Operation Railway Education

Operation Railway Education Operation Railway Education (ORE) is Australia’s newest rail safety initiative.

26/08/2026

There’s something pretty surreal about looking back at what you wanted to be when you grew up… and realising you’re actually living it.

Being a train driver and getting to educate communities about rail safety across Australia is something that little girl in the cab could never have imagined.

I just want people to feel okay around trains. To understand them. To make better decisions when they’re at a crossing, because knowledge is the difference between a close call and a tragedy.

This is only the beginning.

What did you want to be when you grew up? Drop it below!

25/08/2026

Have you heard about the unicorn train in Australia? 🦄🚂

Most trains use air brakes, where reducing pressure in the brake pipe signals every wagon to stop. This is why trains take a long time to stop.

But this train is different.

This train has ECP braking, aka Electronically Controlled Pneumatic braking. The brakes are still powered by air, but instead of waiting for a pressure drop to travel the length of the train, an electronic signal tells the braking system that it needs to apply the brakes to every wagon simultaneously.

It’s rare. It’s impressive. And it stops faster than a standard train.

Here’s the catch though.

You cannot tell from the outside whether a train has ECP braking or not. There’s no sign. No indicator. Nothing visible at a crossing that tells you which system that train is running.

That’s why you ALWAYS assume a train takes 2km to stop. Every single time.

Don’t risk it at a crossing. Not for ECP. Not for any train. Not for the unicorn train.

If you want to learn more from a real life Aussie train driver, make sure you like and follow us!

24/08/2026

Not all trains are doing the same job!

Here are a few of the different trains you might see around our part of Australia:

- Mineral trains
Transport iron ore from Wirrida (a hub for local mines) to Whyalla.

- Freight trains
Carry general freight across huge distances, connecting cities like Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide with Perth and Darwin.

- Resources & products trains
Carry resources and supplies for mining operations, between Adelaide and Pimba.

And the last one? Technically, it isn’t a train!
It’s a locomotive or “loco”, the engine that provides the power to move the train.

Same railway. Very different jobs!

Which one did you learn something new about?

A huge thank you to the organisations supporting our Buy a Book Initiative! The idea behind this initiative is simple: g...
21/08/2026

A huge thank you to the organisations supporting our Buy a Book Initiative!

The idea behind this initiative is simple: get a book into every child’s hands in Australia.

Through the Buy a Book Initiative, organisations can purchase copies of The Adventures of the Travellers Crew: The Safest Way to Cross the Tracks to:

- Distribute throughout their workplace and show their commitment to safety, or
- Donate them back to ORE so we can place them directly into the hands of children during our school, kindy and childcare presentations.

We are incredibly grateful to our current partners:

🚛 Tommie the Truck Partners
Progress Rail
Pacific National

🚗 Carrie the Car Partners
Australian Rail Track Corporation (ARTC)
Port Augusta City Council

Every organisation that purchases this book is helping us move them from a box in my house to somewhere they can actually make a difference.

The more books we get out there, the more children, families and workers we can reach and that is exactly why we created them in the first place.

Thank you to Progress Rail, Pacific National, ARTC and Port Augusta City Council for believing in what we are building and helping us put rail and road safety education where it belongs: in the community.

An educated community is a safer community.

Book Week is next week!Still looking for a costume idea? Why not dress up as one of your little ones new favourite book,...
20/08/2026

Book Week is next week!

Still looking for a costume idea? Why not dress up as one of your little ones new favourite book, The Adventures of the Travellers Crew?

🚂 Telly the Train
🚛 Tommie the Truck
🚗 Carrie the Car
👷 Bob the Boss
⭐ Or bonus character… Telly the Train Driver!

We’ve put together a few fun ideas to help get you started, from full cardboard creations to super simple outfits you can pull together at home.

And if you do dress up as one of the crew, PLEASE tag us! We would absolutely love to see the making process and the finished costume.

And yes… grown-ups can join in too 😂

Tag in your Book Week photos so we can share the Travellers Crew love!

All the images of the costume ideas are made with Ai.

19/08/2026

Just another reason why a train can take 2,000m to stop!

This trains brakes are operated by air.

A brake pipe runs the full length of the train, remembering a freight train can be up to 1.8kms long.

That pipe is kept at a constant air pressure while we’re moving. When I apply the brakes, I reduce the air pressure in that pipe. That pressure drop travels all the way to the end of the train, signalling to every single wagon that it needs to apply its brakes.

The longer the train, the longer that takes.

That’s just one of the reasons a freight train can take up to 2kms to stop.

A huge thank you to everyone who helped make our first National Rail Safety Week possible. This week simply would not ha...
18/08/2026

A huge thank you to everyone who helped make our first National Rail Safety Week possible.

This week simply would not have happened without the support of some incredible organisations, businesses and people who backed what Operation Railway Education is trying to achieve.

A massive thank you to:

- Pacific National for donating 90 books for us to give out to every school during our school presentations.

- Northern First Aid for supplying us with a large first aid kit to help keep our events safe.

- Bunnings Warehouse Australia Port Augusta for organising and running our activities corner.

- Eddie Hughes MP for providing financial support towards the week.

- Port Augusta Model Engineers Society for allowing us to use their venue for our free community event.

- Discovery Parks & Resorts Port Augusta for welcoming our Tracks & Travellers program and allowing us to use their venue.

- OTR Port Augusta for hosting Coffee with a Truckie and providing free coffees to the people we spoke with.

And a huge thank you to the wonderful vendors who helped make our community event such a fun morning:

- Completely Toddled
- Elaine Ladesman
- Corral Coffee and Catering
- Bebe’s Bikkies

We were also incredibly lucky to have some very special guests join us.

Thank you to Deputy Mayor Phillip Brown Port Augusta City Council for supporting what we are building here in Port Augusta, and to Trucking with CJ for travelling to join us, sharing her experience and helping us show that road safety and rail safety go hand in hand.

To every organisation, business, volunteer, vendor and person who said yes to us, thank you.

ORE may have organised the week, but it took a community to bring it to life.

An educated community is a safer community. 🧡

📸 Bri Grantham, Cate Dunneman & Abbey Renshaw

That’s a wrap for Operation Railway Education’s first National Rail Safety Week! I think we can call it a success, with ...
16/08/2026

That’s a wrap for Operation Railway Education’s first National Rail Safety Week!

I think we can call it a success, with over 16 school, kindy and childcare presentations, a caravan park and servo station visit, plus multiple media interviews.

We can’t wait to crunch the numbers and write our reports to find out just how big our reach was in just 6 days!

A HUGE thank you to our sponsors, vendors, special guests, venue, schools, Port Augusta community and my incredible family who have been a huge help this past week! We couldn’t have done it without you!

This is just the beginning!

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Port Augusta, SA

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