| Anyone
who can give a lift to a train as famous as the Indian Pacific
or The Ghan must be doing something right.
In 2002, Bluebird Rail Managing Director, Chris Hall turned
his attention from running trains to railway engineering.
“We identified that trains are just another mode of
transport, where railway engineering is a specialist field
and should be a better business,” Chris explained.
“The insurance rates had just gone up making it impossible
for any small rail passenger service to exist. At the same
time changes were well underway in the way Australian Railways
were run and owned.”
To make the change happen, Chris was able to secure some
space at the old SA Railways Islington workshops and some
business straight away.
“We are now set up in five of the Islington engineering
sheds and offer a complete engineering base, from repairs
and refurbishment to new rail wagons and passenger rolling
stock.”
Bluebird Rail also looks after small plant and specialist
track maintenance plant.
In the works at the moment, among others, is a new contract
for container flats, the end of a contract for the conversion
of car carriers to articulated car carriers and repairs
and refurbishment of Great Southern Railroad (GSR) passenger
rolling stock.
“The only shed we had left for the contract to refurbish
the GSR carriages didn't have an overhead crane system,
so we looked for jacks to make this work easier,” Chris
says.
Bluebird Rail was the first operator to choose the new
Portalift jacking system as the preferred way of getting
under the carriages.
The new 120 tonne rated posts incorporate the same recirculating
ball |
