Western     Endeavour    recreation (NSWRTM Staff presentation) Epilogue

Out of all the states in Australia. New South Wales seems to have the best steam engines than any other state in the nation. They are fast, sleek, modern, fancy, big and have that attractive British look to them. And what if I were to tell you that some of these locos have been to states outside NSW! Such as QLD, VIC, SA and even WA. And for 30 years from 1970-2000 the NSWRTM did Inter-state excursions. But strangely ever since 2000 the NSWRTM. Stopped doing inter-state trips, the last one was the "Millenium Aroura" back in 2000. Where 3801 and 3830 went to Melbourne. And ever since then they strangely stopped doing the inter- state tours for some reason? Was it to expensive going over the borders? Or was going Interstate declared “strictly revenue only” who Knows? But I would like to tell you how I would like the NSWRTM to recreate the first Interstate trip to Perth!

1. Current Ideas for the Western Endeavour recreation 2027 (Basic plans)

After 3801 was restored, I've been thinking about the "Western Endeavour", and doing much research over it, and have been thinking about what it be like to recreate it in modern day time and make it particularly different from the first one E.g., bringing along 3642 with us, have parallel runs and have a different consist from before. 2 of the important requirements is to use the same "Western Endeavor" headboard and repaint 3801 and 3813 in their original apple green liveries on the first endeavour.

3801+3813 at Eveleigh 

We shall also use a replica of this very headboard on the entire journey courtesy of the original WE

And both 38s will have this coat of arms on their tenders too...

We shall also have parallel runs with VR, SAR and WAGR engines at certain points when entering to each capital city, en route to the west on this endeavour I was thinking instead of going Via Broken hill like on the first one. We go down Via Melbourne to Adelaide. During this endeavour we'll also put in certain references, for one thing I was thinking about having a temporary fourth engine No. 3016 going as far as Melbourne and during its time there it will be placed on Steam rails program. With the other Broad-gauge engines. And during 3801,3813 and 3642s time in Perth they will be stored at the railway museum in Bassendean. All 3 locos will stay in Perth for approximately 3 weeks. So, we leave Sydney for Perth on school term 3 on week #10 and arrive back from Perth for Sydney on school term 4-week #2 traveling east to west Mon-Fri. This Project can be arranged to be supported by the New South Wales Transport Department and "Pacific National" As well as using one of their NR class Diesels to Haul us across the Nullarbor from Port Augusta — Kalgoorlie. As well as some beer companies such as emu export & swan draught of WA ETC. All engines will carry a flag of both NSW and a flag of their visiting states. 16 and 42 will carry the VIC flag and 01 and 13 will carry the WA flag and the SA flag as well as the NSW flags. The cars will be provided with some roll out mattress' sheets and pillows for the cross over the Nullarbor, 3642 must also be repainted back into its previous former green, Now out of all these Ideas there's one thing I need to mention, DO NOT by any circumstances remove the buffers, however speaking of buffers I was thinking about replacing the old buffers on

3801,3813,3642 and 3016, brand new polished jet black ones about 2 days before we leave.

  2.     Donation Idea

Now of course this is a very expensive project, and I was thinking upon how we can do it through a 4-year perseverance, and this is a very expensive project that will take some time, so I was thinking as well as receiving plenty of financial offerings and back up from the government, I was thinking about Donation boxes, about a dinner chair size tall. I thought it would be a good Idea to send 4 donation boxes for 4 purposes, as well as loans and enough funds from the government, and perhaps the 10c recycling.

 

Processing img nmm53vhxbsmh1...

Everywhere:

1.  rolling stock restoration funds

2.  3813 restoration funds

3.  insurance and logistic funds

4.  mainline and interstate funds

5.  road transportation funds (cockle train only)

6.  dual gauge funds (steam rail only)

WA will have 8 donation boxes each, 4 for our project and 4 for theirs. Because you see WA is strangely poor and therefore, they’ve basically stopped doing they're mainline heritage tours and are now very slow at gaining money for a quick enough restoration, so I thought we'd give them some extra help.

