Friday, September 26, 2014

Epic fail at Waterfall

Time for a whimsical look at Waterfall, to give those IMRA folk something new to model...

There are many definitions of failure, and I have invented a few myself.  Here are a few at Waterfall.

First up, 3526 disgraced itself at Waterfall en route to Wollongong in the early 1970s.  I was pretty young and impressionable at the time, and was deeply affected by an RTM tour train arriving in Wollongong with a diesel at the front end.  But enough about me, Waterfall yard held the Nanny captive for a few days until it was towed back to Enfield.


Here's an epic fail of another dimension. Taken on the night of fires in the Royal National Park (with tragic loss of life) around 1979, it is less a photo about trains and more a photo about life's struggle in Australia.


Back to the rails.... the prosaic Metro coal scored a newly repainted 48119 at Waterfall in 1993 after the original combination of 4842 and 4839 couldn't do the job.



I think the failure in the following photograph will become evident in the next decade. As the Aussie dollar drops back to usual levels and world oil prices creep up again, we may be well be ruing the decision not to invest more heavily in electric freight traction.


Next one is an epic fail on my part - I actually drove to Waterfall in the early 1980s to photograph a V set on its trial.  Then, for the next 30 years, V sets ran through Waterfall about 50 times a day, every day.


Another loco is down... this time its 2005 and GM42 expired when on ARG's Manildra flour train. So it got a visit to the outer reaches of Waterfall's yard.

And finally an epic fail.  A shunting accident in 1995 left a substantially shortened version of a suburban carriage, so what was left was parked on the turntable, as one does.


So, Waterfall seems to be a harsh place. 

Ciao!






4 comments:

  1. Some good memories there Don. I also remember the long lines of condemned K and UT trucks in the yard. I guess it would have been early 1970's?

    Cheers,
    Rob

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Rob,

    That is pretty interesting - never thought of Waterfall as anything more than a transit lounge. Were they parked on the western side of the yard?

    Cheers,

    Don

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  3. Hi Don,
    Yes, they were on the western side of the yard. Coincidently, I just bought Byways of Steam 30 which has an article on British Australian Oil Company tank Cars and has a couple of shots of a condemned tanker at Waterfall!! The caption says that the tanker was amongst many out of service vehicles stored there in the late 1960's and early'70's so my memory was close.

    Cheers,
    Rob

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  4. Rob, thanks for this - its just another example of how life is stranger than modelling! its also a great article. DOn

    ReplyDelete