One of the most recognisable trains of Adelaide’s past are the Redhen railcars, which served South Australia’s Railways for over 40 years before finally succumbing to retirement in late 1996.
In the 1950s South Australia had a choice to electrify the railway network or not, in order to replace loco-hauled services and the 1920s Brill railcars. Sydney and Melbourne had already gone electric and Queensland and Perth would eventually follow. The South Australian Railways made the decision not to go electric, instead commissioning Islington Workshops to build new diesel-hydralic railcars.
The 300 class single-ended railcars came first and the first batch looked nothing like they did later in their lives. They had no roof radiators as they were situated underneath the car body and they did not have the iconic day-glo stripes on the cab front. However stationary overheating lead to rebuilding in the 1960s.The 400 class double ended cars came in 1959, with one cab end having a guards desk with ticket and ambulance boxes. The majority of Redhens had 2 GM 6-71 2-stroke engines, but the second batch of 300s had 2 Rolls Royce 4-stroke engines. An 820 class wooden bodied car or it’s replacement, the 860 class steel car, would be sandwiched in between two Redhens to make a three-car set.
The Redhens changed hands twice in their government service life before spreading to different heritage or tourist railways, they all went to the State Transport Authority when it was first concieved in 1975 and then the ones still in service went to Transadelaide in 1994. During their time before withdrawl, the part most remembered about the Redhens was their doors, as they were manually operated, which meant they can be left open as one pleased, a good source of air conditioning. Although this was also a safety risk as things would have most likely fallen out of the moving train. Many Redhens still survive, an operational 300 and 400 reside at the National Railway Museum Port Adelaide while a few run on the Steamranger Heritage Railway. There is also one at the South Gippsland Railway in Victoria.
The Adelaide O-bahn is something one would not expect to have in Australia, but it happened due to a string of events.
The original intention was for a Light Rail system to go along that corridor to Tea Tree Plaza in the 1970s. This system would have been an extension of the Glenelg Tram Line and a supplement of new trams would have been brought in to replace the H-types. However, strong vocal opposition was met, from the public, State Transport Authority employees and even Liberal MPs, because the government at the time was a Labor one, headed by Don Dunstan. However, with Dunstan’s resignation in 1979 and an election putting the Liberals in power, the light rail system was scrapped.
The new government considered the option of a guided busway like what was seen in Germany, finding out that it would be a lot more conventional than a tramway, as it would cost less to build and use less land. With the assistance of Daimler-Benz, the first stage of the O-bahn was built, which went from the city to Paradise Interchange. After a changeover in government back to Labor, the construction continued all the way to Tea Tree Plaza, where the O-bahn ends.
The O-bahn has three stops. Klemzig Station, Paradise Interchange and Tea Tree Plaza interchange. There is a range of buses used on the O-bahn, starting with the original Mercedes-Benz O305s, in both rigid and articulated. The MAN SG280H used to run on the O-bahn also, but nowadays they are all put on normal services with their guide wheels removed, although the rigid MAN SL202 still operates on the busway. In recent times, Scania has been contracted with building O-bahn buses after an unrelated dispute between the State Government and Mercedes Benz. Buses like the L94UB, K230UB and soon the K310UA operate, athough there are some faults with them.
A video I made years ago shows the buses in action on the O-bahn.
For more information, visit the Wikipedia article about the Adelaide O-bahn.
This website will document, archive and present the history of Public Transport in South Australia, this will cover the aspects from the beginnings in the 1900s to the operations today and beyond.
I will try to explain every aspect of operations on this website to the best of my knowledge, there is still a lot I don’t know, but I know quite a bit already to put on here. Eventually this website will be a comprehensive guide to the operation of buses, trains and trams in South Australia.
The first aspect to look at will be the history of it all, including information of the organisations that operated at the time. From the Municipal Tramways Trust onwards will be covered. The next aspect to look at would be the vehicles used and this will be quite a big aspect to look at, as there are several vehicles to describe and present, but will be explained in as much detail to the best of my knowledge. Another aspect is the infrastructure, which will mainly include bus stops and train and tram stations. Bus routes as well as the train and tram lines will also be covered eventually. The aspect of marketing and advertising will also be covered to show you what helped brought people from the car to using the bus, train or tram.
In time, I will also be adding pictures and videos to the website. The videos will only show the vehicles and infrastructure of today’s public transport, but with the permission of others, the pictures that may pop up will cover the beginning all the way to the present.
So take a look around and enjoy what’s already up. The site will be updated as I continue to add to it. Eventually a large chunk of SA’s Public Transport history wll be covered so please bear with me until then.