WA only:

1.  V1213 restoration funds

2.  AYB, AYE, tassie & Riverland car restoration and importing funds. (they actually have Tasmanian passenger cars)

3.  mainline funds

4 logistic and insurance funds

Places chosen to own these Donation boxes:

NSW:

1.      NSWRTM- Thirlmere

2.      Goulburn rail heritage centre - Goulburn

3.      Lachlan valley railway heritage society — Cowra

4.      Bathurst rail museum - Bathurst

5.      Valley heights rail museum — valley heights

6.      Illawarra light railway museum society - Illawarra

7.      Sydney tramway museum - Loftus

8.      transport heritage/powerhouse museum — utimo Sydney CBD

9.      Richmond vale railway museum — Richmond vale

10.  Junee roundhouse museum - Junee

11.  Tenterfield railway museum — Tenterfield

12.  Silverton tramway museum (l know it's not actually called that, but it's what I call It) — Broken

Hill

 

13.  Clarence Station – zig zag railway.

 

14.  Top points sataion – zig zag railway.

 

15.  Bottom points – zig zag railway.

 

16.  central station — Sydney CBD VIC:

17.  steam rail/Newport railway museum — Newport (additional 5^th)

18.  puffing billy railway - Belgrave

19.  lakeside station — puffing Billy.

20.  Gembrook station- puffing billy.

21.  Bellarine peninsular railway - Queenscliff

22.  Mornington railway - Mornington

23.  Yarra valley railway — Healesville

24.  Yarra glen railway station- Yarra glen

25.  steam rail Ballarat - Ballarat

26.  Daylesford spa and country railway - Daylesford

27.  Victorian goldfields railway - Castlemaine

28.  Seymour heritage centre - Seymour

29.  Walhalla goldfields railway- Walhalla 30. southern cross station — Melbourne CBD  QLD:

31.     the workshops rail museum - Ipswich

32.     downs explorer - Warick

33.     Queensland pioneer steam railway- Swanbank

34.     downs steam tourist railway - Toowoomba

35.     Australian narrow gauge railway museum society - Woodford

36.     Mary valley rattler - Gympie

37.     Roma Street station —Brisbane CBD  TAS:

38.     Tasmanian transport museum - Glenorchy

39.     Derwent valley railway— new Norfolk

40.     west coast wilderness railway - Queenstown

41.     don river railway - Devonport SA:

42.     national railway museum — Port Adelaide

43.     pichi richi railway — Quorn

44.     steam town heritage centre - Peterborough

45.     steam ranger - mount barker (additional 5^th )

46.     steam ranger — victor harbour (additional 5^th )

47.     Adelaide parklands terminal

48.     Adelaide CBD station WA:

49.     the railway museum - Bassendean

50.     bennet brook railway — Bennet brook

51.     Hotham valley railway - Dwellingup

52.     southwest rail heritage centre — Boyanup

53.     old Northam railway station museum - Northam

54.     Pemberton tramway - Pemberton

55.     Merredin railway museum - Merredin

56.     east Perth terminal — East Perth

57.     Perth CBD station

Approximately 267 boxes

3. Consists (New Western Endeavor)

All consists are basically going to be mentioned in order of appearance (including other state heritage train parallel run consists) Main:

3801

3813 

3642  x3 SWT gins No. 5,6&12

NTAF                  Tank

No.7079              LLV    

10030 this observation car

x27 FS type Passenger cars (without Beclawat windows and mainly ones that are just as identical as the old ones)

x3 N Type Passenger cars

VHO 2649 (restored and converted-into merchandise car)

MHO 2316 (restored and converted-into memorabilia and souvenir car) x1 Pacific national RZEY Crew car

4501

4490

4201

Temporary:

3016 (as far as Melbourne)

NR 21 (Port Augusta -Kalgoorlie)

4916 (also as far as Melbourne)

4. VIC Seymour— Melbourne parallel run & Consists

On the way to Melbourne, we will run parallel with 4 VR locos from Seymour to the southern cross terminal at Melbs CBD. And will be waiting on this spur line heading up to Shepparton near to Mangalore pub...

