Rail Heritage WA
Rail Heritage WA is the local trading name of the Australian Railway Historical Society Inc. The Western Australian branch of the Australian Railway Historical Society was formed in February 1959. In the 1960s the Western Australian Government Railways placed its collection of historical items on loan donating the collection in 1992. In November 1974, a museum was opened on land donated by Farmers. While its collection is rolling stock that operated in Western Australia, it does have examples from other systems, it is the manager of the Bassendean based Western Australian Rail Transport Museum. It conducts annual RailFest's at the Bassendean museum. In the past the society conducted extensive rail tours - in the late 1960s in the final years of steam operation in Western Australia, it produces materials that celebrate centenaries and other anniversaries for parts of the Western Australian railway network. It has contracted consultants for submissions on railway heritage issues in Perth and Western Australia.
It publishes pamphlets relative to Western Australian railway history. Recent publication by the organisation include: Higham, Geoffrey Marble Bar to Mandurah, A History of passenger rail services in Western Australia ISBN 978-0-9599690-9-2 Gunzburg, Adrian Rails in the BushIt has published a regular magazine The Westland (sometimes The Westland Express and The Westlander. Media related to Western Australian Rail Transport Museum at Wikimedia Commons Rail Heritage WA
WAGR P and Pr classes
The WAGR P and Pr classes were two classes of 4-6-2 steam locomotives designed for express passenger service on the Western Australian Government Railways mainline network. The initial designs were prepared by E. S. Race and together the two classes had a total build number of thirty-five locomotives, the P and Pr classes entering service in 1924 and 1938 respectively. Both classes were used on express passenger services improving the economy and speed of long-distance passenger travel in Western Australia, the results of which were most visible on the West Australian stage of the Trans-Australian Railway and Westland Express; the need for more powerful locomotives in the 1920s resulted in the introduction of twenty-five P class locomotives which provided a significant improvement in power and economy over previous WAGR locomotives proving to be a successful design. The Great Depression of the 1930s, coupled with the effects of the Great War, thwarted the WAGR's expansion and acquisition plans resulting in many obsolete locomotives remaining in operation into this period.
As a result ten new P class locomotives featuring detail improvements to boilers and bogies were introduced in 1938, a year before the outbreak of World War II. The new locomotives became the first WAGR engines to be given names, each bearing that of a prominent West Australian river. These'River class' locomotives were successful and proved so invaluable to the operation of the wartime WAGR that eight P class locomotives were modified to their standard. All eighteen locomotives were classified as the Pr class in 1946; the initial ten P class locomotives were built by the North British Locomotive Company in Glasgow while the remainder, including the ten Pr class locomotives, were built locally by the Midland Railway Workshops. By the early 1920s the WAGR had obtained only a handful of new locomotive designs since the beginning of the twentieth century and there was a particular lack of large passenger locomotives; the Annual Report of 1920 pointed out the large numbers of obsolete locomotives in service and growing rail traffic, stressing the need for more powerful engines.
The most substantial design in service was the E class 4-6-2s of 1902, of which 65 locomotives had been built for operation in Western Australia and served on a variety of services. The 20 D class 4-6-4T tank locomotives had helped alleviate pressure on suburban services while the 57 F class 4-8-0s did the same for goods. However, all had been introduced prior to the First World War, meaning that by the 1920s they were becoming inadequate. At this time the most significant operation requiring new locomotives were the long distance passenger services on the Perth to Kalgoorlie and Perth to Albany expresses, both of which covered distances in excess of 350 kilometres. In 1923 approval was given for the construction of ten new superheated Pacific type locomotives for operation on heavier mainline rails, suitable for the hauling of the expresses; the locomotives were based on plans drawn up in 1920 under Chief Mechanical Engineer of the WAGR Ernest A. Evans which called for a new design with large diameter driving wheels, a large firebox and a two-wheel trailing wheel for stable operation at speed.
