Reminiscing about the near past

When thinking about blog posts I always seem to be reaching for the file folder called '1966' or '1978'.  Sure, these were golden periods of the NSW railways, although 1978 was more brown than golden.

There has been another golden period since in my usually ill-considered opinion - from about 1998 to 2007.  So, lets wind back the clock a mere 15 years, to 1 May 2006.  It was during a period that I had many reasons to visit Canterbury, Dullo and Marrickville - almost all associated with work.  Now I am out of things I can confess to writing many a government brief on the seats at Canterbury station, stopping only to snap the passing traffic. And we think working away from the office is a new thing! Anyway, on 1 May 2006 the youngster and I snaffled many trains - here are six...

The day started with a tidy trippy led by 4483 and 4471. 

.. quickly followed by 2203 and two CLPs headed for the Illawarra... I stuffed the going away shot (at least the 422 is in focus)...

Jumping down the line to Marrick Vegas we scored 44208 and KL81 top and tailing a container train out of Port Botany....

Out of the XPT depot, 4833 did what it does best... smoke.

Just over the weeds, GL105, 4903 and EL51 arrived from points west/north.

And then 4708 and 4458 arrived... 

Ho hum... more Alcos... stuffed the arriving but not the going away shot... 4503 in its Big Red Tomato livery with a more sedate liveried 4468.

That was six trains, but the bonus seventh train involved 4701 and two dilapidated GMs.

I have just managed this entire blog without posted a PacNat blue loco, demonstrating it was a golden era indeed!

Cheers,

Don

Up the Creek

Hi all, I am still around!

Promise to get back into things as the weather turns colder, especially if Souths start losing a few.

I have coincidentally come across a real live reader of this blog - sorry if I sound surprised  but my main readership appears to come from regions of the former Soviet Union.

This 'live' reader mentioned he most enjoyed the stuff from up north so, Brendan, these are for you mate!

The back story here is that around 1982 (could have been earlier) Dad shot off for a few days with two mates.  When they got to Werris Creek they asked permission to photograph the locos.  They were given the okay to do so as long as they didn't move any of the locos around.. Turns out a group of visiting photographers several weeks earlier have 're-positioned' the locos to enhance their photographs.  Cheeky buggers!

Cheers,

Don

Barraba, a morning's jaunt.

** Read Bolivia's most excellent comment below - never trust your memory, or that of your father's! ***

According to its own website, Barraba 'is a lovely little country town filled with character and friendly people... and is very proud of its history'.

This series of photos is largely due to a very friendly driver, who allowed a couple of middle-aged rail nuts to shoot out the front of his conveyance during the 55 kilometre journey from Tamworth to Barraba and return one cool winter morning in either 1976 or 1977 (a family debate rages on the timing of this trip).

It is agreed that this journey was undertaken as part of a Nurail excursion. For those under 40 years of age, a Nurail ticket in the 1970s and 1980s permitted the holder near-unlimited travel across the NSW rail & bus network for a relatively modest fee.  It was, in any terms, a bargain. And our Photographer sure knows bargains.

Turning first to the steed - HPC402 - humming away in the dock at Tamworth.  I suspect this photograph was taken after the trip to Barraba as the early morning sun is absent.

Here is the evidence of the driver's acquiescence to the art of railway photography. First, the West Tamworth viaduct.

And this is, I think, the rail bridge over Barraba Creek.  Google Maps suggests that it is still in place at the time of writing in 2020.

Happy to be corrected - bridge recognition is not a forte.

And to Barraba itself...

There was a reason for Barraba's branchline - a mine.  4861 was caught posing at the head of a short train with its containerised product.

I am pretty sure I have posted this photograph previously, but I have fiddled with it a bit to get more light onto the side of the train.

Cheers,

Don

Here are a few more from the lens of Phil Clarke's camera, all shot around the Illawarra on two separate days in the early 1980s.

First up, 48132 on the up 3pm passenger through Bellambi on 19 November 1982.

Around the same time a 2 car diesel set strolled through.

4888 on a down passenger at Scarborough in September 1983.

Then 4445 on an up passenger passing Scarborough box

Until next time!
Don

The innocence & incompetence of youth

In 1978 I was an accomplished photographer, or so I thought. I was also a teenager and so I couldn't be told anything. Or maybe I just didn't understand the complexities offset viewfinders... anyway, that situation explains the following shots.

We had been advised that the rolling stock for the workers trains was to be 'upgraded', which we took to mean that the pre-WWII carriages were to be withdrawn. We had managed to basically get no photos of their predecessors (the FO sets) prior to their withdrawal earlier that decade so we weren't going to be caught out again. This time we grabbed the trusty Agfa instamatic and headed down to North Wollongong station one sunny afternoon.

Norff Gong (as pronounced by those in the know) is best for up trains in the afternoon, and I think I may have already posted this first one of 4825 previously. It hints at what is to come - as the loco just squeezes into the left of the frame (buffers don't count).

Down trains were a bit tricky as they would burst out from under the road bridge adjacent to the Mount Pleasant Signal Box at full speed, and really only hit their anchors on the final approach to the platform. We weren't so hung up about SPADs in the 70s. This meant a bit of a scramble out of the Datsun 180B if you weren't paying attention.  But one of us was paying attention when 4870 cruised into town.

As film was expensive, this was the last of the down trains photographed that afternoon. We also seemed reluctant to photograph anything other than 48s on workers trains - goodness knows what pearls we let slip by.

Anyway, back to offset viewfinders.  The following shots aren's entirely attributable to Agfa's design department. I had been warned, but I had also been told to get close in on the train as we wanted shots of the carriages. Well, as 4892, 4856 and 4828 worked their trains though, I snapped away... 90% of a train is still a train?  Here they are for posterity.

So, you can bet there was a bit of an inquest when this roll of film came back from the developers. I still wince when I see them, 40 years later.

And if it was bad enough, we did hang around for one last shot.  We were hoping for five railmotors headed to Waterfall.  Instead we got three - or rather, 2.9.

Thanks for hanging around, too.  Will return with some of the Senor Train Hunter's blurred shots in my next post, as we work hard to maintain low publishing standards.

Cheers,
Don

Over the fence

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

Parkes, 2008

I have just realised I am closing in on 200 blog posts and I haven't given due time to the recent past. Here, to redress this imbalance somewhat, is a few shots taken 10 years ago around Parkes. In most cases, these photos (however imperfect) are just as historic now as shots taken 40 or 50 years ago.

A decade ago, T383 had just received a fresh coat of paint and looked particularly spruce.

Parked alongside, 48s36 looked sturdily weather-worn.

48s37 was a little further off, resting on shop bogies.

The third of the Silverton 48s/830s present - 48s32 - was best captured by Junior in the evening.

Moving from yellow to orange, SCT005 and SCT001 collect a dead 2212 from Parkes yard to be part of that night's westbound freight on 19 July 2008.

And then there were locos going nowhere under their own steam. From memory, 4809 left Parkes a few years later on the back of a truck.

And 4842 was a very successful parts donor by this time.

And to finish up, something prosaic a decade ago but now exotic - 48157, 48149, 4899 and  48109 on an empty grain train about to leave Parkes on the morning of 20 July 2008.

Until next time!

Don