International Railroad Discussion > Australia - Maitland Steamfest Great Train Race 2016

The 30th Annual Maitland Steamfest took place this past weekend.  

Highlight of the weekend was the " Train Race", on the 4 track mainline over most of the route between Broadmeadow (new Newcastle) & Maitland. This entailed closing down the tracks to regular service for a period of time. This is the main route for coal trains to the Port of Newcastle, the busiest coal export port in the world.

The video was taken from a road overbridge at Thornton.

Train locomotives, from left to right were:
3642 (Built by Clyde Engineering, Sydney 1926)  on the rear Alco diesel 4001 dating from 1951!
3016 (Beyer Peacock & Co, Manchester, 1903) with GL102 trailing
6029 (Beyer Peacock & co, Manchester, 1953) with GL106 trailing
5917 (Baldwin Lima Hamilton, USA, 1953) with 4490 trailing 




 

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Good stuff Steve.The big AD60 was doing trips between Canberra,and Queanbean weekend before last.
Regards,DK

I'm yet to ride behind it. I was booked on the run to Thirlmere a few Sunday's back, where #3642 had to fill in. Great to have it back in action again.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/12/16 21:38 by Stephenloco.

Unlike here, the Aussies seem so know how to do steam right. Yes, there were diesels. But they were on the BACK of the train where they belong if necessary. And the consists largely match. No mishmash of multi colored domes etc. And OMG, people were allowed to actually lean out the windows and wave or photograph. The horror of it all. Even the dreaded Health and Safety in the U.K. seems to allow this. But not here!  Thanks for sharing. I've never gotten more than two steam trains in a video at once. Very impressive.

All I can say is "wow"....that is incredible!

Marty Harrison
Knob Noster, MO

Wow isn't the word. Fantastic is. Could you even imagine any 4 track main in the US doing this?

Posted from iPhone

Certainly worth a look (or two)!

Thanks for this video.

John.

Didn't CSX do a double track side by side a number of years ago?

Posted from Android

Marty Harrison
Knob Noster, MO

Thanks a lot that is so cool

Wayne Crabb
San Gabriel, CA

Yes, this is impressive.  And the corporate world of coal did not crash and burn because of this event.  In America, managers would be aghast at this, as if doing it would be the end of all freight railroading due to "massive congestion!"

Ahh but you forget that in Austrailia, the Government owns the tracks, and anyone with certified equipment can book a time to operate on that track...That'd be, well, socialized ownership of the tracks. Nothing like the corporate ownership of the private rights of way like in N. America.  It'll never happen this side of the Pacific...Not with people who think that government ownership of anything is somehow anti-capitalistic...
https://infrastructure.gov.au/rail/trains/Background/index.aspx
The ownership and management arrangements for Australia's rail infrastructure and rail operations are generally divided into “below” rail (track management) and “above” rail (operators of trains and rollingstock). These functions are performed by a mix of Government and private sector operators.

That video was awesome to watch, in spite of the distracting helicopters taking aerial video...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/16/16 18:23 by DrLoco.