Thorny Devil Loc: Alice Springs, Central Australia

RAILCARS IN SOUTH AUSTRALIA
I grew up in the Adelaide Hills in South Australia towards the last years of the steam era and have fond memories of traveling to and from the city and to and from school on passenger trains hauled by steam locomotives.

Railcars were introduced to the state owned South Australian Railways (SAR) as early as 1924 and although more were added over time it wasn't until SAR embarked on a program of building new railcars in the early 1950's to replace the existing ageing fleet that multiple unit diesel railcars began to be regularly used on country services and eventually almost exclusively on urban metropolitan services.

In 1963 I commenced a five year apprenticeship with the South Australian Railways as a Diesel Fitter and Machinist and worked as an apprentice on many of the different types of diesel powered railcars in use at the time.
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Brill Railcar Model 55. Built by G J Brill in Philadelphia, Pensylvania, USA. 12 of these railcars entered service during 1924. Originally powered by a Midwest four cylinder petrol engine, all were eventually repowered with Gardner diesel engines.

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Between 1927 and 1931, SAR added 37 of the larger Model 75 units to their fleet. SAR built the bodies on railcar chassis purchased from J G Brill. The first 26 units were retro fitted with Gardner diesels while the remainder were fitted with Cummins.

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Dubbed "Bluebirds", these air conditioned diesel hydraulic railcars were built by SAR between 1954 and 1959 and were regularly used in various power-car and trailer combinations on country services throughout South Australia up to 1993.

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These "Redhen" railcars were also built by SAR and became the mainstay of Adelaide metropolitan passenger services from 1955 to 1996. Note the 1920's era wooden trailer beween the two power cars.

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SAR eventually gave way to private enterprise with rail freight and passenger services going their separate ways. I captured this diesel electric rail car operated by Adelaide Metro whlle in Adelaide visiting relatives in April 2011.

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While visiting relatives (again) in 2017 I grabbed a photo of the latest addition to Adelaide's metropolitan rail passenger service following electrification of some areas- an all ellectric railcar consist.

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Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Nice set.

Tom DePuy Loc: Waxhaw, N.C.

Thanks for the great photos,and the story with the railcars.

kpmac Loc: Ragley, La

A fine set.

Jay Pat Loc: Round Rock, Texas, USA

Enjoyed viewing these!!
Thanks, Pat

RichardTaylor Loc: Sydney, Australia

Good set, and thanks for the history.

J-SPEIGHT Loc: Akron, Ohio

llamb Loc: Northeast Ohio

Thanks for the interesting photo-tour.

~Lee

Thorny Devil Loc: Alice Springs, Central Australia

Thank you Longshadow.

Thorny Devil Loc: Alice Springs, Central Australia

You are welcome Tom, thanks for looking.

Thorny Devil Loc: Alice Springs, Central Australia

Thank you kpmac.

Thorny Devil Loc: Alice Springs, Central Australia

Thanks for looking Pat.

Thorny Devil Loc: Alice Springs, Central Australia

You are welcome Richard, thank you for looking.

Thorny Devil Loc: Alice Springs, Central Australia

Thank you for the thumbs up J S.

Thorny Devil Loc: Alice Springs, Central Australia

Thank you Lee, pleased you liked them.