For August, we turn our attention to Victoria’s high country, and the former Cudgewa railway line.
In January this year, a terrible bushfire swept through Victoria’s High Country and burned down 14 historic timber railway bridges along the former Cudgewa Line. Some of the structures destroyed in the blaze were listed on the Victorian Heritage Register for their special cultural significance. To commemorate these structures, we have two feature articles.
We interview Nick Anchen, who famously drove along the former rail formation in a Suzuki Sierra in the 1990s, long before the establishment of the popular High Country Rail Trail that opened up the former Cudgewa Line to hikers, cyclists and enabled sightseers. Nick tells us about his experiences in exploring the line as he gradually researched his book, A Railway to Cudgewa, eventually published in 2013
We present an excerpt from the book that Nick felt strongly should be republished in Newsrail, his interview with bridge ganger Bill Pleming. Bill was kept busy as part of bridge gangs that maintained the many bridges along the line, working from 1955 until the cessation of regular services in 1978. In many ways, the team were still using construction and repair techniques little changed from the early 20th century when the bridges were originally built.
Our Tourist and heritage rail column looks at Bellarine Railway as it prepares to mark 60 years since the end of operations on the narrow-gauge Batesford to Fyansford railway, an event that led to the formation of the Geelong Steam Preservation Society, operators of the Bellarine Railway.
Our News section looks at a range of developments, including ONRSR action to suspend the accreditation of SSR, the failure of train radio systems following a Telstra outage in July, and details of the forthcoming upgrade of the Portland Line.
And our usual other columns are there:
- Infrastructure
- Operations and sightings
- PTV service quality
- Tramways
- Where is it?
- Taildisc
