The Quad to Quorn
1985 was a big year for me. I had moved from Western Australia to South Australia after completing year 12, and was enrolled in University for a Diploma of Education. It was also the year I first found "Fairmont" section cars, and the first chance I had to buy one.
In my move to Adelaide, I also met some other like minded people, and established the South Australian Section Car Preservation Society Incorporated. To my knowledge, this was the first such group of its kind in Australia, and may have even been the first in the world - Mark Mayfields "Motor Car Collectors of America" was formed at much the same time (the records suggest MCCA was formalised in 1986, and NARCOA in 1988. 16 years later ASSCO got off the ground)
Our group had considerable success in amassing a number of broad and standard gauge cars, as Australian National was in the middle of its massive scrap and burn campaign. Letters were sent to all the railways of the day, and many offered to donate examples to the group. Money was a big problem.
As part of the SASCPS Charter, running of our section cars was a goal. We looked at the Truro line, and thought about using this as a base. It was not too far from Adelaide, it could carry the three dominant gauges, and would give us a couple of kilometres of usable track.
We did, however, meet significant resistance from AN: they just were not interested!
We approached a number of people within AN, under the radar of Head Office, to see if we could get onto a railway somewhere. The Roadmaster at Riverton wasn't keen on helping us out on the Clare line, and the status of the Victor line meant that was not an option.
The Road Master at Peterborough responded - in the positive, so the chance to run some narrow guage cars up the old Quorn line was on!
The concept of "The Quads to Quorn" was born!
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© Nic Doncaster
Page developed August 16, 2003 Updated December 31, 2019