Next Thumbnails Galleries Home  Western Wanderings - 2

nnn

In Western Wanderings 1, I recounted how for a long time my experience of the Western Line was as a pretty sleepy affair, with mostly grain trains if the season had been OK and just one coal train a day. Long service leave in 2006 would change my impressions -and change they did! At least on the section out to Macalister, I was impressed by the frequency of trains - my best was to see 8 trains in less than 4 hours and that was without really trying! I also really enjoyed watching how they crossed trains with Direct Train Control - the speed and ease with which safeworking is performed made crosses on the line from Casino to Acacia Ridge before the CTC went in look shamefully archaic, which indeed they were. So, here is another batch of images from past Toowoomba. Coal of course dominates and grain is absent on account of the drought, but the landscapes ensure the photographic possibilities are high.