D3 639

R707

R761 J549 x15 VR Heritage cars (E's, W'S & the blue spirit of progress cars)

5. SA Belair- Adelaide parallel run & consists

Although the former broad gauge line Connecting Mount barker to the city was converted in 1995 there is no Dual gauge facility for the heritage trains to enter the city. So, we shall need Low Loader Transporters to take these consists down to the city by road. for the parallel run with the 3 NSW engines. This train will be called "the SA railfan photographers special" where they go strictly in front of us, the NSW team to allow the South Australian railfans to record the Western Endeavour rumble into Adelaide, Adelaide is also where were going to pick up the louvre van...

621

507

6 OER cars (4 red ones 2 green ones)

Note: the short consist plan for the Adelaide parallel run.

I don’t really want to trouble Steam Ranger, by transporting all of they’re operating consists of such as the 2 Rx classes and all their rolling stock down by road, well it depends what they say, if their fine with it, then I guess there’s no harm in altering?

6. WA Avon Valley Parallel run Northam Perth consists

As we arrive in Northam's Avon Yard with all the Std and NG sidings the same time the WA team will arrive, we will wait for the Avon Valley revenue traffic to clear off, we will fill up on extra water and perhaps extra coal transported from the coalfields of leigh creek from SA. When were finished with the water I will tell the Lead crew of the WA team to wait for us on the left-hand Dual gauge line track as we put the 4 water tanks and the Louvre van at the back of the train and have the NSW engines coupled directly to the coaches for a dramatic appearance for the arrival into Perth, Half of these WA consists will need to be restored...

 

V1213 (Requires Restoration)

S549

W945

2 ACL cars (brought up from Boyanup) 2 AYE cars (Requires

restoration)

2 AYB cars (Requires restoration)

SSD1                (Requires Reimportation           and

restoration)

SS9                             (Requires

Reimportation                  and

restoration)

SS 1 (Requires Reimportation and restoration)

SS 4 (Requires Reimportation and restoration) SS 8 (Requires Reimportation and restoration)

SSS 6 (Requires Reimportation and restoration)

12 Riverland Cars (7 of them require restoration)

X1401 F40

C1702

 

they're wheels will also be given the treatment of wheel frames being painted white, the centres being tomato red and the counterweights malachite green, we could also help by having them send V1213 and the consists down to Chullora in NSW and help restore them for them. 7. Sydney — Campbeltown Parallel run

As we depart Sydney. bound for this epic journey, we will run parallel with 2 other NSW steam locos and one of the red rattlers.

Right hand track:                                                                                               left hand track:

3265                                                                           C7396, C3218, T4527, C3426

5917

7 heritage cars (from the picnic train)

         8.    3813 restorations

For a courtesy reason and to be historically accurate I think we must restore 3813 on this recreation trip. Because it also joined 3801 on the original Western Endeavour (albeit only going halfway) and I think it'll be respectful enough to use it on the recreation. What we'll mainly do is refurbish and upgrade the pre-existing parts by melting them down and re shaping them back to their original designs as well as building and pre-ordering new parts such as Buffers, knuckle coupler, buffer beam, running board, ICE radio ETC. after its restoration we will relaunch the shiny new 38 with 01 in mi February (either in 2025 or 2026) on a trip to Albury and west NSW with some of the new coaches. All its pre-existing components are at Dorrigo.

 

9. Rolling Stock restorations (NSW only)

After we announce this to the public there's going to be a lot of people wanting to do this trip so 30 heritage cars are what we're going to need so as well as picking up 3813s parts collect 22 'FS" types and 7 open ended suburban cars from Dorrigo. The 7 suburban cars will be for 3016s time in Melbourne as the FS type cars (or anything similar) will be on the western endeavour. At the end of the train, we are going to use the 8 already operational cars.

There 2 of these kind of cars at Dorrigo which I think would be perfect for one to have the "WE" plank sign as a lounge car and one to be a lounge car and buffet and the one with the plank sign is the one that'll be in the very middle of the train.

I saw a photo of 2 of these type of cars at Dorrigo on a website.

