19-594: The Silver City Limited was a passenger train operated by Australian National between Adelaide and Broken Hill . The Silver City Limited commenced operating on 14 December 1986 Adelaide and Broken Hill . It ceased operating on 31 December 1990 when all regional passenger services were withdrawn in South Australia . The train was formed of CB class railcars . It was operated on occasions by Bluebird railcars . Australian National Railways Commission The Australian National Railways Commission
38-629: A joint venture with National Rail to operate Roadrailers under the Trailerail brand. In November 1994, the first service commenced operating between Adelaide and Perth followed in November 1995 by a service from Adelaide to Melbourne . In 1996, Australian National withdrew from the joint venture with National Rail taking over its share. Following the formation of National Rail , Australian National's interstate freight operations and rolling stock were transferred in 1994. In November 1996,
57-513: A 2,237 kW (3,000 hp) engine, as fitted to the CLs . The project was never completed and the shell was scrapped. In November 2010, the federal Department for Infrastructure & Transport placed GM1 in the custody of Rail Heritage WA . In May 2012, Clyde Engineering sold GM3 to Southern Shorthaul Railroad and it was transferred to their Lithgow State Mine Heritage Park & Railway workshop for overhaul. As of October 2023, all but 1 of
76-534: A break from the traditional railway practice of making such appointments from within the organisations. The commission's first corporate plan in 1979 set out six ways that the commission was to pursue if it was to survive. These were: In 1980, a delegation of senior staff and led by the General Manager visited North America to examine current railway practices. In Canada, the delegation had talks with Canadian National Railway (which like Australian National
95-747: The Indian Pacific in partnership with the Public Transport Commission and Westrail and The Overland in partnership with the Victorian Railways . It took over the running of these services in full in February 1993 and 1994 respectively. Australian National also operated the Trans Australian until June 1991 and The Alice between November 1983 and mid-1988. Australian National entered
114-771: The AL , BL , DL , EL and AN classes all for standard gauge use. Also purchased were five T class locomotives from V/Line in 1993 that were reclassed as CKs. In 1986, a new computer system required the class leaders of the former South Australian Railways to be renumbered as the last member of the class, e.g. 600 became 607. Australian National operated passenger services within South Australia, mainly using Bluebird railcars . In December 1986, Australian National reintroduced services to Whyalla and Broken Hill using CB railcars . The remaining services were withdrawn in 1990. It also operated The Ghan . It also operated
133-815: The Aurizon units are operational due to more modern power available for freight services in South Australia With 3 Stored Operational while the Southern Shorthaul Railroad units are used on infrastructure and grain trains in New South Wales and Victoria . GM10 is the oldest locomotive in regular freight service in Australia. After the ARG split up G&W retained 11 GMs (ARG retaining GM30 for an ambitious project but
152-693: The Federal Government announced a major rail reform package that included the sale of Australian National. On 1 November 1997, The Ghan , Indian Pacific and Overland passenger services were sold to Great Southern Rail , the South Australian intrastate services to Genesee & Wyoming Australia and AN Tasrail to the Australian Transport Network . In July 1998, the railway infrastructure operated by Australian National's Track Access division,
171-485: The Fraser government made it clear it was expected to achieve a financial break-even point during the next 10 years. This decision was unique in Australia's railway history because with the exception of Commonwealth Railways , all the state systems were running at a loss, being financially supported by their respective governments. The commission appointed a professional engineer with overseas experience as General Manager in
190-622: The Victorian Railways for use on the North East line . The latter two were returned in May 1976, the former in November 1976. In July 1975, all were included in the transfer of Commonwealth Railways to Australian National . In 1979, a few operated to Lithgow, New South Wales on trials, while in October 1983, three (23, 24 & 28) were hired to V/Line returning in October 1985. The GM class were manufactured for standard gauge use, some of
