The only things potentially making it better than the transcontinental line would be the smaller distance and lack of a straight stretch the same length as London-Carlisle on the WCML! I've driven a decent amount around our great country, I can assure you that seeing flat open 'scenery' on either side for hours at a time is really boring, and that saltbush stops being exciting very quickly. Being isolated from the main national network means there's no variety, just iron ore trains and nothing in the way of passengers, intermodals, bulk grain, steel, cars or defence force transport.CaptScarlet wrote:It would have to be more interesting than the line from Port Augusta across the Nulabour to Perthtransadelaide wrote:Speaking as an Australian, a full recreation of an iron ore line in WA would be the last payware addon I would be likely to buy, it would be excruciatingly boring!
John
Railway lines radiating from Port Augusta would raise many more interesting possibilities for a RW project with a number of very different aspects combined into one route. There is a standard gauge line to Leigh Creek used only for heavy coal transport to Port Augusta's power station, it's about 250km long skirting along the foothills of the Flinders Ranges, but could be shortened to make a semi-realistic portrayal of it. The interesting bit here is that prior to the standard gauge Tarcoola to Alice Springs route opening in 1981 (now Adelaide-Darwin) they would load entire narrow gauge trains onto piggyback wagons for this trip because the big bypass around the Flinders Ranges made that process significantly faster than the narrow gauge trains using their own lines. The standard gauge went as far as Marree where the wagons would be taken off the piggyback train and resume travelling on the narrow gauge towards Alice Springs.
Then there is also the 40km narrow gauge line from Port Augusta station to Quorn through the Pichi Richi Pass, which was also originally part of the complex web of interstate rail lines that are now much simpler. Now the narrow gauge has been restored to Port Augusta, it's one of a very small handful of multiple-gauge stations in Australia which used to be many. I have been up there on bushwalking and cycling trips (including in the Pichi Richi Pass alongside the railway ) but not to do anything involving rail as yet, it's definitely a beautiful part of the world.