 

In order to show which ones which, we'll have the restored ones in dark brown (as I've researched from steam rangers, WE google docs slides) and have the already operational cars in their usual livery (not to mention also receiving yellow bands waist level and above the windows, as you can see here in the photo above) The are the 2 luggage cars that will be used to carry merchandise such as T-shirts, mugs, model trains and down to the olden day Thomas toys and the other one will be the souvenir and memorabilia car that will carry replicas of 3801s buffer less front with a WE headboard replica and its buffered front with the BT headboard replica. For the museum at Bassendean for display

 

 

The LLV louvre van is going to contain extra/spare parts for each 3 engines such as extra couplings, side rods, bearings ETC. And will be coupled behind the NTAF tank at the front of the train and the 3 N types at the back of the train will also carry logos of the WAGR, SAR & VR

The 7 American open-ended cars will also be repainted in that bright scarlet red the Victorian cars have...

10. start to the West Sydney-Melbourne

 

The first leg of the trip will start at exactly 7:30 AM Monday morning on 20^th of September 2027 at the Sydney Central station using the same platforms of the Indian pacific. As were departing (or getting the rest of train coupled) we will reference the footage from "3801 a legend in steam" in very similar and inspired shots. E.G we'll have a cameraman from one of the heritage trains that we are running parallel with as far as Campbeltown. In fact, what I think is ideal is that we have some cameramen from the museum filming the western Endeavor on road. Goulburn will be a service stop at Goulburn in reference to the footage of the first WE service stop in Bathurst, I've also planned to pick up SWT 12, NTAF 7079, (temporary 7 suburban coaches will be delivered to Melbourne as part of a Melbourne bound revenue goods train) 2nd service stop is at Cootamundra where we remove most of the fiery ashes from the fireboxes for more coal in the boxes, and then we pick up and shunt SWT5&6 at Junee and as from there we hopefully don't have to stop at Albury. And continue straight down to Melbourne as well as joining with the 4 VR engines from Seymour to Melbourne. After arriving in Melbourne, we will have A 90 min stop at SC station. then reverse into the yards of south Kensington. And detach 3016,4916 and its coaches and turn the main train around on a triangle.

11. Melbourne-Adelaide

Tuesday the 21^st. We will depart Melbourne at 7:30AM just like the day before and leave after some public announcements. We will depart with no parallel run out of Melbourne (strictly only 3801, 3813 and 3642 departing). (l haven't thought of any maintenance stops along the way so I'm going to cut to the chase for now until any of you guys think of some). As were arriving through Murray bridge, we will alert the South Australian team to go to Belair and wait for us at Belair. After slowing down to about 35 k's. we will alert the team when we've left the last tunnel before Belair. And then they will lead us into the Keswick terminal. After arriving in Adelaide, we shall take the engines to the dry creek yards and dump they're ashes there as well as picking up the louvre van.

12. Adelaide — Kalgoorlie AKA the longest part of the journey

Wednesday the 22^nd. We will depart Adelaide at 9:30AM After some more announcements we will launch the train by smashing a bottle of Barossa valley champagne on 3801s running board. And as for some "Bicentennial nostalgiarism" having 621 running parallel with us as far as Salisbury. Full steam ahead, full speed from Adelaide to port Augusta (no maintenance stops) at port Augusta we will have a meet up with the pichi richi railway engines. Before going to the spencer junction yards and be serviced. We are going to dump the ashes, cool down the fireboxes with lukewarm water then ad in the extra coal from the coalfields of leigh creek for the inaugural run from Kal to Perth, then we connect NR21 to the front of 3801 then continue to the Nullarbor, we'll also have dinner under the stars at cook before heading forward through the borders, Rawlinna, Zanthus and lastly the gold mining city of Kalgoorlie. Then on the 23^rd of September we will service the 3 NSW steam locomotives in West Kalgoorlie yards...

This is how we are going to service the 3 engines...

1. Clean out all the Nullarb or mud and

sedime

nt out of the

firebox es

(similar to what they did in

Alice)

1. Giving the smoke

boxes an extra clean 3. Polishi ng the

engine

s

4.      Prepari ng extra water

5.      Purcha

sing wood for the fire up the next mornin g, I was thinkin g about getting and breakin g up 36 pallets from bunnin gs (12 for each loco) and calling a firewo od compa ny in Kal to drop us off some fire wood and lastly go to the loop line museu m in boulde r and they have got lots of old 3ft 6 gauge sleeper s and some near the yard, and that would also be good for breakin g up and burnin g for the fire up the next mornin g, one of my ideas is to put the left over coal from the dump trucks that would' ve put the SA coal in the tender s and use that coal for firing up the engine s. And hopefu lly after all that we can all reward

ourselv es with a treat from

Kalgoo

rlie's well-

known pub known as "the Paddy

Hanna

n's hotel”.

