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Making Tracks 46 years in Australian Railways By RJ Fitch Dust Jacket 1989 Index
Making Tracks 46 years in Australian Railways By R J Fitch Dust Jacket 1989 Indexed. 176 Pages
Ron Fitch was born into a railway family and it came naturally to him to join the business. From engineering cadet in the troubled 1930s to Commissioner of South Australian Railways, Mr Fitch draws a vivid picture of life in the system, from sleeping rough alongside outback branch lines at the depth of the depression to the political battles which he encountered in the 1950s and later.
It is a hook replete with the strong and colourful characters which always seem drawn to railway life, but the book is more than highly detailed recollections; it is an insight into the decision-making processes which helped shape our transport system.
Making Tracks includes a detailed account of the planning of the Leigh Creek standard gauge railway; the wrangles over the Broken Hill line; the closing out of the Silverton Tramway Company and rail standardisation generally in South Australia; and the constant struggles to keep open the Central Australia Railway. He was a witness to the line-building techniques of the 1930s as rails were pushed out into the interior of Western Australia.
He has spent much of his working life travelling around Australia by train, and Mr Fitch vividly recalls the days of six-berth sleeping compartments with no air conditioning, trains which averaged less than 30 km/h on poorly laid lines, and the problems of drink on outback work gangs.
Mr Fitch worked for Western Australian Government Railways, Commonwealth Railways and South Australian Railways, and knew thousands of fellow workers in those systems. This book is an important historical document, written by someone who was inside the system for more than 45 years and recalls with meticulous detail, and is able to shed new light on much of Australia's railway history.
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