Holden Caprice?

Today: it’s a gloriously sunny autumn morning in Canberra and the midday Xplorer service (SP34) to Sydney is boarding passengers at Canberra (Kingston) station.

Got some incidental railfanning in on Easter Sunday. Here, 2-car Xplorer set 2526/2506 race through the closed station at Galong on the NSW Main South with the SP44 service from Griffith. It combines at Goulburn with the SP34 service from Canberra for the run through to Sydney.

High levels of schadenfreude from reading the comments after watching City Mousse’s latest tawdry video on the ‘failure’ of Parra light rail.

Not the best shot due to sun angle, however, today at Canberra railway station sees the 3-car Xplorer set making up the midday departure to Sydney in the platform road; while a rake of empty carriages sits in the back road to make up the 12.15 Picnic Train departure to Bungendore.

Not the best shot due to sun angle, however, today at Canberra railway station sees the 3-car Xplorer set making up the midday departure to Sydney in the platform road; while a rake of empty carriages sits in the back road to make up the 12.15 Picnic Train departure to Bungendore.

And more Comeng action from today’s excursion.

In Melbourne for the long weekend. Enjoying the Comeng farewell tour Metro has organised for me to inadvertently take part in yesterday & today.

The 3 Xplorer services between Sydney & Canberra stop here in both directions as well. Always a decent number of ons & offs at Bowral.

She’s not a real Doctor Yellow, but she’s a real Hitachi.

You won’t be going to ‘Union’ station to report on its condition today?

Wife & I watched it. I felt dirty after watching. Tyra Banks is a classic case of victim who become perpetrator.

And it’s only February !

Transit bros discover cable cars. Really small use case outside of some fairly niche applications and relatively low capacity, but still a legitimate public transport technology.

After the recent Canberra light rail shutdown in January, tram rails are over Alinga Street & the intersection has been narrowed to a bus only lane with more pedestrian standing & crossing area. Not a bad rebuild.

Probably the only available carriage in Sydney yard with a guard’s compartment?

After the recent Canberra light rail shutdown in January, tram rails are over Alinga Street & the intersection has been narrowed to a bus only lane with more pedestrian standing & crossing area. Not a bad rebuild.

(2/2) …heavy traffic interstate corridors (e.g. Ararat-Serviceton [Vic], Albury-Junee & Telarah-Casino [NSW] and Dry Creek-Coonamia [SA]). This wave funded by Feds, but as loans, not grants along with other Fed-funded CTC on non-heavy haul routes (SW WA & Caboolture-Gympie [Qld]). Thanks all!

Thanks to those who responded. Key findings from research: the ‘mineral’ railways were (Mt Newman [WA], QR in central Qld) enthusiastically self-fund & adopt CTC in the 1970s on heavy haul routes. NSWR, VR & AN adopt CTC at scale on interstate routes in 1980s to increase capacity on… (1/2)

The Lego 8300 class guard’s van is pretty good, NGL.

No, these are very serious comments.

ChatGPT has absolutely no goddamn place in graduate education. It steals from other authors, routinely gets major facts wrong, hallucinates sources, and generally makes the prose flat and boring as hell.

And if you shill for it in my mentions, I'll block you.

Thank you. Useful to know who to ask! Trying to get handle on late 1970s/early 1980s CTC expansion in Australia, particularly on what is now the DIRN (Defined Interstate Rail Network). Have good read on scope/cost of Ararat-Serviceton (VIC) & Junee-Albury (NSW), but not much for SA & NSW Nth Coast.

The bus in my photo was from CDC’s Sawtell depot on the NSW north coast, so that makes sense. Thank goodness I only have to deal with the Comm Ave bridge shut!

Canberra Light Rail 2A works are in full swing, with Alinga St terminus being excavated along with the big intersection at Northbourne to get ready to lay track down to London Circuit. This week sees the start of a month of light rail bustitution & every CDC bus across NSW is involved.

Thank you. Got your DM st the Bad Place. Thank you.

Thanks Andrew. Was luckily able to find an electronic copy so all taken care of. Appreciate the offer though.

@mandrewwaugh.bsky.social @fixedblock.bsky.social @sillysignals.bsky.social - one I’m after is this: irse.org.au/resource/198...

Could you imagine it happening in daylight these days?

Does anyone have access to the IRSE technical meeting papers database? Some interesting papers I’m seeking in regard to 1980s-90s CTC installations in NSW & SA. @mandrewwaugh.bsky.social? @fixedblock.bsky.social?

I always think of that 1/2 X2000 set as one of the great ‘What if’s’ of Australian railways. Showed us much of what could still be possible without betting the farm on HSR.

Dreadful article by this self-described “reporter and critic-at-large”. Also, the photo editor wasn’t on top form for this article.