13. Kalgoorlie — Perth AKA the main inaugural run

Now we hit the last day running westward on the 24^th of September, hopefully this day will be a nice hot day, (WA spring is very warm, but don't get concerned upon bushfire spreads because that's a summer thing, not a spring thing) if viable I was thinking about trying to steam up the engines as quickly as possible (mainly so we can still depart on time) then scurry back over to Parkeston, for an effective arrival into Kalgoorlie station near Arc Infrastructure...

After the usual announcements and with the Kalgoorlie brass band playing "waltzing matilda" we shall depart Kalgoorlie at 8:00. And hopefully 3801 doesn't break its bearing like it did on the bicentennial train, the Kalgoorlie — Perth run will be arguably the funnest part of the journey, the winds going to strike along their boilers, the smoke and steam will be blowing in the breeze and the buffers are going to be flying above the rails in buffer-less territory. also, the line runs parallel with the enormous pipeline and the Great Eastern Hwy so watch out for its going to be a "railfan paparazzi". Merredin will be a half hour attraction stop on the prospector platform speaking of which I was thinking about displaying the 3 NSW engines with the prospector until departure at Kalgoorlie station. Then it's a service stop at Kellerberrin where we'll clean some of the ash out of the firebox and smoke box then full steam ahead from there to Northam. Also, on the way near Tammin there is a cutting that temporarily hides against the rails from the road and there will be a lot of railfans there. so, I was thinking about slowing the train down to about 35 kph for a smoky effect for the photographers.

 

 Before speeding the rest of the way, we’ll then spend 10-15 min stop in Northam station. Then scurry over to the Northam rail yard where we wait with the WA team. Whilst we wait for the Avon valley revenue traffic to clear off, or we'd better off requesting that we simply just close off all revenue traffic on the entire line for more space for us to just fly along. We shall top up with more water (and perhaps coal) and put the 3 gins, NTAF tank and the louvre van. At the end of the train before the Avon Valley parallel run. As soon as were coupled to the rest of the train, I will give the WA team a head start just before we depart Northam through the Avon valley, as were speeding through both NSW & WA engines shall run neck to neck speeding through Dumbarton and the diminutively known town of Toodyay in the Avon valley as from the Roe HWY bridge outside Midland where the lead WAGR engine (V1213) will slow down next to the car behind 42, to give them all enough space to get sprayed with the water from the fire trucks at Helena street crossing,

The equipment (or whatever exists in Australia) to use to spray the engines.

X4

X4

 

also, Midland railway station is being reconstructed by Metronet and I don't know if they're going to change the 2 middle blue tracks to dual gauge however after we announce this journey (that's if you say "yes") we'll ring up Metronet and do some persuasion. (there are 2 blue strokes on the right hand side of the picture, that is where we are going to have the new sidings)

then continue scurrying on the way to the east Perth terminal and as from midland the NSW team will continue leading the WA team to the east Perth terminal, under the Tonkin Hwy overpass and passing through the suburb stations of Woodbridge, East Guildford, Guildford, success hill, Bassendean, Ashfield, Bayswater, Meltham, Maylands, mt Lawley and finally east Perth. 01 and 13 will stop beyond and half at the platform and the V & S classes will do so to on they're gauge.

Curiously, I wonder if the East Perth terminal have a full crowd like it did back then?

The terminal will also be decorated with NSW flags and "welcome back" signs re-welcoming 01 back to Perth and welcoming 3813 the second 38 to cross the continent and the first conventional 38 class engine to cross the continent and welcoming 3642 the first 36 class/pig to cross the nation, as well as bands and speeches. And a photo referencing this image...

During their time in Perth the steamers will be stored at Bassendean with the rest of the other WAGR engines and the diesels and rolling stock will be stored at Forrestfield. Every October the museum holds up it Rail fests and this one will be "Big!" for this one we are going to have 3801 and VI213 doing backwards and forwards pacing's down to the gate entrance and back, whilst 3813 and 3642 will be on live steam static display behind S549 and W945 and the NSW engines with the "transport heritage" signs on they're fronts.