The final outline drawings were prepared by E. S. Race in the Midland Railway Workshops and completed in December 1923. Influence for the new P class designs were drawn from both the New Zealand Railways AB and the Tasmanian Government Railways R class. While initial plans called for a round-top firebox, the P class was designed and delivered with Belpaire fireboxes, which improve steam production over the more traditional round-top types, but are harder to fit; the P class locomotives featured a wide firebox located behind the coupled wheels and supported by a trailing-wheel. The large firebox aided with the use of poor-grade local coal from the Collie coalfields; this low quality coal had resulted in poor steaming in earlier locomotives, but the P class design avoided this problem, resulting in a locomotive 30% more economical than the earlier F class engines of similar tractive effort. The P and Pr class featured innovations to alter the weight-distribution between the driving and trailing wheels, improving adhesive traction.
Two types of tender were used by the Pr class locomotives. The original tender had a coal capacity of 8 tons; these were built with the initial builds of 10 Pr class locomotives. The remaining 15 P class locomotives were fitted with modified R Class tenders which were shorter, had been upgraded to have a water capacity of 2,440 gallons and 7 tons of coal; these short tenders referred to as the ` bob-tailed' tenders. It was the North British Locomotive Company of Glasgow, Scotland which secured the order for the P class locomotives in 1924, ahead of several other companies including Thompson & Co of Victoria. North British was to supply ten locomotives with delivery inside of 33-weeks, which would be in time for the 1924/1925 wheat harvest when the introduction of the P class locomotives would free up other locomotives for use on wheat trains. Accordingly, six locomotives entered traffic in December 1924, followed by an additional four in February 1925; the next batch of ten P class locomotives were constructed locally in Western Australia in 1927, at the Midland Railway Workshops.
They were identical to the North British locomotives excepting the short tenders rebuilt from those of the obsolete R class engines. This order was extended by an additional five locomotives which were delivered in 1929, bringin
Kingston, Australian Capital Territory
Kingston is the oldest and one of the most densely populated suburbs of Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia. The suburb is named after Charles Cameron Kingston, the former Premier of South Australia and minister in the first Australian Commonwealth Government, it is adjacent to the suburbs of Barton, Fyshwick and Manuka. The suburb of Kingston is situated about 4 km from the centre of Canberra. In the early years of Canberra's development, Eastlake occupied the area now known as Kingston. Eastlake Football and Cricket club is one of the few reminders of Kingston long past. Eastlake was designated as a workers living quarters while the suburb of Forrest was reserved for middle and higher ranking public servants. About 120 portable wooden cottages for construction workers were built at the Causeway in 1925 and 1926. Canberra's first hall for community gatherings and entertainment was at the Causeway where the recreation hall was completed in 1926 with voluntary labour using materials provided by the Federal Capital Commission.
After the second world war, housing at the Causeway and Westlake was considered sub-standard. Although all of the original Westlake cottage have been demolished, the Causeway survives with the original temporary wooden cottages now replaced with brick veneer cottages; as it was separated from the rest of the suburb by Wentworth Avenue and was situated to the north of the railway station the Causeway was a distinct district within the suburb of Kingston, however, it is now abutted by the new Kingston foreshore development. The Causeway it is on the edge of a road called the Causeway, planned as a dam across the Molonglo River that would back up East Lake, planned by Walter Burley Griffin but never built; the cottages at Causeway were designed by HM Rolland and were first erected at Westlake in 1924 Acton and at the Causeway in 1925–1926. The Westlake cottages were sold off from the mid-1950s – last cottage removed in 1965. A number are now down the South Coast. One sits with a new coat of paint, in River Street, Oaks Estate.