209-630: The Whitlam federal government . The Whitlam government invited the state governments to hand over their railway systems to the federal government. On 1 July 1975, the Australian National Railways Commission took over responsibility for the operations of the federal government owned Commonwealth Railways and branded itself Australian National Railways. The state governments of South Australia and Tasmania , whose railway systems were deeply in debt, accepted. During
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#1732782516792228-1213: The locomotives were converted to operate on 5 ft 3 in ( 1,600 mm ) broad gauge for some of their lives. Apart from one destroyed in an accident in 1985, withdrawals began in 1988. GM1 was placed on a plinth in Port Augusta , GM2 was donated to the National Railway Museum, Port Adelaide and GM3 to Clyde Engineering , Kelso . By October 1994, only 15 remained in service. A locomotive shortage saw Australian Southern Railroad return GM1 to service in December 1997. In 1998, Great Northern Rail Services purchased 12 from Australian Southern Railroad. Most were scrapped for parts with only three returning to service seeing use in Melbourne and Sydney . Following Great Northern ceasing operations in 2003, these were sold to Chicago Freight Car Leasing Australia before being resold to Southern Shorthaul Railroad . In May 2005, Australian Railroad Group forwarded GM30 to Forrestfield workshops to be receive
247-590: The narrow gauge Central Australian Railway which closed in December 1980. In December 1982, the Adelaide to Crystal Brook line was converted to standard gauge. Ownership of the Queanbeyan to Canberra railway line was transferred to the State Rail Authority in May 1985. Australian National Railways inherited the following diesel locomotive classes: Built new for Australian National were
266-715: The next two years, following discussions between the two states and the federal government new staffing and operating agreements enabled the transfer in March 1978 of all South Australian Railways services (except the Adelaide metropolitan passenger network) and all Tasmanian Government Railways services to Australian National Railways, the latter being branded AN Tasrail . Overnight, Australian National Railways went from an organisation with 4000 employees operating routes of just over 2000 kilometres (1200 miles) – 20 per cent of Australia's rail network – to just over 12,000 to employees operating 7890 km (4900 mi). Reflecting
285-447: The persistence of three mainline gauges that had afflicted Australia since 1865, the total comprised 2395 km (1488 mi) of 1600 mm ( 5 ft 3 in ) broad gauge , 2812 km (1747 mi) of 1435 mm ( 4 ft 8 + 1 ⁄ 2 in ) standard gauge and 2683 km (1667 mi) of narrow gauge track. Australian National Railways was a federal government owned corporation and in 1978,
304-468: Was an agency of the Government of Australia that was a railway operator between 1975 and 1998. It traded as Australian National Railways ( ANR ) in its early years, before being rebranded as Australian National . AN was widely used from 1980, the logotype being registered as a trade mark. The commission was established following an election commitment made during the 1972 federal election by
323-902: Was based on the Electro-Motive Diesel EMD F7 locomotive. The first 11 were delivered with EMD 16-567B , 1,119 kW (1,501 hp) engines and four powered axles with the remainder having 16-567C, 1,305 kW (1,750 hp) engines and six powered axles. The final 11 were fitted with dynamic braking . Delivered to operate on the standard gauge Trans-Australian Railway , they first entered service in September 1951. Further orders saw 47 in service by December 1967. They operated on all of Commonwealth Railways's standard gauge lines including those to Broken Hill , Alice Springs , Marree and Adelaide when converted to standard gauge in 1970, 1980 and 1982 respectively. In January 1972, three (31, 32 & 34) were loaned to
342-530: Was government-owned) and Canadian Pacific Railway . In the United States, contact was made with Chessie System and Southern Pacific Railroad . The areas looked at included marketing and pricing, finance and planning, engineering and staff training. On 12 March 1980, a new green and yellow corporate identity was launched with GM1 the first locomotive painted. In October 1980, a new standard gauge line from Tarcoola to Alice Springs opened replacing
361-619: Was transferred to the federal government owned Australian Rail Track Corporation . In October 2000, following the resolution of outstanding issues relating to property and employee compensation, Australian National was wound up. Commonwealth Railways GM class The GM class are a class of diesel locomotives built by Clyde Engineering , Granville for the Commonwealth Railways in several batches between 1951 and 1967. As of January 2014, some remain in service with Aurizon and Southern Shorthaul Railroad . The design
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