Desert Railroading- Looking for Aussie Input

[dlfrenchmd]

I finished the Texas and Pacific, Santa Fe Belen to El Paso, and the Rock Island in Colorado. My current project approaching completion (if I can quit running down rabbit holes of route building) is extending (with his permission) Steve Dunham's (literalman) Richmond, Fredericksburg, and Potomac RFP3 south through downtown Richmond with its old depots and across the James River. So far so good. But the time has come to think ahead to the next project and I really like desert railroading. So I am thinking about trying an Australian desert route, maybe Indian Pacific or the Ghan route Darwin to Adelaide. I've gotten as far as Wikipedia and You Tube in my research. I think it would be what I'm looking for as an old builder- fairly simple building with good structures, interesting places, and hours and hours of the same thing so I can listen to some books I want to encounter. So here's my questions to my Australia friends:
1. Is there any desire for one of these routes? If so, which one? I can't find any on TrainSim and I don't see payware versions either. If there are, I would like to look at them.
2. Is there enough Australian equipment available to support a route like this?
3. Anyone willing to Private message me or email me photos along the chosen route of landscapes, buildings, etc that can fill in the gaps on Google Earth?
4. I'd probably be on this forum asking a lot of crazy Australian railroad questions about signaling, switching, etc. Willing to help with answers.

2000km of single track and no people doesn't daunt me. I could live there! (assuming indoor plumbing, air conditioning, and internet for my train simming).
Thanks for your opinions!
Dan French

[derekmorton]

Hi Dan,

Being an ozzie and having done the Ghan trip 5 years ago, I can answer some of the questions.

It is standard gauge.
They are both over 3000km. Sydney to Perth, and Adelaide to Darwin.
There is not much rolling stock for the modern era, I can only think of a Qld 4000 class ( 3'6" sd70ace with a 12-710 )
You would need a large amount of bridges and culverts.
Its a long way to go to get photo's.

[ossie]

Hi Dan,

Three hours of the Ghan if you haven't seen it:



And this covers the IP from Sydney to Perth. There's plenty of images of the Nullarbor out the windows.



Typing "Australian trains in the outback" will keep you busy on YT for a bit. There's also 2 seasons of Railroad Australia on YT. From memory there was quite a lot of segments featuring train crews & maintenance teams working at various locations across the desert.

In terms of equipment, Marek's NR class locos and passenger carriages would do the job well for either route. Freight traffic becomes a bit more problematic though from an "era specific" and prototypical point of view. We double stack on both those routes but I don't think there was much/any of our domestic containers ever attempted as double stacks. In fact, I don't think there was ever very much in terms of our domestic containers done full stop. If people didn't mind putting realism on hold and mixing up various locos and rolling stock from across a number of eras/states/companies, there's enough available that freight traffic is doable, but yes, if you were looking for prototypical in terms of the freight traffic that either the IP or Ghan would cross, there'd need to be some work done.

Edit.... and from a purely sim point of view, if you were to tackle the IP, keep in mind one section of that track between Adelaide & Perth holds the "world record" for being nearly 500kms of dead straight track. It'd probably be easy to build but maybe not that challenging to drive?

[superheatedsteam]

Hi Dan,

All the best for your proposed project.

For maps check out the following.

https://www.artc.com.au/customers/maps/system/

I have never found curve and gradient diagrams for the Ghan route but that is not so say they are not out there.

ARTC do have 'system' maps but I'm not sure if you can still download the curve and gradient diagrams. I do have curve and gradient diagrams I downloaded from ARTC back in 2006 that span Adelaide to Kalgoorlie if you are interested. Though the siding lengths may have changed in 20 years, the geology has to a much lesser extent so that data is still relevant.

I started on a Kalgoorlie to Cook route myself and imported the DEM and but never got past laying a small amount of track around the Kalgoorlie station and the building itself. I find route building a chore and focus on 3D modelling which is what I prefer.

If you were to build the Indian Pacific route, I suspect the 500km straight section would probably be the hardest bit, especially if you wanted it completely straight. With the MSTS flat plane projection and skewing I think that there will be alignment issues either end with DEM if you choose to use it. Something to bear in mind.

As for Australian equipment to suit, the Indian Pacific and Ghan passenger train sets are in the file library here (au_gsr.zip). I searched but it appears that my NR class locomotives (AU__NR.ZIP ) have gone missing from the file library here. You can download the NR class from the Coals to Newcastle site along with other locomotives that would be found on the Indian Pacific route.

I created simple freight anim containers so double stack trains can be run using the Team Alco modern freight pack (teamalco.zip in file library here).

I also have a C44ACi locomotive, crew car and fuel wagons that have not had much attention recently and are used on both routes. If you proceed, I would endeavour to have them ready by the time you are ready to release your route.

In short I suspect that if you build it they will come and offer assistance if able.

Cheers,

Marek.

[ossie]

I searched but it appears that my NR class locomotives (AU__NR.ZIP ) have gone missing from the file library here.

Despite the 838(?) previous uploads, they were showing as waiting for approval Marek. There must have been some sort of hiccup, but they should be back and available now.

https://www.trainsim.com/forums/file...leid?fid=83315

[dgionet]

Dan,

Discovery Channel produced two episodes of Mighty Trains which includes both rail journeys
Here is the link for the Ghan:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsECNoK2sBs

For the Indian Pacific, found a season 3 (4 1/2 hours) Marathon of all episodes, including the Indian Pacific. You can view it between 2h15m into the video and ending around 2h59 m. Click on the link below

Mighty Trains: Complete Season 3 Marathon (All Episodes) | The Tokaido, Rocky Mountaineer & More - YouTube

Denis