During times when I can't bear to look at the Midnorth and Barossa route, I have on occasion been chipping away at another project which is quite unusual for an Australian MSTS route. Instead of healthy wheat fields, the landscape is vastly desert like, with creek crossings, saltbush galore, and stone slabs which identify sites of otherwise completely inconspicuous former townships that have been gone since the early 20th century. Below is a short history about the railway line's eventful existence. I should clarify this is just mainly a track laying experiment, as I enjoy seeing freshly laid track in the activity editor, and was looking for an occasional distraction from other things. I also use the route as a test bed for other things. At this stage it is inappropriate to predict what if anything will eventuate from it, but it is posted here for interest purposes
The prototype - 1879 to 1956
Despite there being a reliable flat alignment surveyed in the 1860s nearby, politicians opted to build the line through the rugged Flinders ranges for their own self-motivated reasons. Over the next 77 years, this line of 3'6 gauge would be plagued by limited load capacity and derailments as well as frequent washing away of bridges and embankments whenever the rains came.
Townships in the area were settled up after record rainfall was experienced initially with expectations of wheat growing as far north as Farina at the edge of the red inland deserts. The normal climate soon resumed, and needless to say, mass wheat production was prevalent as the dodo.
Lifestyle for railway men on this line varies depending where you are. Sidings sprung up consisting of an unairconditioned stone barracks and a shed and little else for ten or twenty miles, with the men reliant on the train for supplies, and services from towns which today no longer exist.
With the expansion of the coal mine opening at Leigh Creek, a new line of greater capacity was rapidly needed. When the expansion became well advanced and trains were required, the line was still yet to be completed to the coalfields for many months. So to the Commonwealth Railway's resentment the first coal trains used this primitive winding alignment double headed by SAR T class engines and one eighth of the size of the eventual standard gauge trains whilst trundling along at half the speed. If the fragile track was washed away, they would scream to a halt affecting power production at the new power station the line was built to serve. Not to mention this extra traffic stretched the capacity of the crippled line to the limit
In the mid 1950s, the bridge near Hookina siding was washed away by the region's notorious floods. Another of the line's trademarks hastily built creekbed deviations was constructed over the Hookina creekbed. In October 1956, this deviation itself was washed away and never restored. This effectively ended all traffic on this line south of Brachina where a transhipment/break of gauge operated to Copley until the new line was completed to Marree in 1958.
Beyond 1958, the line was left to decay and be reclaimed by the land that surrounded it. Today mangled girders in unusual locations and bridge abutments highlight where this obsolete railway once carried the brave passengers that travelled all the way to Alice springs and far inland Australia on it
(Sources: The first 100 years of the PRR, Proceed to Hawker)
2009 and its MSTS counterpart
With info hard to come by in regards to some sidings I have resorted to obscure documents in the National archives to source track layouts and some gradient and right of way info. Some locations I have no diagrams for but a mileage guide, a text description and a sketchy aerial view in Google Earth with a badly eroded track bed, if anything at all. Nevertheless, Google Earth, common sense and utilising what is at my disposal has permitted me to quite accurately relay obscure sidings and correct grades where no train has ran for over 50 years.
Gordon yard in AE
View of the curvy track near Hookina.
Beltana yard with Puttapa gap in the background
