Irish Gauge

ardmacha

According to Wikipedia, there is twice as much 1,600 mm track in Australia or Brazil as there is in Ireland.

- is this actually the same, so that equipment could move from one to the other?
- has any equipment actually done so?

Run_to_da_hills

I believe there are / have been GM 121 Locos in operation in Brazil.

dmcronin

Grendon's of Drogheda did export one 5'3'' loco to Brazil.
http://www.drogheda-independent.ie/local-notes/grendons-foundry-on-south-quay-753741.html

Harland & Wolff did supply engines for Aussie railcars, for NSWGR.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_City_Comet

I'd imagine the Aussie loading gauge would be a bit more generous than the Irish one, so an Aussie loco might not be able squidge beyond the first overbridge!

CIE

Run_to_da_hills wrote: »

I believe there are / have been GM 121 Locos in operation in Brazil.

Brazil originally bought 69 examples of the GL8, both Bo-Bo and A1A-A1A types (with AAR-type couplers); many of those run on their metre-gauge railways too. Their 1600-mm gauge tracks have a lot of larger GMs running, even the big special-duty (SD) Co-Co drag freight locos with 16-cylinder engines. There's been talk of Brazil intending to convert their 1600-mm tracks to 1435 mm gauge...

dmcronin

Slightly off tangent, but Metropolitan-Vickers built cousins of the A and C Classes for 3'6'' gauge in Western Australia. Fairly strong family resemblance.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WAGR_X_class

Run_to_da_hills

dmcronin wrote: »

Slightly off tangent, but Metropolitan-Vickers built cousins of the A and C Classes for 3'6'' gauge in Western Australia. Fairly strong family resemblance.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WAGR_X_class

Unfortunately the Auzzies had to put up with their original Crossley motors right to the end.

simon_24

I remember hearing that NIR sold some of their old stock to Argentina when they upgraded the fleet

Judgement Day

simon_24 wrote: »

I remember hearing that NIR sold some of their old stock to Argentina when they upgraded the fleet

Unlikely. NIR's obsolete stock tends to be scrapped in NI and it's usually well past its sell by date anyway. Pretty sure that Harland & Wolff built some railcars for South America a long, long time ago.

dowlingm

CIE wrote: »

There's been talk of Brazil intending to convert their 1600-mm tracks to 1435 mm gauge...

Australia has done some conversions to standard and in other cases provisioning for future conversions
http://www.pandrol.com/images/uploads/case_studies/TR00_p17-19.pdf (PDF)

dmcronin

Judgement Day wrote: »

Pretty sure that Harland & Wolff built some railcars for South America a long, long time ago.

Seen that somewhere too, possibly in Railway Magazine or Backtrack.

Useless factoid: Tasmania started off building to 5'3'' and converted to 3'6'' Cape Gauge early on.

dmcronin

Another Aussie lookalike...

http://www.precisionscalemodels.com.au/models/v-r-%e2%80%9cwalker%e2%80%9d-rail-motor-102153-h-p-diesel-rail-car-trailer/