This post is a little bit explanation, a bit reflection and
a small bit an advertisement/plea/community service announcement…
It has been a fair while since the last post. Most of my intervening hours have been
allocated to a flurry of home renovations as we prepare to sell our house in
Hurlstone Park. Its meant a lot of backyard time, which is usually a good thing
as we share a fence with the Metropolitan Goods Line. Unfortunately, I have
tended to have a hammer or a spade in hand, rather than a camera.
When we bought here I thought I would never leave… it has
always been a dream of mine to camp out beside the Metro Goods Line and this is
what I have been happily doing. It has taken 5 years but I now possess skills
every train hunter should have – like being able to tell an approaching Helga
just by its whine (don’t get me started on QBXs!). But for a whole bunch of
reasons (the compelling one is that we have bought a farm we couldn’t afford),
it is now time to leave.
But its been an interesting 5 years. We arrived only months
after the last of the 44s were withdrawn, so I moped for a couple of years
until they made a return in 2017. They
still wander past, but very occasionally.
The more modern Alcos seem to be increasing their presence
along the line, after a pretty lean period.
Their heyday was 2015, when 80/80 or 442/80 combos were seen regularly.
Darling, there is an Alco at the bottom of our garden.
The days of regular quad C classes rumbling the entire
suburb appear over, with their removal from the 1491/4190 container
service. Here’s close the last time that
triple Cs worked that service, taken from my ‘around the corner’ go-to
photography spot – the Melford Street overpass.
While not as rumblingly authoritarian as the C class, even as
recently as this week the locals could not help but be impressed by a solitary
G. I fluffed the shot so here is an earlier
one from September 2016.
Five years is a pretty short period, but even in that time
some interlopers have arrived and left.
Aurizon, for one.
Then there are the regulars… working from home over the last
year has meant that my day is timed by the Fletchers train (8148) around breakfast,
a Helga at 10:30, Carrot and Spud on the Crawfords service by 2pm and an 81 on
a cementy around dusk. And lots of others in between of course (usually about
20 in daylight hours). But here’s a few
shots of my regular friends…
Its not the worst way to live a life! One I am particularly
fond of runs most days, in the afternoon.
It is of course the littlest Alco in the village off to deposit or
collect an XPT car or two.
At the risk of sounding too much like a sell-job, one of the
nicest things about this area is that someone who shares our interest also
worked on the local council. As a result
of his/her intervention, there is a lovely park at the end of our street where I
can sit on a bench overlooking the Foord Avenue underpass (technically doing,
ahem, work). Here’s a couple of recent shots of this location.
Anyway, you have heard enough of my extolling the virtues of
my locale. It will be a big wrench to leave when we have to, and now the renovations
are over there will be more sitting in the garden/park or at the local bridge,
snapping the local wildlife.
If you are still reading this and know of anyone who
appreciates the sound of an Alco in the morning, information about our house
sale is available from this link, or just drop me a note in the comments under
this post.
I am serious – I am just plain sick of my real estate agent telling me
there are people in this world who think that living next to the Metro Goods
Line is a detraction. I would very much like to prove him wrong by selling this
home to someone who appreciates rail traffic as much as we all do (should!).
Let’s show him and all these uninformed people that sharing a back fence with
the NSW Railways is a joy! In fact, even if you don’t want to buy the house,
please just ring him anyway and let him know just how mistaken he is!
Who doesn’t want a chance to wave to the driver on 8037?
Cheers,
Don
