Katies in the Gong

In 1966 two tours using 55 class locos were run to Wollongong.  By this time I think the two locos used were the last two of the class - 5593 and 5597. Could be wrong there!

First off, on 12 March 1966 5593 arrived in Wollongong looking very spruce.

5593 was on its way to Port Kembla to collect South Bulli No.2 for restoration.  While all this was being arranged, the then rather exotic 7003 took the train around the Inner Harbour.

 Here is the little loco all loaded up on a well wagon, ready for transport back to the Big Smoke.

Another industrial loco apparently wandered around the precinct to take a look at these proceedings. 

The second tour was run in October of the same year, this time with 5597. Here it is in Wollongong and later at Coniston.

Would be good to see 5597 ride the rails once more.

Cheers,
Don

North Gong coalies

It is time for another installment in 'What went past the back fence at North Wollongong?' - this time covering diesel-hauled coal trains. My 4 January 2014 post carries a swag of photographs covering steam-hauled coalies, and you electric-loving fiends will not be left out as I have a few snaps of electric-hauled coalies too, just waiting for a future post.

But now, to bust the myth that coal on the Coast meant double 48s (though 99% of the time from 1964 to 1994 it did!), here goes with a smattering of battered and torn slides and prints of (mainly) other types of diesels hauling the black diamond.

Before 48s there were 70s.. and in the early 1960s 7001 and 7009 got to tread the mainline with one such service.

Then this was no doubt a complete surprise - a trialling 49 and the class leader no less.  No wonder the shot is framed crookedly.  Thought to be around September 1963.

The late 1970s was not a period of  high fashion in Wollongong. If there was colour in anything, it was likely to be the wrong hue.  This partially explains the colour combination in the next train, led by double BHP D class locos. Just why anyone would bother painting a CHS coal wagon in gloss is beyond me.  It looks rather dandy in the afternoon sun.

Sorry if you got the idea that this would be a 48 free zone.  Here's a couple, with 4847 leading 48159 in the first shot and two 48s on the Coalcliff coalie in the second. Both are morning shots from 1980 or so, which suggests that I was too scared of the bull in the paddock on the sunny side to cross the lines (using the underpass at the creek of course) with my then-new Practika camera.

It wasn't all double 48s. Sometimes a mainlner would be conscripted - such as on this evening in 1980ish when 4419 got the 2nd loco job.

Around the 1980s a series of terrific NSW rail photography books emerged, like Units in Focus. Cracking photography by real pros with serious lenses. They all told stories of big lash-ups, even quad workings over the Liverpool Ranges.  Stuff almost unheard of on the Coast on those days and now, of course, routine to the point of mundane. 

The closest we seemed to get to the big locos in the Illawarra was on weekends, when some serious coalies ran in from the west on Sunday afternoons - at least that is when I saw them.  So here are three, and the first is triple 80s - 41, 23 and 34on a down coal headed to the Inner Harbour.

Next up is another all-Alco offering - this time an 80 and a 44 lead 44212 back to the big smoke.

And the third offering from that period involes 8027, 8016 and 8032. I have great memories of these trains passing, as they usually were working up into the higher notches.  Whereas 48s burbled along, these mainliners made time.

By the late 1980s we were into well into the candy era.  Just didn't sit well at the front of a coal train, as shown by these double 81s.

While things then got fairly boring for a while, by the 1990s variety crept into loco workings once more.  On 9 May 1993 I managed to get 8027 leading 42204, 8148 and 8182 northward on a coal.

And finally, near to times present.  These days its a steady diet of 82s - believe me, they rumble past my residence with alarming frequency.  One coal working I have yet to mention is the Metro Colliery working - usually with a 82 top and tail these days.  On the 14th day of 2005 8257 one on the end of one such service... Someone needed to do a spot of mowing by then - its starting to interfere with the photography!

Ciao!

Budds on the coast

I have the pleasure of a rail bus ride on a crappy 30 year old bus which smells like it was parked at a tip overnight, so am thinking fondly of those days when one could jump on the Budd cars forming a South Coast Daylight Express service, maybe get a pie or at least Paul's ice cream bucket, and free chilled water.

Actually its just a chance to expose a few marginal shots of Budds in their glory days and long decline. Throughout this period, their ride characteristics were sublime. Perhaps V sets provided superior comfort, but they didn't have a lady in uniform selling ice creams.

First up, I think this shot dates from 1963. It shows a passenger service and a bridge in much more aesthetically pleasing condition than today's aspect.

Next up is a shot of an up passenger service on a dark day at Sutherland. It's from a grotty slide but the feeling of being close to Mordor is conveyed even though its just the Shire.

Time for a few late period snaps. Here's a Alco cross - 4461brings the down morning SCD into Kiama with its complement of depowered Budds trailing a power van and a Tulloch carriage, while   4474 is about to take its similarly-composed train north.

And here is pretty much where I lost interest in passenger trains on the coast... 42214 hauling the last loco-hauled SCD as it approaches Wollongong. 

And here is what the SCD turned into (figuratively) when it got to Sydney... A locoless service.

I can't leave this post at this point so it is time for one more. Regular readers of this blog may recall my incomplete series on trains passing through North Wollongong. So to finish, a Budd set in its heyday, looking marvellous and sounding better as it really warms up to the task of being an express passenger service.

Its amazing how the Railways managed to run these trains at top speed, 7 days a week until they fell apart, without the need to routinely close large lengths of railway line for weekend track maintenance. The modern trains must really pound the rails in a way the Budd cars never did. Just saying...

Dead 70s society

In the late 1980s the Illawarra’s most secret society– the dead 70s society – could be seen at only one place.  This was the rotten row to the east of Port Kemble loco depot.  Its members were the discarded, worn-out and redundant class members of the once very useful class of NSWGR diesel hydraulics. 

The following photograph shows those forming the society around 1989.  In attendance that day were 7005, 7006, 7003, 7004, 7010, 7001 and 7007. Only 7002, 7008 and 7009 were elsewhere, presumably working.

When sent to rotten row, the members of the class appeared in reasonable condition, at least externally.

However, once consigned to this location, the prospects of a return to service were dim.  The environment was certainly not conducive to preservation – the location mixes salt air with acidic discharges from local factories.  And then there was the attraction of these beasts to the local hoodlums… another factor mitigating against longevity.

Still, once sent to rotten row, it did not mean the end of the journey.  The following photograph records the fact that at least once the line of locos was shunted westward under the road bridge.  The observant will observe the steady deterioration of the locos.

 

Most of the deterioration was as a result of wanton acts of stupidity – 7001 bears testimony to the idiocy of the locals.

Other deterioration was due to some with more pure motives.  7003 became a parts donor for its still operating sisters.

But there was only one of the class to escape this ignominy.  The mighty 7006 has been restored to working order and now resides away for the sea air at Thirlmere with others from the NSW Rail Transport Museum.  Here it is, quietly awaiting its great escape to the highlands.

Perhaps one day 7006 will be joined by its sisters 7007, 7008 and 7010, which currently lurk in the rain at Dorrigo as part of the Dorrigo Steam Railway Museum. 

And only then will the less-than-dead 70s society reconvene...