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

Preservation is not for ever

Was cruising through some shots from 2007 this morning and was just surprised by how much things have changed in the 'heritage' or 'preservation' scene in NSW.

It has to be said. I miss the Cocky. A regular heritage train, keeping the momentum of preservation alive. 4908 and 4833 on the Cocky on 14 March 2007.

A few from Koolewong on 14 April 2007 as positioning runs were made for the Maitland Steam Festival that year. Will start with 01 doing what it had done for 60+ years.

Thankfully (at least one) 01 is still going. And looks better than ever.

3112 is a terrific little loco. Hope it runs once more.

While we are in Koolewong, here's a resplendent 4918 on 4 August 2007.

Some other things were different in 2007 - like the cameras in mobile phones were truly crap. Here a night shot of MZ1432 at Gosford on tour on 7 May 2007 tested my phone's capabilities and found them wanting. 

So, jut like the 'real thing', photograph the preservation scene before it too has gone.

Cheers,
Don

Junior's efforts Part II

I just came across a small pile of digital files (if digital can be stacked) from Junior's rail travels about a decade ago.  Damn child always had a better eye for things - and a better camera - so these are a standard above the usual shown on this blog.   

First up a couple of West Ryde visitors.  Silverton's 442s6 leads 4872 and 442s3 on 1441 up containers at West Ryde on 23 January 2006.

A bit later on on the same day the pleasing combination of JL404, 4472, 4458 and 4488, passed through the same location with 4168 up LVRF containers. Good to note that all bar 4472 are still trawling around pretty regularly.

Over to Marrickville now to find 4833 coming up the grade with an XPT carriage in tow on 1 May 2006.

Down south to Maldon for the afternoon steelie with NR7 and NR113 up front on 13 July 2006.

Further south to Werai this time NR113 is leading another NR and another on 27 April 2006.

Over to the coast for 2204, 2208 and semi-obscured 3102 on a down ARG flour at Scarborough on 13 December 2007.

Moving over the border and forward two years to April 2008 the lad was track side at Tottenham to get NR79.

And NR75 around the same area.

And then he started photography of ballast - which led him ultimately to a science degree with a geology major, but that is another story.

More ballast - at night - at Goobang Junction.

I will sign off with his shot of the crossing arm at Koolewong crossing going up or down.

Cheers!
Don

Up the hill

I have posted a fair few shots on this blog taken from the overhead bridge at Farmborough Heights, usually of steam working up the hill to Dombarton and onto Moss Vegas. 

Having now spent a fair bit of time converting DVDs which had been originally shot on tape back into a digital format I have collected a range of locos tackling the hill in the late 1990s. And as I haven't been particularly thrilled about the results of loading videos direct onto the blog I am now trying to link to my YouTube channel.  So, here goes...

Lets start with 3801 on the Cocky...

And on film...

Might as well throw in another video of 01 - this time with 7344 hitching a ride. Must have been fun for the crew inside the cab of the 73.

While we are doing 38s, might as well do 3830. Here it is so fresh from overhaul it is yet to painted.

And here is how she looked after a coat of paint.

And now it is time to finish up with SMR's 18 - Bob to the locals - on the Cocky on a wet day.

And then on a dry day, with 4833 pushing hard.

Ciao for now!
Don

The small stuff - short cements

Instead of waxing on about overtaxed locomotives straining to keep overloaded and over-length trains to overly ambitious timetables, its about time to celebrate the shorter freights in life. And in particular, cement trains, just because cement wagons are usually more interesting shapes than the locomotives hauling them.

So, whether you are a rail photographer searching for that quintessential iconic freight photograph, or a model rail aficionado seeking to capture the essence of a NSW freight train, consider for now the short cement train...

First up is our little friend 4833 on a very short cement, coming out of the Maldon Cement Works.  The companion photograph has appeared earlier in this blog in the collection celebrating this little Alco’s 50^th birthday.  Here is another shot of the same train, showing it being monstered by a 7 car DEB set on Maldon Curve.

