful mountain engines needed to tackle the Adelaide Hills, to fast Pacifics for the long, flat run to Victoria. Bonus view of the Viterra grain facility.
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The bridges are going to be like nothing ever seen before in this country. Inland Rail will end up with both the longest and the highest bridges, and certainly the most numerous - Gowrie-Kagaru is set to become the capital of Australian railfanning, with 71 separate bridges!
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