Lithgow - 1964

 Just found a couple of snaps Dad took of Lithgow in 1964.  Sorry, can't be any more specific about when and why.  I just love the shot of 3227 and the Garratt.

A lucky find

Through the generous efforts of my mate, Mad Dog, I have received a collection of photographs from the mid 1950s.  These photographs appear to have been taken by a member of the Australian Railway Historical Society, who could have been a Mr Ian Brady.  

I am probably never going to find out how these photos went out of Mr Brady's possession (or his family's possession) and into mine, but I will be eternally grateful for the diligence and awareness that Mad Dog showed in snaffling these packets for photos at Rozelle Markets a couple of months ago. If any one knows more about Mr Brady or these photos, I would appreciate comments on this post.

Anyway, Mad Dog sent me the following photo a couple of months ago out of the blue.  It shows 3501 at Zig Zag at the head of the 1954 ARHS Annual Outing - as rail tours were called in those days.

Its funny what the brain stores away.  It took about 10 minutes to discover nearly the identical photograph leading the January 1955 ARHS Bulletin, with the credit going to Ian Brady. 

It was only yesterday when I got the full batch of photos (which I will paste here in due course and over on my Flickr page (Don5617) that it we were able to confirm that there shots were from the same person.  

So, I never met you Mr Ian Brady but you were a fine photographer and, as the following and other posts will show, had a sense of getting into the right spot to get something a bit special. I have started scanning a few in low res, as its the scanner most accessible at the moment. At some stage I will re-scan them to the level they deserve.  

So, lets have a look at just a few more from that day - which was 14 November 1954, incidentally. Sneaking a shot from platform 16 at the start of the day caught the sunny side of the loco, along with the crew setting up the headboard.

 I think this next shot is taking water at Lawson. The report in the Bulletin lists this as the location where this occurred. The Bulletin noted that the train did not stop at Valley Heights for an assistant engine which meant the Nanny 'put her back into it' on the climb up the Hill.

Leaning out of the carriage, Mr Brady almost pulls off a ripper of a 58 at the landmark - near Katoomba.

And leaving Katoomba, headed west. Apologies for the wonky scan.

Then at Zig Zag where the tour stopped for a 2 hour picnic.

The loco worked into Lithgow for a spin on the table.

It wasn't all 3501 - 2608 got snapped.

Double standard goods locos worked east with a fast goods.

Then the last shots of the day from the Zig Zag where the train is approaching to collect the 207 happy picnickers.

The Bulletin article finishes with a full half page of thank yous, as outings in those days were run with the full co-operation and grace of the railway administration. I am going to conclude in a similar vein.  Thank you, Mr Ian Brady, for your efforts nearly 63 years ago. And thank you Mad Dog for being on the spot and thinking of your railway nut mate.

Many more great shots to come!

Cheers,
Don

In the act of shunting

I head to work for another year tomorrow and over the next 50 weeks I'll do a lot of shunting - of paper, from one side of the desk to the next. Slightly more interesting is the shunting of railway carriages and wagons. Slightly more dangrous too.

Anyway, I have posted quite a few shots of steam locos going about their shunting duties over the years.  Here's a few more to add to the collection.

Lets take Bathurst as the location - here's someone who looks to be happy shunting in a broody hen. Just love those marker lamps!

And here's 3112 going about shunting in the final years of steam.
 

Shunting Bathurst seemed to save your skin as a steam loco (or boiler cladding I suppose) - here's the RTM's 5910 at a location thought to be Bathurst.

While a little on the backlit side, 5427 needs to be included for the fluffy clouds and the fingerprint on the slide!
 

To complete the Bathurst shunters, here's 5212 on its way somewhere down or up the yard.

Enjoy your year at work!

Cheers,
Don

Rusty town - Enfield in the 60s

As diversification is the spice of life, I thought I would shift focus away from the Illawarra for a post or two, to return to the city.  Actually, I was at Enfield just yesterday and I came across L 282 in the grass.  It’s a little beauty, silently rusting away. 

At least when the oxidisation process is complete the remaining bits can be tossed into the adjacent skip.

The pathos of seeing a 4 wheeler in the dirt reminded me of when Enfield was equal parts wonderment and decay for this writer, when in his formative years.  So prior to diving into a few closer-up shots here’s a few sights from Wentworth Street Enfield in the Sixties.

Starting off on the bank at Enfield in 1963, it was still possible to see a row of stored 57s and 58s. On the adjacent row, 3376, 3094 and a 19 obscure the view. And yes, the photo has deteriorated but it was always really smokey in these parts.

The next two shots are from 1965, looking towards #3 roundhouse.  It is still a working steam loco depot at this time as evidenced by the 60 class in steam in the background.  Two tank engines feature in the foreground of these photographs – in the first it is 3039 and in the next its 3116. Antiquities lurk throughout these shots – a 19 and a 24 sit to the north of 3116 while the 30T in the foreground has towed a 16 class tender.

 

The next photograph is also from the middle of the decade.  In it 5345 and 3334 sit in front of a 30, a 26, a 36 and a 30T. 

The next photograph moves into the second half of the decade.  Coal is still king, although its delivered in 19^th century thimbles which share a heritage to the L wagon mentioned at the top of this post. A plethora of standard goods class tenders sit ready for scrapping, to follow their locos.  Ominously, there are two orphan 38 class tenders around the turntable. Keen-eyed viewers will note two 35 class locos, apparently in working order in this shot.  I suspect they are 3526 on the left, and 3501 in the centre.  Around this time these two locos ran a couple of RTM tours.  The other candidates – 3531 and 3532 – were housed at Broadmeadow.  The splash of colour in this shot is that of 3830.

