TOURISTS are flocking to visit huge train and tram graveyards scattered the world over.
From the rusting metal of dozens of trains dropped like kids toys about the Bolivian desert to railway relics growing moss in Poland, there is something eerie and spectacular about the sight.
In Leicester there was once a train pyramid, piled high and wide with diesel locomotives and in our own backyard there are colourful collections of carriages tucked away and decaying.
Sydney Trains is preparing to get rid of its outdated fleet of ‘S’, ‘L’ and ‘R’-set stainless steel suburban trains and we found out exactly where they’ll put them.
This is what happens to trains when they die.
UNFORTUNATELY, IT’S NOT SO ROMANTIC
The carcasses of old steam trains sit still on a hill in a little town named Dorrigo south of Brisbane. Scores of carriages line an empty field there not far from a museum paying tribute to the people movers of the past.
Decommissioned trams spray-painted in bright colours have been laid to rest at railyards in Sydney’s inner west. Their parts have been stripped but the shells are fodder for photographers.
And Melbourne’s famous W class trams and “red rattler” trains have been left to rot in dark sheds at Newport, in Melbourne’s inner west, though a number were lost when a coal fire ripped through the sheds last month.
Near Adelaide, at Tailem Bend and Port Pirie, are two of the more remote train graveyards hosting heritage carriages some as old as 70 years still in their original condition — seats and benches still in tact and blinds and curtains still hanging above the windows.
But what happens to the trains we all ride on when a new version comes along? Sadly, according to the train networks, the story these days is “not so romantic”. They are torn apart for scrap metal and only the valuable parts are salvaged.
In Sydney, it’s happening now. A spokesman for Sydney Trains said “stock that has reached the end of its working life” is being dismantled and disposed of following the final delivery of 78 new Waratah train sets last year.
It will all happen slowly at a specially-built facility south of Sydney where the carriages will be held and dismantled one by one.
“First, the carriages are stripped of spare parts, which can be reused to refurbish and extend the lifespan of working carriages, at a saving to taxpayers. Reclaimed parts include radio equipment, compressors, speedometer probes and bogies (the four-wheel mountings),” the spokesman said.
Selling carriages in their entirety is a cumbersome task and makes very little sense these days. But the idea has found some success in the past. Google bought an old Monorail carriage for its Sydney office when the state decommissioned them. Others were being offered for $3000 a pop on Gumtree earlier this year.
Overseas, it’s a different story, where old trains find new life in decaying urban playgrounds frequented by those curious about an era gone by.
‘CEMENTERIO DE TRENES’, THE ANTIQUE TRAIN CEMETARY
Arguably the most popular of all abandoned railway networks is the Cemeterio de Trenes in the Bolivian desert. So popular, in fact, that Lonely Planet has it as a listed item on Things to Do when visiting the town of Uyuni.
The trains are climbed on day in and day out by visitors hungry for a photograph with the 18th century steam locomotives against the dry sandy backdrop.
Less than 3km from the city itself, the trains once carried minerals on their way to coastal ports.
When the mining industry collapsed in the 1940s, so too did the need to run trains from Uyuni.
TRAINS PILED INTO THE SKY
One on top of the other on top of the other old carriages were piled like Lego blocks waiting to be scrapped at Vic Berry’s yard in Leicester in the UK.
The blue and yellow 38-tonne British Rail coaches were past their prime and one by one moved through the crusher and used for scrap.
Before that time, they became a landmark that was photographed for its odd beauty. In 1991, a train carriage at the site caught fire and swept through a stack of carriages, the Leicester Mercury reported. The site was closed and later redeveloped but the photos stand as a reminder of the trains that serviced the area generations ago.
70 CARRIAGES ABANDONED IN THE FOREST
Trains and buses from some of America’s busiest cities are, for some bizarre reason, piling up in the forest far from where they once collected passengers.
Among the 70-odd now-rusty train carriages and buses are a passenger train from Philadelphia and several subway cars. A New York street bus is there, too, according to the Daily Mail.
Photographer Johnny Joo, who visited the site to take a closer look last year said it was “bizarre” and “as if time completely stopped”.
“(It was) almost as if the apocalypse had happened years ago,” he said.
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