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Alpha's Steam Engine by Ted LeeThe Railway line strikes due West and in places as straight as a gun barrel along the Tropic of Capricorn. It is 420 miles 670 Klm from Rockhamton on the Central Coast of Queensland Australia to Longreach in the Central West. A little over half way along this railway line there is a small town called Alpha (The Beginning of the Outback) . The building of the line was a mammoth task in the early 1900s reaching Longreach in 1905. Many small sawmills sprang up along the line to supply building materials for bridges etc & sleepers (rail ties) for the track. There were many settlers already in the area so sawn timber was also unique & valuable to them. The sawmills were often moved ahead as the line progressed but many remained in place as small towns began to build up nearby, some even remain to this day although not necessarily in their original position. Most early rail ties were split from the log with wedges then trued up with a "broad-axe" by expert axemen, many were sawn with a "Pit-saw", a pit being dug in the ground, the log being secured over the pit, 2 men with a large saw, one in the pit the other on top of the log (he was called "The Top Dog"). I can think of easier ways to earn a living. The pit can still be found on the creek flat near Alpha. Horse whips (that is where the horse draws a pole around a pivot, gears and shafts transmitting the motion to the machine to be driven) were sometimes used to power saw-benches. Then of course there was steam.
Ted Lee
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Last modified Sunday, 20-Jul-2003 15:28:00 BST |
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