Can someone tell me why East Fork exists when it is only a few hundred metres from Orange Station? Why not allow Parkes bound trains to head through Orange station and loop around over the top of Orange rejoining the so-called branch line? The topography looks flat out Amaroo way. I know the western line came first, but why call a line that is longer than the western line, a branch line? That line goes all the way out to the rest of Australia ... the longest line you can ever be on.... While it is easy for an XPL to backtrack to East Fork, the IP is another story and shouldn't such a train be able to stop at Orange station, if needed? When the new CAF trains hit the rails, they too will need to backtrack if going out to Broken Hill.