Australian bushfires and railways

[ben_issacs]

Folks, 

No doubt most of the viewers of this Forum are aware that bushfires (U.S. wildfires) are raging in large parts of all the Australian States.

The area burnt out in NSW  only is greater than the area of Belgium , and adding the area affected in the other States this would probably cover the whole of the Netherlands and part of Germany.

Loss of life, fortunately, is low, but several small towns have been destroyed, and many other buildings have been lost along with much livestock and crops.

Whilst the local media has much news about closure of roads, they print nothing about the effects of these fires on railways in the areas.

A NSW rail fan has published information about lines closed and trains terminated short of their destinations, but nothing much about the railways in the fire  affected areas in the other States..

One train that was affected was the Great Southern cruise train.

On its return trip from Brisbane to Adelaide, it had to be diverted from the Sydney-Albury main line down  to Woolongong on the coast, and from there to climb up the escarpment back to rejoin the Sydney-Albury, this stiff climb would be a tough job for the train's two locos with 28 cars on.

Unfortunately, this emergency is not over, the normal bushfire season in Eastern Australia is Jan-Feb, not as early as it is now, so more losses will occur.

Regards, 

Bill,

Melbourne.

 

 

[Martijn Meerts]

Wouldn't say loss of life is low considering how many animals have already died already ...