The next and final shot was taken in the late 1960s or even as late as the early 1970s.  There is no sign of steam; just the relics of the age of steam. Garratts are lined up for scrapping alongside standard goods locos and branchliners. Rust colours the afternoon. Not a bad place to stop this post...

 

RIP - Reid's Hill loco depot - 50 years ago this month

Time for another blog post - I just lurve being on holidays; gives you so much more time for the important things in life.

Continuing with the theme in recent postings of steam on the south coast, I thought I would show a few snaps of the former Reid's Hill locomotive depot operated by the Public Works Department of NSW, which had responsibility for shunting Port Kembla's wharves and undertaking breakwater maintenance for the first half of the 20th century. This responsibility was assumed by the NSW Government Railways (NSWGR) in 1949, and to their credit largely kept these operations separate from mainstream railway operations until the early 1960s.

The Public Works Department had purchased or somehow procured a motley collection of former NSWGR steam locomotives over the years, augmented by several locos obtained in its own right.  I will stand corrected, but all were tank locomotives with short wheelbases - the latter aspect was needed to negotiate tight radius curves around the Port Kembla waterfront.  As an example of this, in 1940 the NSWGR had sold tank locomotive 2002 to Public Works for a princely ₤800.  It became PWD 80 and was sent to the Illawarra for work on the wharves.

This post is not going to be able to deal with operations at Reid's Hill, as I have next to no knowledge about such things. I can however relay a little information about the demise of the depot and its occupants, which will be shown to be somewhat timely and relevant to my earlier posts on North Wollongong.  Before I go further please note that I will suspend my usual abhorrence for acronyms to use the moniker ‘PWD’ throughout this posting in reference to the Public Works Department.

Reid’s Hill locomotive depot was closed 50 years ago this month, after the dieselisation of Port Kembla’s wharves was completed by the allocation of all ten members of the 70 class to the NSWGR’s nearby Port Kembla locomotive depot.  While I have no shots of 70s on the wharves, as this blog is supposed to include photographs here is a location shot of double 70s doing their stuff in Port Kembla yard around 1980.

While Reid’s Hill depot closed in January 1964, its occupants had been leaving town well before then.  PWD 30 and PWD 78 had been scraped on site in September 1955, while PWD 27 suffered the same fate in 1961.  Luckier was PWD No. 29, which moved from Port Kembla to Enfield to become Garratt shed shunter in June 1961.

In September 1963 PWD No. 79 stored at Thirroul depot, having been donated to the NSW Rail Transport Museum.  Thirteen months later it was towed to Enfield by 5593 to commence life as a very special museum exhibit. By 1982 it could be found safely undercover at Thirlmere with its big cousin Bronzewing, and it remains at this location to the current time.

While 70 classes had assumed an increasing load of shunting duties throughout the second half of 1963, steam did not subside until the very end of that year.  On 29 December 1963, PWD 28 had the honour of being the last steam to operate a shift on the wharves.  ‘Kembla’ as it was known, disgraced itself by failing mid-shift.   

The family photograph collection does have a few shots around Reid’s Hill.  First up is a sadly scarred photo of 1076 in situ, still worth publishing in its reduced condition due to its content.  

In its last days Reid’s Hill had a fair representation of 26 class locomotives.  Here 2619 and 2612 bask outside the shed.

As a sort of a postscript, there was some steam action at Reid's Hill after the depot’s closure.  Sadly it only involved the scrapping of PWD No. 34 on-site in June 1964.

And now to the link to North Wollongong.  According to the Railway Digest, on the second day of 1964 – 50 years ago this week - 2001, 2609 & PWD No. 28 were moved from Reid’s Hill to storage at Thirroul depot.  I think that the following photograph, taken from the back door of my grandparent’s home captures part of this working.  2609 probably worked north under its own power or as part of a regular goods working, but it was necessary for PWD No. 28 to be towed to storage following its failure four days earlier.  So, unless contradictory information comes to light, I think this is 2001 towing PWD No. 28 to Thirroul on 2 January 1964.

Bathurst, the prequel...

In October 2012 I posted a shots on this blog around Bathurst in the diesel era. Today's posting shifts the form of locomotion from diesel to steam.  

Here is a small selection of shots taken mainly by the Senior Train Hunter and your scribe from the last years of steam through to the present.

Lets start with a typical shunting scene, being 2606 rumbling around the yard.

Then its across to the loco shed for a mikado, believed to be 5914 or more likely, 5910.

Staying at the depot, this time it is a very grubby 3112.

And coming right forward in time to 1994, here is the incomparable 3801 being watered in the east dock on its return from Dubbo.

And now its time to show a selection of shots of 5112, the loco which has made its home in the Carillon City. First up it is stored at the station in 1975, having been rescued for preservation.

Then someone from the Council got to it with some cheap garish paint. To their credit, it was put undercover.

And now as it is today, in a magnificent shed and having undergone a very comprehensive and flattering cosmetic restoration.

The rather amazing thing about this range of photos is that, if it really is 5910, then everyone of the locos shown have survived in preservation to this day. It seems visiting Bathurst may be good for your longevity!

To finish up, here is 5917 in preservation at Bathurst in the early 1980s.