Perth's Railcar Evolution

perth in western australia operate a three foot six inch narrow gauge railway system based on british practice here is the story commencing in the 1950s of their suburban diesel railcars in september of 1951 an order was placed with cravens in sheffield england for 18 of these road cars and all were delivered in 1954. i remember them then as dark green diesel railcars with yellow and black hatching on the cabs arriving at wellsport station i have followed their history on and off till they were retired in 1992 to be replaced by the new electric trains [Music] one of our enthusiasts discovered a colour photo on the state library of western australia website of the adg railcars in the original livery of dark green with black and yellow hatching on the cabs he shared this most incredible find on facebook it's about 65 years since i last saw this colour scheme this green colour scheme was soon followed by the green white and red colour scheme which we know so well notice the center carriage it is an aye which is built with special wiring to go between two adgs and still allow them to operate as multiple units our adg railcars have had four different colour schemes from the time they were introduced they started off dark green with black and yellow hazard stripes on the cabs then they appeared in their all-time classic colour scheme green with white and red this was then followed by orange with a blue stripe unfortunately this didn't look good at all to begin with i fixed it by adding white pen stripes between the blue and the orange this was the scheme that they finished out their days with one adx unit was painted up in a twin tone blue [Music] it looked very smart but it was never adopted [Music] the adh class was a four member class of diesel rail cars these are also built by cravens in sheffield and had different interiors for country work the first three were delivered in june 1955 and the fourth in 1956. they operated from perth de miling wildcatchem and bunbury and from geraldton to queue following the withdrawal of the services they operated they were transferred to perth to operate alongside the adgs they were refitted with similar interiors to the adgs in 1962 and 1963 and in the mid 1980s were all repowered with mercedes-benz engines in 1959 the midland runway workshop delivered the first of 1080x railcars [Music] they were built to the same design as the adg railcars but had larger engines they were also fitted with double sliding doors instead of the single sliding doors on the older units 1966 adx670 was fitted with power doors although these power doors were deemed a success no further conversions followed she was also painted in blue and white and later with a two-tone blue very different from her sisters from my memory towards the end of a stay in blue she was also fitted with three horns [Music] i remember she sounded very different from the other railcars [Music] they started to be withdrawn from service in 1982 with the last being withdrawn in september 1988. some of them donated their engines to the adgs let's back our story up a little bit to the adgs in 1963 and 64 the adgs were fitted with supercharges and between 1969 and 1973 they were fitted with voice transmissions the voice of course being an automatic transmission compared to the old pre-selector manuals these were classified as adg-vs for the voice transmission our road metal midland railway workshops built nine aye trailer cars on second and under frames and they were operated between two adgs these were replaced by our own adas in 1962. some of these ada trailer cars were fitted with the electrical cables required for voice transmission use and renamed adav to match the power units although the ada has a single driver's cab at one end it is unpowered the driver is operating the power car behind by means of electrical wiring [Music] in 1967 and 1968 ten two carriage stainless steel sets were manufactured for the west australian government railways each set consists of an adk power car manufactured by the commonwealth engineering and an adb trailer built by the wagrs at midland runway workshops they were unpainted when they entered service just bearing their natural stainless steel coloring [Music] soon then orange bands painted the top two thirds of each cab [Music] at a later date it was followed by painting the cambium's white and red between 1982 and 1995 a further 10 two carriage stainless steel sets were manufactured for transport by a good nine and a company in newcastle these comprise the adl class of diesel multiple units and the adc trailer cars i believe that when they first entered service they were in plain silver with orange bands on each end [Music] then they had broad red stripes placed at window level on each side there was a transport tea logo also on the side the next ad vent saw the cab ends becoming red and white instead of the orange the final colour change for these railcars was the addition of striking random black cabins [Music] i feel the last chapter to be written just before electrification was visually the most interesting old adg railcars which were well passed at prime had the engine stripped out and then they were unceremoniously dragged about by a next-class locomotive like common carriages [Music] at the same time some queensland carriages were brought over on a working holiday to supplement the suburban workings they still wore the queensland railway logos on their sides [Music] when i was in queensland in the air force i saw these carriages in service [Music] those were the days of incredible variety on the perth suburban railway network diesel hall services supplemented the railcars for peak hours and for special events for those who lived in the 60s steam also added to the experience [Music] here we spot an unusual visitor at the east perth rail terminal a south australian railways bluebird rail car normally used for south australian country services now at the end of his life converted into a carriage for use on the indian pacific [Music] in 1988 and 1989 we had royalty visiting as a part of our bicentennial celebrations the west end are never came to perth hall by locomotive 3801 from new south wales the nullarbor plane was very hard on the locomotive and it suffered some damage so it needed a diesel to assist him to get into perth this occurred late april in 1988 [Music] 3801 then paved the way for a visit from the queen the following year in 1989. british locative number 4472 the flying scotsman came to perth on a visit [Music] like our sister who crossed over before the nullarbor plane also damaged her and she had to be repaired in perth at the same time in september 1989 great western castle locomotive 4079 was brought down from its pilbara home to perth to run with the flying scotsman she is named pandenis castle [Music] truly once in a lifetime events [Music] [Applause] [Music] to add to the variety we also saw trains to kalgoorlie and the bunbury departing over the suburban network the prospector the kalgoorlie has always been operated by diesel rail cars geostrong on the other hand is an older train was originally steam hauled and then at the time of the photo diesel hauled the last diesel hauled australian train ran november 1987 to be replaced by the current diesel rail cars [Music] the buffet car on the australian was a favorite place to visit the rail car associated a whole new experience for the australian train at that time we also saw some preserve steam which was still able to operate over the suburban network [Music] thanks to the state library of western australia we have a unique window into the east perth railway workshops area in 1955 [Music] [Laughter] in the late 1960s this locomotive facility had been greatly reduced in size but were still in full operation [Music] [Music] [Music] here is one of my favorite locomotives ut664 was originally a tender locomotive and was converted by our workshops into a tank before it was converted into a tank locomotive it was originally a u-class steamer used on the australian rumor has it that it was a powerful beast well able to maintain the railcar schedules [Music] we conclude our story reflecting on the life of the first adg number 601 his years the pride and joy of cravens in sheffield england being admired by company executives on a trial run across english rails before being shipped to australia she served us well but at the end of her days she suffered the ignominity of being sent to a scrap metal junkyard this is a sad ending to a significant piece of west australian history however there is light at the end of the tunnel two have been preserved at the hotha valley and one at the museum perhaps one day you'll see one operating again very deep

Channel: Terry Mercer

Views: 10,091

Keywords: Perth's Railcars, W.A.G.R., Suburban trains, ADG, ADH, ADX, ADK, ADL

Id: UlRJmc4ghmY

Length: 15min 39sec (939 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 16 2021