About three and a half years ago I posted a solitary shot of 2535 in its guise as shunter at Bulli Colliery. For a vintage steam loco that operated well into the 1970s we have very few shots but I did manage to scrape a few more together from the virtual family album. One of these shots dates from the early to mid-60s owing to the youthful parlance of on of my uncles, captured in the cab. The remainder are definitely close to the end of its working life. So, if you want to read more, go to: http://nswrailrambler.blogspot.com.au/2012/02/2535-celerates-anniversary.html If you want to just relive a few more memories, just scroll down...
Never really thought much about how many steam-era items of rolling stock survived in one guise or another. Perhaps one of the most inglorious re-uses was taking the tenders from glorious and powerful freight locomotive and using them as storage tanks. I probably walked past more than I photographed for this very reason, but a few were captured. Taree had5707's tender hoisted up onto concrete plinths when we popped by in January 1980.
In 1982 revered father and I did a 'there and back in a day' XPT trip to Dubbo. We saw this next one on the way into Dubbo and snapped it on the way out, through the carriage window. This one has always had me stumped - the tank has been butchered but I think its a turret tender. The painted number suggests 5340 or 5440, but underneath this is a fainter series of numbers ending possibly with a 3. In official terms, it was L454.
One that lasted well into the 21st century and may still be there is the tender of 5808 - at least I remember reading this somewhere as being the tender of 5808.
For the hell of it, this is what they were supposed to be... 5711's tender at Enfield in the early 1970s, sans loco.
And that's about it from 'the collection' - there may be others in there but I never coded them as such so they'll remain in obscurity for a while longer. Thought I would finish with a couple of shots of Dubbo's semi-famous 57 class boiler, come sanding tower.
Just fiddling around with photos on a lazy Saturday afternoon, looking back at what once rolled along the Metro Goods line in Sydney. In the early 2000s I spent a fair amount of time on Canterbury station platform - these were 'days out' with the young fella or 'lunchtimes' taken while commuting between offices for work.
I was there to get photos of DLs and GMs and even Austrac's 1872 and 1873. Instead I seemed to get a lot of 80s, blue 80s, and I am fairly glad I did now. So here is a selection of 13 blue 80s in ascending number order from 2001 - all bar two of them are at Canterbury.
8005 - light engine, 16 August 2001.
8011, mill wheat, 22 January 2001.
8015, mill wheat, 23 April 2001.
8017, mill wheat, 11 April 2001.
8021, empty trip container train, 15 November 2001.
Intermission from Canterbury - 8025 in town on the suburban ramp up to Central, 5 August 2001.
8031, Cooks River, 16 November 2001.
Back to Canterbury - 8033, 5 October 2001.
8039, up mill wheat, 15 November 2001.
8040, spoil train, 16 August 2001. being led by 48116).
8045 on a trip container train on 22 January 2001.
8047, light engine, 9 October 2001.
And to finish with the baby of the class, 8050, on containers on 2 October 2001.
7301 entered service on 5 October 1970. That makes this week the 45th birthday for 73s so they too must be in the 'venerable' category of locomotive. 'Classic' and 'vintage' are only a matter of five years away. Anyway, its a chance to put a few more shots into the ether so let's get at them.
The first few a scans from slides taken in the 1970s so they are a bit blurry around the edges but they are worth including, like this one of 7319 on a transfer in the Newcastle area with a shunter's wagon and a CHG.
This next one is from May 1975 and has a 73 trundling across the Peel River viaduct at Tamworth.
Heading out west, this could only be Dubbo with the sanding tower in the foreground. Also worth noting the S truck. Dubbo still had a couple of these until a couple of years ago.
Roll forward to 1984 and the 40th and 41st editions of the class were stowed at Thirroul between overhead wiring train duties.
I hope the cold seeps through this photograph of 7316. Its Goulburn in July 1984. Amazed I got out of the car.
Its warmer again. This time its back to Newcastle for 7335 on another transfer through Broadmeadow on 26 November 1986.
At nearly the same location four years later 7334 and 7337 head south.
I'll only post one '73s at Central' shot as I did an entire blog of them in 2011 (http://nswrailrambler.blogspot.com.au/2011/10/chasing-73s.html). This one is from the end of 1983.
Now to the end of their government service life - 7311 and 7313 rest at Port Kembla on 16 June 1990.
7334 served out its last part of Government life at Lithgow depot. Here it is in March 1995 wearing its unique livery.
So now its time for the birthday girl - 7301. Here she is at Canterbury in 2002.
And here is a short video of her shunting a XPT set at Central in November 1992.