A photograph showing one of the cottages on the move is in Westlake One of the Vanished Suburbs of Canberra – Gugler, A. The timber cottages at the Causeway were pulled down; the cottage design, referred to as portable timber cottages, designed by Rolland were based on the cottages erected at Westlake by Contractor John Howie for his married men – built 1922. He built nearby 18 or more timber huts for his single men, known as the Hostel Camp; the Burns Club was founded there in 1924. The following areas are heritage listed: The Kingston/Griffith Garden City heritage precinct, sections 15, 16 and 17 of Kingston and section 22 of Griffith, bounded by Dawes, Howitt and Kennedy streets, Burke Crescent and Cunningham streets and Canberra Avenue; the first stage of the precinct was constructed in 1926 and 1927 to accommodate lower rank public servants and workmen for the opening of the provisional Parliament House in 1927. The listed area is the only part of the original East Lake precinct; the Kingston Powerhouse Historic Precinct.
The powerhouse was the first permanent public building in Canberra. It was closed in 1929, but reactivated for periods between 1936 and 1942 and between 1948 and 1957; the Fitters’ Workshop, the second permanent public building, is in the precinct. The siren and whistle, which signalled times to Government outdoor workers in south Canberra for many years, is included in the listing; some Arizona and Himalayan cypresses near the original government printing works completed in 1927 east of Wentworth Avenue and north of Giles Street. The former Transport Depot, the centre of government transport operations in Canberra from 1927 to 1992 and is notable for the steel welded rigid portal frame, built to support its roof in 1940 and is considered to be one of the earliest examples of this technology in the world of its size; the building has housed The Old Bus Depot Markets since 14 February, 1998. The Causeway Hall, built by voluntary labour in 1925 and served for some time as the city's principal place of entertainment, including as "a picture theatre, dance hall and the venue for other entertainment such as concerts and boxing matches".
The Canberra Baptist Church, 11 Currie Crescent, constructed from 21 March 1928 and dedicated on 24 February 1929. It was the second permanent church built after the founding of Canberra and is considered by the ACT Heritage Council to be "a fine example of the Inter-War Gothic style and its internal and external integrity add to this significance." In recent years Kingston has been redeveloped with medium-density housing including townhouses and units. Most of Kingston south of Kingston Avenue is zoned for a predominant height of "3 storeys, with a maximum height of 4 storeys only where it is not the dominant feature of a street frontage", although there are two high-rise blocks north of the shopping centre and the detached houses in three city blocks in the south have heritage protection; the most recent development is the Kingston Foreshores development in which large numbers of high-value apartments are being built along the foreshores of Lake Burley Griffin. The area had been used for industrial purposes and is located between the Canberra railway station and the Kingston Powerhouse.
These new developments and the rise of a café society have reformed Kingston as one of the most exclusive suburbs in Canberra. The Kingston Foreshores are zoned for four-story units, but six-storey units are permitted under some conditions in some areas. Parts of the Kingston Group Centre are now zo
Victorian Railways H class
The Victorian Railways H class was an express passenger steam locomotive operated by the Victorian Railways from 1941 to 1958. Intended to eliminate the use of double heading A2 class locomotives on The Overland services on the steeply graded Western line to Adelaide, wartime restrictions led to only one locomotive being built. Nicknamed Heavy Harry, H220 was the largest locomotive built in Australia and the largest non-articulated steam locomotive to run on Australian railways. By 1923, the A2 class 4-6-0 locomotives, which dated back to 1907, were double-heading on interstate expresses to Serviceton and Albury as increasing traffic saw loads exceed the eight car maximum of a single A2 on these services; the Victorian Railways Commissioners recommended more powerful locomotives to haul trains of up to eleven cars unassisted over the ruling gradients on these lines. The S class 4-6-2 Pacifics displaced the A2s from North East line express services from 1928 onwards and allowed a faster timetable to be introduced.
However a Pacific-type locomotive was not well suited to the Western line. The section between Melbourne and Ballarat had curved, steep inclines, the most notorious of, the 10-mile, 1 in 48 ruling gradient of the Ingliston Bank; as early as 1923 VR locomotive designers were considering 4-8-2 Mountain-type locomotives for this purpose, along with the use of a third cylinder to allow increased power to be achieved without breaching the loading gauge. In 1936, the Victorian Railways Design Office finalised the major design requirements for a steam locomotive, capable of hauling a load of 550 long tons at a minimum 20 miles per hour up Ingliston Bank. In order to develop the power required, a large grate and a large boiler were needed, the 4-8-4 wheel arrangement enabled this by using a four-wheel trailing truck to support a large firebox, four coupled axles to support a large boiler and ensure a good factor of adhesion. VR designers wished to improve on aspects of the earlier S class design; these three-cylinder Pacifics, although capable of hauling heavy loads at high speed, had proved to be maintenance-intensive with regard to the servicing of the valve gear and motion for their third cylinder.
