SAR Scenario East-West Express
Vintage East-West Express: Terowie to Quorn Passenger
Between 1917 and 1932 the Peterborough-Quorn Line was a vital link in the Transcontinental Railway between Sydney on the east coast and Perth on the west coast.
The South Australian Railways provided an express passenger service, the East-West Express, that ran between Terowie and Port Augusta via Quorn. At Terowie it connected with broad gauge services from Adelaide. At Peterborough it connected with narrow gauge services from Broken Hill where there was a standard gauge connection from Sydney. At Quorn it connected with narrow gauge services from the Central Australian Line. At Port Augusta it connected with standard gauge services to Kalgoolie, where there was a narrow gauge connection to Perth.
Passengers making the entire trip from Sydney NSW to Perth WA would change trains 5 times - Parkes NSW, Broken Hill NSW, Peterborough SA, Port Augusta SA and Kalgoolie WA. They would change track gauges 3 times (standard to narrow to standard to narrow) and have to navigate through 5 different rail systems (NSWGR, Silverton Tramway, SAR, Commonwealth Railways and WAGR) plus a taxi between two stations in Broken Hill. The entire journey from coast to coast would take 6 days, if all the connections were made.
Today passengers can board a luxury train, the Indian Pacific, in Sydney and travel the entire distance to Perth in 3 days without leaving the train.
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