**** TRIGGER WARNING **** This post contains no V sets *****
Well, it is now nearly one month into 2026 and it has been a good month of watching weird and wonderful things wander around NSW's rails. If, 20 years ago, I had described some of the lash-ups I have seen (and others that I have missed) this month, you would be recommending a good 12 step program.
Here's a few sights from the month. Some have been taken by my young bloke, as I have slumped into senior camera assistant role due to general age and laziness. His shots were done with an iPhone 17. Unbelievable results for a phone camera.
Anyway, I started the year on Platform 1 at Junee Station. Actually, I was in bed by the time the new year arrived. But I did sit around while the youngster did some arty shots on his iPhone.
It was a lively New Year's Day. Triple QLs on an up steel left Harefield as we arrived.
I jumped a train home but the youngster traipsed over to Stockinbingal to find three MANs (MEN???) on a grain train. At least he wasn't trespassing when he took this photo.
Back in my neck of the woods, SSR's assumption of the Boral contract was just getting underway on 2 January. I have always thought that the CEY livery was pleasing.
Train loadings have been pretty reasonable for a January, including the SCT trains. Here is another offering from the fabulously refurbished Moss Vale footbridge.
I do leave the southern highlands sometimes. On 5 January I ventured to Sawyer Reserve in Hurlstone Park. When I lived there, someone unnamed would trim all vegetation obstructing this view. However, it seems that that activity ceased simultaneous with my departure from that suburb. Go figure that coincidence! Anyway, it was good to get a blurry snap of a CF heading the PHCs on 4190 up containers.
I also nipped up to the Blue Mountains where it was, err, nippy. And foggy and wet and atmospheric. And it was good to see another "foreign" unit on NSW rails... this time the GM loveliness of QR's 1741. It is well worth an afternoon.
Mid-month I was back in Goulburn. I have never lost a fascination for the industrial ugliness of MZs. I know, under that fluting, it is just an 81 class. but I judge a loco by its cover. And 1428's skin is disappearing into rusty gashes, so I was pleased to catch it before someone decides to hit it with the bog filler.
For most of this month, it has been a daily diet of variations on the following two combinations. I don't know which one is the most aesthetically pleasing, but both can raise the dead at 3:00am (my bed is about 80 metres from the main south - yes, I am a romantic devil).
Or this...
But with one day to go, my combination-of-the-month is one I discovered shunting Berrima Works on the 28th. Boy oh boy, these little Ts turn heads every time they hit Mossy!
So, I hope for many things for February 2026. Things like fewer sharks, no heatwaves, a bit more rain and the chance I may see a few Y classes teaming with their erstwhile Victorian colleagues on freights on the NSW southern highlands.
