After a five-year hiatus ASSCO has once again run the great western run from Emerald to Winton and return. Covering 1,200 kilometres, fifteen ASSCO members from all walks of life and all corners of the country endured five days of Section Car action through ever changing weather conditions and passing through some spectacular country that abounds in Western Queensland.
The five days saw us pass through some of Queensland’s major outback towns including Longreach with the Qantas Air Museum trackside and Barcaldine with the famous Tree of Knowledge. ASSCO’s support for local communities continues as we stayed in many of these towns purchasing overnight accommodation, meals, and supplies.
One of the major highlights of the trip was ascending/descending the magnificent Drummond Range track between Bogantungan and Drummond affording some spectacular views along the track. It is a unique piece of rail engineering that can only be fully appreciated when traveling by Section Car.
We stopped at Bogantungan station which has been transformed into a small museum and with its fresh coat of paint its worth a visit if you are out that way. ASSCO runs provide the opportunity to appreciate the many historic aspects along the lines we travel on and interaction with the local communities along the way.
Our newly introduced sausage sizzle lunches are proving a great success and a good time to share some trackside camaraderie and reflect on the day’s operations so far. At the end of the run everyone remarked what a great five days on track it had been and looking forward to doing the same run again in a few years’ time.
Once again, this run was incident free, on time with no major breakdowns and thus reflecting the professionalism of our members, hardworking operations team, and the high safety standard ASSCO maintains to ensure successful incident free runs.
We look forward to seeing you on our next run.
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We are a friendly welcoming club with a great camaraderie and team spirit. It’s a unique way to travel by rail and ASSCO runs travel to some unique places in the country that you otherwise may not visit.
