Aussie Gauntlet?

Saw this photo on Railpic.net and noticed the track arrangement.

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.p ... 22&nseq=14

Is this two different qauges suing the same space on the bridge. It is not a typical gauntlet where the rails simply overlap but in this case only one rail has point and the other rail looks to be common to both lines.

What can you tell me about this?

YES , 4 foot 8 inch and 5 foot 3 inch . They share trackage from Melbourne up to the NSW border at Albany / Wodonga , around 200 miles i think .

David Benton wrote:YES , 4 foot 8 inch and 5 foot 3 inch . They share trackage from Melbourne up to the NSW border at Albany / Wodonga , around 200 miles i think .

I think I have pictures of the main station in Melbourne with dual gauge track in a platform. I remember a dual gauge track going into Roma Street in Brisbane.

I wish I could have photoed the mixture at Peterborough. There were three different gauges, but the train (Indian-Pacific) was locked.

Oh, and in Fremantle I saw a dual gauge line on the waterfront.

Yup George , again from the NSW border to Brisbane . 3ft6 in (1067mm) Queensland narrow guage , with an extra rail for the 4ft 8inch (1435mm ) NSW standard gauge . actually im unsure if its just an extra rail now or a whole sperate track . definetly an extra rail in the Roma street station . the standard gauge frieght yard is south of there .
i havent been to Western or south Australia , but have seem pictures of the Peterborough area .

We have plenty of Dual gauge here in South Australia. We have just had a new dual gauge bridge built over our main Port, Port Adelaide which is also an opening span bridge with the leg of a triangle on one of its approaches.
Peterborough still has some triple gauge trackage and a triple gauge turntable. The majority of this is in the old Diesel Depot and Roundhouse which are now part of a museum.
There were also fairly large triple gauge yards at Port Pirie and Gladstone. Both of which have little evidence of this these days.
The Bridge in the photo is just out of the city of Melbourne, and quite recently there was a derailment in that vicinity when a standard gauge train train was sent on a road for broad gauge trains, or vice versa.
On the Gauntlet track, I think we call that a checkrail, and on some dual gauge bridges I've seen here, there are five tracks, three running lines and two check rails.

train2 wrote:Saw this photo on Railpic.net and noticed the track arrangement.

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.p ... 22&nseq=14

Is this two different qauges suing the same space on the bridge. It is not a typical gauntlet where the rails simply overlap but in this case only one rail has point and the other rail looks to be common to both lines.

What can you tell me about this?

I note that the broad (Irish) gauge pair doesn't see much use, as it is rusty.

David Benton wrote:YES , 4 foot 8 inch and 5 foot 3 inch . They share trackage from Melbourne up to the NSW border at Albany / Wodonga , around 200 miles i think .

The photo in question was taken in the Melbourne suburban area.

The now closed broad gauge to Albury and the standard gauge ran as parallell tracks except at some locations in the Melbourne area.

Last year the broad gauge north of Seymour (99 kms from Melbourne) was closed and the 219 km to Albury is being converted to standard gauge to provide double track for the whole distance.


Tony Bailey

Hi Tony , welcome to the worldwide forum , and thanks for the updated information .
Are there any broad gauge branches off the line to Albany , and if so , how will they get on ? closed ???

Sorry , Albury , not Albany . wrong country , lol .

David Benton wrote:Hi Tony , welcome to the worldwide forum , and thanks for the updated information .
Are there any broad gauge branches off the line to Albany , and if so , how will they get on ? closed ???

Benalla to Oaklands is being converted, for wheat, and I don't think that any of the other branches had any traffic left.

Tony bailey

David Benton wrote:Sorry , Albury , not Albany . wrong country , lol .

Right country - wrong state - Albany in WA is a pretty busy port with good NG freight traffic.

Tony Bailey

Wheat traffic is to commence out of Oaklands before the end of the month


Tony Bailey

Oaklands update from Peter-

Just got word from a reliable source that agreement has finally been reached with ARTC for EL Zorro to commence running grain trains to Oaklands. Trains will initially run on at least four successive days from Sunday 7 March to Wednesday 10 March inclusive, following the commisiioning of Passing Lanes 3 and 4 (Kilmore East and Tallarook) which is to occur from this weekend.

I'm advised that a short duration occupation will apply between Violet Town and Benalla, to enable hand operation of points and hand signal trains onto and off the branch at Benalla.

Approximate times at this stage are depart Benalla 07:00, arrive Oaklands 10:30, depart Oaklands 14:00, arrive Benalla 17:00.

Of course the usual proviso applies, things could change in the meantime.

Tony Bailey

More Oaklands from Chris -

I noted some documents that say the Benalla - Oaklands line is
available for traffic from Tues.09.02 or Wed.10.02 depending which you
read. I suspect both are wrong and it should be the 3rd month, ie
next week. It would be nice to confirm the date for those that record
such things (the line was booked out by V/Line on a TON circular dated
28.11.07, this circular now rescinded)

Safeworking will be Train Staff & Ticket (with no tickets!) in one long
section Benalla - Oaklands. I suspect this is to avoid any need to
train Junee controllers in the Victorian Train Order System.

Sidings on the line are:
St.James - Staff Locks
Yarrawonga - Plunger Locking
Sloane - Hand Locking Bars
Warragoon - Hand Locking Bars
Sanger - Hand Locking Bars
Wangamong - Hand Locking Bars
Oaklands - Hand Locking Bars

Access to the line at Benalla. As previously mention this requires an
occupation of the Violet Town Loop - Benalla Loop section for access
from the East line to the West line and into the yard.

An atco hut to be provided at Benalla for use by the Sectional
co-ordinator to act as the Signaller Benalla.

Line speed is 70 km/h Benalla - Yarrawonga and 50 km/h Yarrawonga - Oaklands.

First train requires hand signalling at the five level crossings with
flashing lights. (Benalla, Yarrawonga x3 and Rennie).

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Tony Bailey