Some TasRail photos

[colinw]

Earlier this year, my work took me on track in Tasmania.

This was a a nice change from the QueenslandRail/Aurizon and CityRail/Sydney Trains work I had been involved with.  Over four glorious days I got to do on track testing of our system, using a HyRail vehicle as a test bed, traversing the TasRail Western Line from East Tamar Junction (Launceston) to Burnie, and the Melba Line (former EBR) from Melba to Burnie.  Given that it is many decades since timetabled passenger trains have run on either route, it was a real privilege to see some of these places by rail.

Here are some of the best of my photos.

1. TasRail Hyrail truck - modified Mitsubishi Canter.
2. Class Leader TR01 shut down in East Tamar Junction yard.
3. About to depart East Tamar Junction toward Western Junction.
4. Western Junction. South Line to Hobart to left, Western Line to Burnie straight ahead.

[colinw]

5. Hagley loop. Track speed is 60 km/h at this point.  The adjacent Bass Highway is 110 km/h.  Progress!
6. Deloraine, former terminus of the 5'3" gauge Launceston & Western Railway.
7. Deloraine.

[colinw]

8. Derailed in Deloraine. Long story!
9. Fingal to Railton Coalie at Deloraine.  3 x English Electrics, music to my ears.
10. Railton Yard.

[colinw]

11. Concrete sleepers going in, somewhere around Lemana Jct (junction of former Mole Creek branch line).
12. The system under test - Positive Train Control (PTC). Issuing myself with a simulated track warrant from Devonport to Burnie (in real use this will come by radio, I faked it in via a serial port and a diagnostic program).
13. Departing Devonport to the west.
14. Departing Devonport, perfect weather.

[colinw]

15. The new Leven River bridge, Ulverstone. Part of TasRail's infrastructure renewal.
16. The very scenic "water level route" from Ulverstone to Burnie.
17. Hard to concentrate on work with this scenery ...

[colinw]

And now for the REAL fun. The Emu Bay Railway, nowadays known as the Melba Line.

18. Melba Yard, facing south.  Next station Zeehan (I wish!)
19. Melba Yard and load-out, facing north.
20. Just north of Melba.
21. Argent Tunnel.

[ozbob]

^ excellent, thanks for sharing the photographs.

[colinw]

22. Just north of Argent Tunnel.
23. Crossing a tributary of the Pieman River, just south of Rosebery.
24. Just south of Rosebery.
25. Stitt River Bridge.

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26. From the Pieman River Bridge, tallest rail bridge in Southern Hemisphere.
27. Pieman River Bridge.
28. Bastyan Dam, from Pieman River Bridge.

[colinw]

29. The arduous climb up Boco Hill, several km of 1 in 40 grades.
30. Ad-hoc safeworking on Boco Hill.
31. Near Boco, the high point of the line, around 760 metres / 2500 feet above sea level.

[colinw]

32. North of Boco. "The Graveyard" - old derailment site.
33. The Graveyard.

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More of "The Graveyard", which is located here ...

34. The Graveyard
35. The Graveyard

[colinw]

36. The 25km post, 25km south of Burnie.
37. 1 in 40 descent, a few km out of Burnie.

[Stillwater]

Makes you wonder whether there is an option for a tourist passenger train to once again run on the Tasmanian tracks.  (No hope for a regular passenger rail service -- too expensive.)  The line is spectacular along the North-West Coast.

[colinw]

Devonport to Burnie and the closed section beyond to Wynyard would make a magnificent tourist route, but I don't think the volume of tourists is there to support it, other than for a couple of months in summer.  Certainly the last attempt - Burnie Rail - faltered after a couple of years of moderate loadings.

If it were going to work anywhere, Devonport - Ulverstone - Penguin - Burnie is where it should be done. Between Devonport and Burnie sees relatively little traffic, and what does run is mostly overnight.

The track condition isn't that great, although there is significant renewal going on in places.

The Melba line in particular is the roughest track I have ever ridden, worse even than the QR Forsayth branch, despite the latter being 42lb rail.  The problem with the Melba line is that it is short rail segments, on relatively light steel sleepers ... and in many places the rail joints are not offset so you get a constant series of "thuds" rather than the usual "clickety-clack". By the time I'd run the whole line in the HyRail I was ready for a visit to a Chiropractor!