This next photograph is an inspiration to Alco-holics, and to people who hear a loco whistle while still in bed.  Yes, in March 1992 I was bunked in a local Tamworth motel, only to hear a 48 class call to me.  So it was up and at ‘em, in the words of Atom Ant.   I caught 48136 and 48153 in glorious morning sunlight approaching Nemingha  about ten minutes later.  Thank you, Mr 48 Class Driver, for laying on the smoke too.

In 1983 the Senior Train Hunter captured 4609 and 8614 at Katoomba on a very lucrative freight run…. Well, it would have been lucrative if the wagon was full of gold flakes.

The next three photographs are from a short-lived and probably not all that profitable foray into southern NSW by Freight Victoria (later Freight Australia) during 2002.  Still, it made for good train hunting.  First up is EL61 and EL51 heading north through Werai in March 2002.

On another weekend in the dead of that winter, EL51 appeared once more – this time with T408 as a travelling companion.  Thankfully it arrived at Moss Vale just after the sun did that morning.

And just as the sun left the Southern Highlands in October of that year, G535 stormed through Bundanoon at speed.  It is getting a tad long to be described as a true short freight, I suppose…

So its back to the short stuff.  On one of its first forays into the general view in its new and still current livery, in 2004 I braved the elements which always seem to appear whenever I reach for a camera.  On this day 8113 paired with BL27 at Warrabrook.

And finally, the shortest of them all.  Just don’t bother with a loco at all.  Just get a tractor and shunt cement wagons up and down the track, as evidenced in the next photograph from Wauchope in 2006.

So folks, chase the small stuff in life!

Happy 50th 4833!

The announcement of 4833's 50th birthday on the Goodwin Alco blog this week prompted me to think about its role in sustaining one of NSW's longest running mainline tourist operations - the mighty Cockatoo Run.

Quite self-evidently, 4833 arrived on NSW rails in October 1961.  It spent nearly all of its years in public ownership allocated to either the Junee or Broadmeadow depots. This meant that I rarely saw it trundling around, which didn't distress me entirely as there was always another 164 examples of this class of locomotive to catch one's attention.

The first time that this particular member of the 48 class moved into my Praktica's cross-hairs was in 1983, when a nicely-candied 4833 dragged a South Coast passenger into Central.

A half dozen years later the Senior Train Hunter (STH) remained sufficiently alert as 4833 headed south through Maldon curve with three empty cement wagons.

It was nearly another half dozen years before 4833 drew its existence to my attention - this time very early one weekday morning at the now defunct Rozelle yard.  4833's load this appearance was composed by empty grain wagons collected from several now-closed inner city grain receival facilities on the now-closed Metropolitan goods line (seeing a pattern here?).

Around this time 4833 was regularly performing the duties as the ACDEP shunter at Eveleigh, which was a prescient responsibility for later years.  However, in 1994 4833 was almost at the end of its tenure within public ownership.  

A period of uncertainty existed until it was purchased by the private consortium, Goodwin Alco, who have operated it ever since from their base at Eveleigh.  

In many ways, 4833's later years have certainly been more interesting than the time that it spent under its original owners, as the following photographs show.  One of 4833's enduring relationships has been with 3801 Ltd, and especially with the haulage of the Cockatoo Run to Moss Vale via the South Coast.  Here it is captured in 1998 running around its train.

Not all activities in private ownership have been glamorous - in 2001 4833 was shoe-horned between three Silverton 442s on freight duties as it reversed at Sydneham station to be fuelled at Meeks Road XPT depot.

Another relationship of note has been with Countrylink.  4833 has spent time as the XPT Depot shunter, which includes the important role of conveying XPT passenger cars for attention at Chullora or Flemington.  On one such trip, the loco is hardly taxed as it rumbles through Canterbury in 2005

By the mid-2000s the Cockatoo Run emanated from Sydney.  This day in 2007 saw 4908 getting ready to drag its slightly more elderly cousin and four passenger cars out through the yard.

These days 4833 remains a resident of Eveleigh, continuing to desport the livery it wore for its first two decades.  A year ago it was found by your correspondent in residence alongside another Goodwin Alco restoration effort.

So, 4833, happy birthday!  Here's to the next 50 years.....