The Gresley conjugated valve gear, driven from the valve spindles of the outside cylinder piston valves, was prone to heat expansion and wear, causing timing difficulties, required dismantling and removal whenever the centre cylinder valve required service. To this end, the H class had a different arrangement for its third cylinder. A German Henschel & Son conjugated valve gear mechanism, driven from the combination levers of the Walschaert valve gear for the outside cylinders, was utilised in favour of the Gresley mechanism; the inside cylinder was positioned further forward of the outside cylinders and drove the leading coupled axle, with the outside cylinders driving the second coupled axle. The H class became the first VR locomotive to feature a mechanical stoker, boasted many other modern features such as roller bearings, hydrostatically controlled load compensating brake gear on the tender, power-operated reversing gear, American-style bar frame construction, thermic siphons, duplex blast pipes.
Construction of three H class locomotives at Newport Workshops commenced in 1939 and three sets of frames were manufactured. However work was halted due to the outbreak of World War II. Due to a shortage of motive power caused by increased wartime traffic, completion of class leader H220 was authorised and the locomotive entered service on 7 February 1941. Streamlining similar to the S class was planned, but wartime economies saw this abandoned; the two additional built H class locomotives remained incomplete while wartime production of armaments took precedence over express passenger locomotive construction. They were never completed, the parts were subsequently scrapped. Although it had been built to work the Western line to Ararat, a number of bridges along the route required strengthening before the H class locomotive with its 23¼ ton axle load could enter regular service on that line; the necessary work was deferred due to wartime restrictions on available resources. Therefore, H220 was put to work on the only line able to accommodate its loading gauge and high axle load, the North-Eastern line to Albury, where it hauled express passenger services, fast goods services, troop trains, on the odd occasion when the regular S class Pacific was not available, the Spirit of Progress in the postwar period when S class locomotives were affected by poor coal and reduced availability.
H220 gave an indication of its capabilities on one such run of the Spirit in the late 1940s by topping the 5-mile long 1 in 50 Glenroy Bank at 45 mph going on to pass Seymour 13 minutes ahead of schedule and arriving at Albury at 20 minutes ahead of the 10:40 pm scheduled arrival time. H220 never operated in its intended role as power for The Overland, although it did make a brief appearance on the Western line in 1949 when it ran a series of trials with the VR dynamometer car on goods trains from Melbourne to Ballarat. Results from the dynamometer car showed that the locomotive developed around 3,300 drawbar horsepower at 47.5 mph, a starting drawbar tractive effort of 52,000 lbf. The Australian Railway Historical Society, in listing the introduction of H220 among its'100 defining aspects of Australian railways' noted test results as high as 3,600 horsepower at 50 mph were
The Canberra Times
The Canberra Times is a daily newspaper in Canberra, published by Fairfax Media part of Nine Entertainment Co.. The Canberra Times was launched in 1926 by Thomas Shakespeare along with his oldest son Arthur Shakespeare and two younger sons Christopher and James; the newspaper's headquarters were located in the Civic retail precinct, in Cooyong Street and Mort Street, in blocks bought by Thomas Shakespeare in the first sale of Canberra leases in 1924. The newspaper's first issue was published on 3 September 1926, it was the second paper to be printed in the first being The Federal Capital Pioneer. Between September 1926 and February 1928, the newspaper was a weekly issue; the first daily issue was 28 February 1928. In June 1956, The Canberra Times converted from broadsheet to tabloid format. Arthur Shakespeare sold the paper to John Fairfax Ltd in 1964, on the condition that it continue to advocate for Canberra. Soon after, in July 1964, the format was switched back to broadsheet and printing was moved to Fairfax's newly installed press in Fyshwick.