If possible, we could also have excursions to Fremantle and Northam with both the NSW engines and the WA engines, there is a photo by A. Gunzburg of 01 running parallel with DD592 at spearwood, and I was thinking about doing a reconnaissance tour to Fremantle with a reference photo stop and running parallel with V 1213 and another reference photo (then and now prospective) in the same spot with DD592 about a week before heading back to NSW.

 

 

15. back to the eastern states, PerthKalgoorlie

19^th of October will be the last day in Perth, the entire train will be turned around, and 3801 will return leading, and we will give out all our farewells as we depart east Perth at 8:30am we'll run parallel with the same WAGR engines from midland to as far as Northam racecourse.

 

 

As we steam back eastward, at the same 2 stops at Kellerberrin and Merredin on the way back, and after we drop the passengers off at Kalgoorlie station we'll go back to the yards. And from there to Adelaide 3642 will take lead. 

16. Kalgoorlie — Adelaide

Next day on the 20^th, we'll fire up the engines at port Augusta and roll back down to Adelaide (nonstop) until stopping at Keswick terminal, and afterwards we take the engines back to dry creek yards where we'll put 3642 back in 3^rd place and 3813 will take lead whilst 3801 takes the middle

17. Adelaide- Melbourne

Then on the 21^st we depart Adelaide with another farewell, and with 3813 in the lead running parallel with 621 as far as Belair, after arriving in Melbourne we meet up with 3016 with preparation for the homeward rush the next day.

18. Melbourne- Sydney

the last day on the 22^nd for the re-arrival back to NSW, all 4 NSW engines will re-position themselves just like from before and with another farewell we reconnect the rest of the consists and with a parallel run to Seymour with the VR engines and rushing back into NSW with Big crowds from all of the NSW people welcoming back the 4 engines after their big "heritage holiday" we drop off 3016s consists, the gins and louvre van at Goulburn, before steaming back to Sydney, then at Campbelltown we divide the train in half (one half will be doubleheader with 3801 and 3813 whilst the other half will be double header with 3016 and 3642) as a neck to neck parallel run into Sydney then at the Sydney terminal all 4 engines will be given with the warmest welcome imaginable by every single operational steam loco in NSW Engines Include:

6029

3526

3265

5917

3203

2705

3237

3001

R766

SMR 10

SMR                    18

Marjorie

2 'Stevo'

With big celebrations and cheers and bands and speeches welcoming back the 4 engines then all the steam locos will be stored in Sydney before the cavalcade into Thirlmere the next morning,

19. arrival into Thirlmere cavalcade

And now on the 23^rd of October at 10:00 am all the NSW engines will steam into Thirlmere for a giant cavalcade all going in separate forms

1^st 2705

2 ^nd 3203

3^rd 3237 

4^th 3001

5^th 3265

6^th 3526

7^th 5917

8^th 6029

9^th R766

10^th           SMRIO

11^th          SMR18

12^th Marjorie

13^th 2 'Stevo'

Then all the 4 NSW engines on their interstate tours lead by 3801

14^th 3801 (with WE headboard)

3813

3642

3016

With giant sausage sizzle party and big celebration.

20. aftermath gifts for the heritage groups that helped donate

Queensland:

In Coolgardie There is an engine called PMR729 and I was thinking how the Queensland heritage railway would feel using this on their rails? So, We could organise a freight train to Brisbane, carrying PMR729 to Ipswich workshops for an engine I've thought of giving them a new engine to play with on their heritage excursions in a new blue paint and buffers sent from tassie.

South Australia:

To allow access to return heritage city excursions with their left-over money they build a new line from mount barker junction — Belair.

Western Australia:

As an idea to return their heritage mainline excursions, restore midland workshops and one of their buildings can be used to organise and fund the mainline heritage excursion operations.

 

 

 

Victoria:

 

I haven’t thought of anything yet.

