Rails to Wealth: The Story of the Silverton Tramway Company 1886-1972

Description

A History of the Silverton Tramway Company Limited 'The Silverton Tramway Company was a rare bird; a privately funded and operated railway company. From 1886, the STC provided freight and shunting services to the Broken Hill area– the home of Australian mining. It also served the pastoralists in the West Darling, and the 35000 people of the region. The book provides an interpretation of the company from its inception as a wild-cat 3'6' gauge "hoop iron" railway linking Broken Hill to South Australian system, to its emergence as a fully integrated freight and passenger service. Across ten chapters, Rails to Wealth shows that the STC history is one of innovation in a difficult back-country operating environment, of successful private management of a utility, and of ever-increasing ore tonnages as Australian mining came of age.' The Silverton Tramway Company was a privately funded and operated railway company which began in the 1860s to provide shunting and freight services to the Broken Hill area and it developed into a fully integrated freight and passenger service when it linked Broken Hill to the South Australian railway system.