Offices remained open in the civic retail precinct until April 1987 when The Canberra Times moved its entire operation to the new office of The Federal Capital Press of Australia in Fyshwick. The paper was sold to Publishing and Broadcasting Limited, which in turn sold it to Kerry Stokes in 1989 for $110 million. Rural Press Limited bought the paper from Stokes in 1998 for $160 million; the Times rejoined the Fairfax stable in 2007. The paper first went online on 31 March 1997. In 2008, The Canberra Times printed a formal apology after the paper published an essay in which Irfan Yusuf falsely accused American historian Daniel Pipes of suggesting that Muslims deserved to be slaughtered as Jews were during the Holocaust. On 17 October 2008, The Canberra Times was distributed with a sticker advertising the ACT Labor Party on the front page. Complaints about the sticker prompted Ken Nichols, to issue an explanation. In October 2013, Fairfax Media announced that The Canberra Times would be restructured to join the Australian Community Media Group of regional and community newspapers, shifting from the metropolitan news division of Fairfax.
A new editorial leadership team was appointed in November 2015, with Grant Newton as editor of the newspaper and Scott Hannaford as deputy editor and news director. In March 2016, staff at the newspaper were told there would be a restructure at The Canberra Times and that the paper would move from a broadsheet format to a tabloid. Fairfax Media announced they would be cutting 12 jobs from the newspaper's staff; the paper's editors have included Jack Waterford and Michelle Grattan, the first female editor of a metropolitan daily newspaper in Australia. A recent editor-in-chief, Peter Fray, left in January 2009 to edit The Sydney Morning Herald, he was succeeded by Rod Quinn, who announced the formation of a new senior editorial team in 2012. Editorial cartoonists have included David Pope and Pat Campbell. List of newspapers in Australia The Canberra Times The Canberra Times at Trove
Australian Railway Historical Society Museum
The Australian Railway Historical Society Museum is located on Champion Road, Victoria, near the North Williamstown station. It is operated by the Victorian Division of the Australian Railway Historical Society; the museum opened on 10 November 1962, after the Australian Railway Historical Society was allocated space at Newport Workshops by the Victorian Railways to develop a collection of steam locomotives that were in the process of being replaced by diesel and electric locomotives. Following a safety audit by landlord VicTrack, the museum closed in February 2010. After various improvements, it reopened in March 2014; the museum is open on Saturdays between 5 pm. During school holiday periods, the museum opens on both Saturdays and Sundays between 12 noon and 5 pm. Today, the museum contains the largest existing collection of Victorian Railways steam locomotives, a wide range of other Victorian Railways rolling stock, numerous Victorian Railways artefacts; the collection includes: seventeen steam locomotives eight diesel locomotives two electric locomotives and four electric suburban carriages five country/interstate passenger carriages ten freight wagons and two guards vans five railway cranes rail tractors and postal trolleys a signal box an O scale model railway Media related to ARHS Railway Museum, North Williamstown at Wikimedia Commons
Redfern, New South Wales
Redfern is an inner-city suburb of Sydney located 3 kilometres south of the Sydney central business district and is part of the local government area of the City of Sydney. Strawberry Hills is a locality on the border with Surry Hills; the area experienced the process of gentrification in recent years. Redfern was subject to extensive redevelopment plans by the state government, to increase the population and reduce the concentration of poverty in the suburb and neighbouring Waterloo; the suburb is named after surgeon William Redfern, granted 100 acres of land in this area in 1817 by Lachlan Macquarie. He built a country house on his property surrounded by kitchen gardens, his neighbours were Captain Cleveland, an officer of the 73rd regiment, who built Cleveland House and John Baptist, who ran a nursery and seed business. Sydney's original railway terminus was built in Cleveland Paddocks and extended from Cleveland Street to Devonshire Street and west to Chippendale; the station's name was chosen to honour William Redfern.