 

1. All steam engines courtesy of this trip and the ones to parallel with.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

22. all diesel engines courtesy of this trip

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 23. reference suggestion

As were doing load test trials with the new coaches and engines. I was thinking about referencing some footage from my upload of the WE prior before doing the actual journey, north-west from Ungarie, there is this road called "lake/Wyalong rd." and taking the 4 engines, SWT 12,7079 and 15 of the WE livery cars (including) and the one with the WE plank sign, to reference the footage 5:37 - 6:05, (I have an upload on my channel of the WE u/percyengineproductions061) as well as many other references at certain locations too (some of which can be filmed during trial runs) for ABC and iView about the recreation.                 

   24. Request 

As planner and future manager of the WE recreation I highly request full permission to ride on 3801s cab the entire way east to west and be its whistle-blower, also I know a man at he the railway museum in Perth. His name is Ian Studham, and he is the secretary of the heritage over there and me and him get along very well and he knows quite a bit about the western endeavour and other Australian railways in general, and I was thinking if he would like to be in the WE memorabilia car and be the basic knowledge sharer and historian about the WE and the other interstate tours.

25. reasons to bring 3813 and 3642 to Perth

Back in the days of the interstate steam excursions there has been states where engines besides 3801 has visited.

VIC:

3801

3813 (in progress)

3820

3830

3642

1210

3016 (in progress)

3112

6029 (apparently/accordingly)

SA:

3801

3813

3642

5917 QLD: Various WA:

3801

And the only state to only ever have a NSW engine is WA and that is 3801, no other NSW engine has visited Perth/WA aside from 3801 so I was thinking about taking about bringing the first 2 NSW conventional steam engines to Perth. 3813, because it's part of the original western endeavour and Pt Augusta these days is too revenue to for it to do excursions or perhaps even storing it there so we might as well take it to Perth. and 3642, although not being part of the original western endeavour, I thought it be nice just to invite 3642 along with us, seeing as on just of how desired that loco is plus it might also pay a bit of tribute of the 'Pirinari Whyalla' tour of 1972 whilst were in SA (don't worry were not going to Whyalla) and although I don't have any negative opinions upon 3801 being the only NSW engine in WA, I just think it's a bit dull for WA to only have 3801 and I know about Pendennis castle and Scotsman first 2 standard gauge conventional locos in Perth, I know about those 2 but you see. Those 2 don't really count because those are British engines, I'm talking NSW engines (no pressure on 4472 and 4079 though) so 3813 and 3642 the first 2 conventional locos to

Perth it is!

26. aftermath

After this journey we could release books titled "steam engines across a nation" and then and now history books about both the original "western Endeavour" 1970 and the recreation of 2027 with the information, decisions, regulations, ideas ETC.

End.

Re-suggest 2030 dates...

September 16,17,18

October 7,8,9,10,11

Help needed

It's manufactured by Walkers in Maryborough Queensland. I don't have any information other than it's a diesel hydraulic and these not-the-best photos of blueprints. It seems like a DH-4 but is missing some items and some proportions are wrong. Would love help trying to find out what model it is. I'll try to get more information from the friend who took the photos of the blueprints but that's as much as I can find out currently.

Hey everyone,

With the government committing 100M to track upgrades on the Canberra line ahead of the new Regional Rail fleet arriving, I wanted to share some thoughts. Even though the funding announcement has been out for a while, as a Canberran who rides the train regularly, I wanted to talk about the small changes that could be made to improve the experience and what kind of travel times the government should actually be aiming for.

If you are interested, you can read my full thoughts here: https://policypackets.au/posts/railfunding-canberra

I would love to get the communities take on two questions.

1. What specific improvements do you think are the most important for the Canberra to Sydney line right now?

2. Without completely replacing the tracks for a multi billion dollar High Speed Rail network, what is the fastest realistic journey time you think this service could ever get down to?

P12, P17, B80, B76 and G543 pass Clarkefield on an SSR valet to Bendigo Workshops on Saturday July 4, 2026.

I am wondering about this because apparently it's mainline accreditation is gone, what will happen​ and will they come back

Wondering how you go about becoming a freight train driver, trainee position of course. I do have a wife and two year old son, so I'm curious about time away and how that would work. Thanks in advance!!

I visited the Tasmanian Transport Museum yesterday, and although it rained on and off through the day, I still had a good time having my first run up to berridale.