But now, to bust the myth that coal on the Coast meant double 48s (though 99% of the time from 1964 to 1994 it did!), here goes with a smattering of battered and torn slides and prints of (mainly) other types of diesels hauling the black diamond.
Before 48s there were 70s.. and in the early 1960s 7001 and 7009 got to tread the mainline with one such service.
Then this was no doubt a complete surprise - a trialling 49 and the class leader no less. No wonder the shot is framed crookedly. Thought to be around September 1963.
The late 1970s was not a period of high fashion in Wollongong. If there was colour in anything, it was likely to be the wrong hue. This partially explains the colour combination in the next train, led by double BHP D class locos. Just why anyone would bother painting a CHS coal wagon in gloss is beyond me. It looks rather dandy in the afternoon sun.
Sorry if you got the idea that this would be a 48 free zone. Here's a couple, with 4847 leading 48159 in the first shot and two 48s on the Coalcliff coalie in the second. Both are morning shots from 1980 or so, which suggests that I was too scared of the bull in the paddock on the sunny side to cross the lines (using the underpass at the creek of course) with my then-new Practika camera.
It wasn't all double 48s. Sometimes a mainlner would be conscripted - such as on this evening in 1980ish when 4419 got the 2nd loco job.
Around the 1980s a series of terrific NSW rail photography books emerged, like Units in Focus. Cracking photography by real pros with serious lenses. They all told stories of big lash-ups, even quad workings over the Liverpool Ranges. Stuff almost unheard of on the Coast on those days and now, of course, routine to the point of mundane.
The closest we seemed to get to the big locos in the Illawarra was on weekends, when some serious coalies ran in from the west on Sunday afternoons - at least that is when I saw them. So here are three, and the first is triple 80s - 41, 23 and 34on a down coal headed to the Inner Harbour.
Next up is another all-Alco offering - this time an 80 and a 44 lead 44212 back to the big smoke.
And the third offering from that period involes 8027, 8016 and 8032. I have great memories of these trains passing, as they usually were working up into the higher notches. Whereas 48s burbled along, these mainliners made time.
By the late 1980s we were into well into the candy era. Just didn't sit well at the front of a coal train, as shown by these double 81s.
While things then got fairly boring for a while, by the 1990s variety crept into loco workings once more. On 9 May 1993 I managed to get 8027 leading 42204, 8148 and 8182 northward on a coal.
And finally, near to times present. These days its a steady diet of 82s - believe me, they rumble past my residence with alarming frequency. One coal working I have yet to mention is the Metro Colliery working - usually with a 82 top and tail these days. On the 14th day of 2005 8257 one on the end of one such service... Someone needed to do a spot of mowing by then - its starting to interfere with the photography!
Ciao!
Hi there. You mentioned the CHS coal hoppers but what other coal hoppers were used on the line? And was it the usual case that BHP locos could haul both NSWR wagons as well as the BHP coal wagons? Or was that Coalcliff photo with the D's and CHS hoppers an oddity? Many thanks. Regards, Brad
ReplyDeleteHi Brad,
ReplyDeleteI am certainly no expert on Illawarra coal train composition, but here goes. When the AIS/BHP locos were on hire to the NSW Railways, I recall them doing only the short trip workings, to Bulli and Coal Cliff etc. So they seemed to be confined to CHSs, or their own company's BLXAs. I do recall seeing CH hoppers on the coast but, as usual, seem not to have a photo of their working. Others will be able to correct me but I seem to recall 18 CHSs, plus a van, was the load for double 48s. For a fair while the Coal Cliff trains ran with two vans, one at each end.
The BHP locos ran the coke trains frequently. As I was at school at the time I really only got to see the 4pm - 6pm workings, which often included a coke train composed of ELX, BDX open wagons. The best thing about the Ds was their sound - quite distinct. And they made 48s look like racehorses. The double Ds really struggled to get up the hill into Wollongong.
On weekends in the mid-1970s you could get the mainliners on western coal, particularly if Rozelle was booked out. This meant double or even triple headed 442s, 44s, 45s or later, 80s. It was rare to get a GM on the coast in the 1970s. The Alcos also ran rakes of CHS wagons, as well as the more modern NHFF wagons (the ones with the end shelters curved/bent across the wagon - classy description, eh?).
This may not have helped you much but there are a couple of experts around. Peter Attenborough's book - Coals to the Illawarra - is a cracker. Well worth the 40 quid if you havent seen it. And Roger Renton did a three part series in Motive Power. The only installment I have available at the moment is Part 3, which appeared in edition 30. It covers a bit after 1970s as well.
Thanks for reading my blog, and taking the time to comment.
Cheers,
Don