At that time, the present Redfern station was known as Eveleigh. When Central station was built further north on the site of the Devonshire Street cemetery, Eveleigh station became Redfern and Eveleigh was retained for the name of the railway workshops, south of the station; the remains of Cleveland Paddocks became Prince Alfred Park. In August 1859, Redfern was incorporated as a borough; the Municipality of Redfern merged with the City of Sydney from 1 January 1949. Redfern has been characterised by migrant populations. In the late 19th century many of the businessmen in the area were from Lebanon such as George Dan 1890, Stanton and Aziz Melick in 1888 and Shafiqah Shasha and Anthony and Simon Coorey in the 1890s; as waves of immigrants arrived in Australia, many made Redfern their first home. On 17 January 1908 at Redfern Town Hall the South Sydney club was formed to compete in the first season of the New South Wales Rugby Football League Premiership. Liquidambar styraciflua trees were planted in Baptist Street in the 70s.
The notorious Redfern Mail Exchange was built in 1965, after 300 people were evicted from their homes on the 2.15 hectare site. It became the scene of many industrial disputes when the automatic mail-sorting machinery, supposed to sort efficiently destroyed many letters, it became known as the Redfern Mangler. The 2004 Redfern riots began on 14 February 2004, at the end of Eveleigh Street outside Redfern station, sparked by the death of Thomas'TJ' Hickey; the teenager, riding on his bicycle, was being chased by a police vehicle, which led to his impalement on a fence. Members of his family were reported to have started grieving for TJ around Eveleigh Street with a crowd gathering commiserating with the family. Fliers were distributed blaming police for TJ's death; the police closed the Eveleigh Street entrance to the railway station, but youths in the crowd became violent, throwing bricks and bottles. A subsequent inquest found that although the police were following Hickey, they had not caused the accident, a verdict that caused controversy in Redfern's Indigenous community.
The riots sparked fresh debate into the welfare of Indigenous Australians and the response of the police to those living in the Redfern area. Redfern has a number of heritage-listed sites, including: 242 Cleveland Street: Cathedral of the Annunciation of Our Lady 18 George Street: Redfern Aboriginal Children's Services Main Suburban railway line: Eveleigh Chief Mechanical Engineer's office, Railway Workshops and machinery Main Suburban railway line: Redfern railway station 6-18 Pitt Street: Fitzroy Terrace, Redfern 113 Redfern Street: Redfern Post Office The main shopping strip is located on Redfern Street, east of Redfern railway station. There are commercial developments nearby, along Regent Street and surrounding streets; the Redfern skyline is dominated by two office towers and two residential blocks located between Regent Street and Gibbons Street, beside Redfern railway station. Redfern railway station, located on the western edge of the suburb is a major station on the Sydney Trains network.
Redfern is the first station south from Central Sydney terminus on the edge of the city. Redfern station is the closest station to the main campus of the University of Sydney at Camperdown and Darlington. A near-constant stream of commuters students, flows from Redfern station along the south side of Lawson Street towards the university in the morning, back towards the station in a hourly rhythm in the afternoon. St Vincent de Paul Catholic Church is on Redfern Street. St Saviour's Anglican Church is on Young Street. St George Antioch Orthodox Church is on the corner of Cooper Street; the Greek Orthodox Church in Cleveland Street is called the Cathedral of the Annunciation of Our Lady St Paul's Church of England built in 1848 and designed by Edmund Blacket. The St Andrew's Greek Orthodox Theological College sits beside it. Hillsong Church's city campus is at 188 Young Street. There is another cathedral, the St Maroun’s Cathedral for the Lebanese community; the population of the suburb spans a broad spectrum of socioeconomic characteristics.
This may be due to the geography of the suburb, long and centrally located. Redfern has become gentrified, with many medium and high density developments replacing low density and industrial developments. According to the 2016 census, Redfern has a population of 13,213 people, with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people making up 2.1% of the population. 52.2% of the population were born overseas. The most common countries of birth were Engla
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