Tailem Bend. In the centre is the old railway turntable with radiating railway lines. A 14 bay Roundhouse was erected here by Railway Commissioner William Webb in 1926. : 無料・フリー素材/写真
Tailem Bend. In the centre is the old railway turntable with radiating railway lines. A 14 bay Roundhouse was erected here by Railway Commissioner William Webb in 1926. / denisbin
| ライセンス | クリエイティブ・コモンズ 表示-改変禁止 2.1 |
|---|---|
| 説明 | Tailem Bend transformations. The town of Tailem Bend was not surveyed until 1887. It happened then because the Intercolonial Railway to Melbourne passed through the area and it had opened. Despite the railway arriving in 1887 and a Murray River ferry crossing Tailem Bend only started to develop in the 20th century. Growth was very slow in the town until Commissioner Webb decided to move the railway marshalling yards and the rail engine workshops from Murray Bridge to Tailem Bend in 1925. A government school had opened in 1902 but it was a tiny town. The only church built before the Webb era was a tiny Methodist church. But once Webb’s plans for Tailem Bend were announced the Catholics built a church in 1924, the Anglicans opened a church in 1926 and the Methodists opened a new stone church in 1927. Before the Webb era the finest building in Tailem Bend was the 1914 built Art Nouveau style railway station. The Tailem Bend hotel was also an early structure built in 1902 like the government school. That school was enlarged to cater for the new students from Tailem Bend North in 1927 when a two storey section was built. Commissioner Webb mainly moved railway operations to Tailem Bend for the reasons above – good flat land, further from Adelaide, starting point of the Murray Mallee rail lines, good areas for marshalling yards, and plentiful water. Webb also wanted and built his new American style roundhouse (14 bays) for engine repairs and storage at Tailem Bend. He had electrified signalling from Adelaide to Tailem Bend to improve efficiency and speed of trains, especially goods trains through the Adelaide Hills and he moved train control to the despatch room at Tailem Bend. Although he was not in favour of it parliament did force him to build another Murray Mallee railway line from Wanbi to Yinkanie near Moorook in 1925. He was, however in favour of a line and bridge across the Murray River to Renmark and Barmera in 1927. As his operations moved from Murray Bridge he installed an electricity generator for the railways and for use by the town residents in 1927. This provide electricity until ETSA took over supply in 1957. Webb’s hub at Tailem Bend was also where train crews changed and slept over as necessary. This required barracks. Webb also built a new coaling station at Tailem Bend and moved administrative staff from Murray Bridge to the town. Webb did not forget about his workers despite the union opposition to him. He had already undertaken major building of railway workers cottages at stations around the state but at Tailem Bend he was able to create a rail and the new marshalling yards. The main streets included Webb Street and Railway Terrace and the railway siding that took Tailem Bend North students by train to Murray Bridge High School- Wurtun Station. Webb favoured good housing for railway workers as he said they were always being moved to new locations. Webb liked Greek Ionic columns and volutes which he used on the Adelaide Railway Station. The workers cottages in Tailem Bend also had Ionic volutes on their veranda posts and 25 had been partially built by the end of 1925. Houses were of similar design but there was a hierarchy and more skilled workers got bigger and slightly better houses. More railway houses were erected elsewhere in the town. The town population swelled from a couple of hundred residents to several thousand in a year or so. Today the Webb era housing remains, the roundhouse has been demolished but the turntable and some track remain and the marshalling yards are seldom used. The Art Nouveau railway station of 1914 is no longer used by railway passengers. It is the Information Centre and it also has an excellent railway museum. Conclusion and epilogue. Webb was a workaholic and only a passion driven man could have achieved so much in so few years. Within four years he had completed most of his transformations. Although he was disliked by the workers and unions, and criticised by the journalists and many politicians, those who worked closest with him were devoted and loyal followers and supporters. He kept in contact with his private secretary up to his death in 1936 as did his wife who maintained her Adelaide friendships through correspondence until her death in 1949. His impact on South Australia was tremendous. In the city we saw his Adelaide Railway station and at the Port Adelaide Rail Museum we saw some of his giant locomotives, his Brill rail cars from Philadelphia. We travelled on his duplicated rail track and tunnel/cuttings from Eden Hills to Belair and we saw his town of North Tailem Bend and his new rail bridge across the Murray River. But his legacy exactly one hundred years after he came to Adelaide can be seen in almost every railway town of South Australia. But trains and passenger services are non-existent. William Webb was criticised and vilified constantly yet he continued spending vast sums of money. By the time he left Adelaide the Great Depression had hit and payment on government loans to finance Webb’s transformation were hitting the government hard. The state was near bankruptcy. Some of the criticism of Webb were justified, perhaps he should have introduced the changes more slowly and cheaply but he did the job he was charged to do- transforming SAR and increasing potential railway revenue and saving the 1922 rail system from imminent collapse. It was not until troop and materials movement during World War Two became essential that the value of Webb’s transformation was fully appreciated. Although Webb thought about and toyed with the idea of diesel trains and the end of the steam era he did nothing about that as it was beyond his brief. After he left it was twenty years before new improvements were made in the 1950s – air conditioned Blue Bird trains for rural services, Red Hen diesel trains on suburban routes and eventually air conditioned modern carriages and sleeper cars on the Overland to Melbourne. It was serendipity that in 1935 Webb was appointed to lead the Texas Centennial Exposition of 1936. Texas declared its independence from Mexico in 1836 and won its independence. At the same time as Texas was planning centennial celebrations South Australia was planning its own 1936 centenary too. Webb was credited with organising and supervising the grand Texan event which was in chaos when he took it over. The exposition grounds were mud when he arrived and he travelled them by the only means possible – horse back. The work load was huge and Webb was not well. He worked long hours seven days a week. His doctor told him to slow down but he could not do that. By January 1936 he was clearly ill with heart disease and exhaustion and once the Exposition began in June he was working till two am some mornings. He took ill at home and was taken to hospital where he died on 9th August 1936. His wife and son Bill and his wife and children continued to live in Dallas Texas. Texas gave Webb a state funeral and he was buried in Dallas. The city of Dallas stopped in honour of William Webb and when news of his death reached Adelaide a month later the Advertiser printed a sympathetic obituary. |
| 撮影日 | 2022-03-16 13:35:02 |
| 撮影者 | denisbin |
| タグ | |
| 撮影地 | |
| カメラ | DSC-HX90V , SONY |
| 露出 | 0.001 sec (1/1250) |
| 開放F値 | f/3.5 |