Afternoon viewing

Only time today for a few random photos from the Mighty Phil Clarke Collection. And they are random!

First up, a four car DEB set with a 620 set trailing behind. In dry country on the way to or from Canberra on 11 August 1979.

Just over a month earlier, someone had parked box number 8007 in front of a lovely view of a building in Orange (30 June 1979).

At the end of its run on a hot January day, the 15th of the year of 1980, the Comet rests in Parkes station. Something fiddly is happening to its bum - I suspect a 73 class is removing its van for transfer to the overnight Forbes Mail to Sydney.

Up north now - the crew is getting or giving orders from the cab of 4507 which, with a sister Alco, sits in front of a empty coal at Murrurundi on 16 November 1982.

Back to Picton in September 1983. 42205 pilots an up container train.

And last for now - 42104 heads a 422 on a down passenger at a rather dreary Sutherland in February 1980.

Plenty more to come from Phil's collection so stay tuned!

Don

Grafton, Spring 1976

Earlier this year I acknowledged Phil Clarke's passing. Since then I have been fortunate in receiving some of Phil's photographs, including this neat little set of South Grafton in September 1976. True to the times, he shot in black and white using a trusty instamatic so please do not adjust your screens. Here is a nice location shot of the depot.

Phil then managed these three shots of 4303 being prepared for a working southwards, almost certainly to Broadmeadow.

And he wasn't averse to snapping the newer locos - like the yard shunter, 7318.  44204 is the mainliner in the background.

More from me, and Phil, over the coming months.

Cheers,
Don

View from the Hill

We always knew it as Lithgow Hill growing up. Unless there was a flat tyre, an overheated engine or a passenger requiring medical treatment, this was the first stop on our sojourns to points west for family-related purposes. Others know the location as the PoW Memorial on Chifley Road. 

The best part about getting to the Hill was the chance to sus out what was in Lithgow loco. In the mid-60s this was easy as deforestation was a civic virtue. Over the last 50 years vegetation has taken back the Hill, as the following shots show.  Hardly worth stopping these days, unless you are prepared to climb a gummy.

These first two shots are (I think) from 1964/65 or so.  The first shows a garratt in the garratt siding, and the second has a couple of 36s arriving from the west.

While the roundhouse lasted another 20 years it was usually stuffed with brown diesels so we didn't photograph it (grrrr). By July 1986 it was gone and replaced with this shiny facility. Triple 85s can be seen getting away for a run up to Zig Zag.

In the following October it was looking a bit more lived in - with a few vintage Alcos taking up residence.  The first fronds also make an appearance.

By the early 1990s the disturbing practice of kneecapping 46s was underway. The following shot from 4 October 1993 shows 48s, 80s, a 73, 46s and an 86 in the shed nearest the Hill.

By January 1996 the trees were growing, the shed seemed emptier and the list of 46s awaiting their fate had grown past 20.

This final shot was also from January 1996. It was very much a sneak through the branches. On the upside it showed Alcos.

These days I don't even stop and I reckon the area might have just a few snakes waiting for the next photographer.

Cheers,
Don

He's back

I have been a little quieter than normal over the past two months on this blog but to borrow a phrase from a well-known Halloween movie - He's Back!

My absence was due to my clumsiness and a certain daughter's ingenuity. She first - cups of tea don't need to be poured into modems to test connectivity. Given she is all of 18 months I guess I have contributory culpability for leaving the modem in an accessible spot.

The temporary loss of the modem was overcome by using the data off my phone to access the Internet. Unfortunately it was the additional lead that tripped me up one Saturday morning about two months ago, leading to me falling onto my laptop with disastrous results. There is much to be said for keeping precious photographs in the 'cloud' and not on hard drives. While I am still slowly recovering files I have finally managed to remember the password to get back blogging, so here's a short post with a few snaps of shunting at Sydney Terminal over the years.

First up, the utilitarian 7920, captured sometime in the 1960s.

Second, the just plain ugly head of a 41 class, snapped at the head of a tour train on 11 February 1973. Yes, as usual, in the rain.

Number three was a good looking shunter - the mighty 73 class.  Here, 7339 shunting the western carriage sheds after dark in the 1980s. Its a bit over-exposed but you get the picture (dad pun intended).

And finally, how it always ends up before it ends - a 48 class. Here it is 4831 in the early 1990s.

So, I will be back shortly, and hopefully with a series of decent blogs. Back to the file recovery process.

Cheers,

Don

Evidence of civilisation

Two civilised ways to get out of NSW disappeared on 8 February 1990, 26 years ago this week.  

The first way was the Brisbane Limited Express. On the last occasion the Limited ran 8605 and 8639 led the train out of platform 3. A fellow traveller/photographer stepped up to give the photo that special touch.... hmmm. 

At least he didn't run interference in the next shot. These are the best shots possible without breaching various statutes. Sorry.

Always liked the iron angles of the MBY. Here is one of my art shots... I call it mail-van though MBY arch. Snort.

Of course the other way out of Sydney was the Gold Coast Motorail. Here's a couple of snaps of 7350 hooked up the wagons which lent their names to the train, while 8154 and 8173 look on. I suspect these were the train locos instead of the more usual 86s, but didn't stick around to find out. At least we can be pretty certain the 73 didn't take the train north.

Civilised? Well, I will finish up  with a couple of shots to support that contention. Dining car ABS 2306 was in the consist to service the sleeping and first car patrons, while buffet car RDS 2263 was two slots further down the consist to deliver food and victuals to economy class passengers.

Civilised, indeed!

Cheers,
Don

Venerable 73s

7301 entered service on 5 October 1970. That makes this week the 45th birthday for 73s so they too must be in the 'venerable' category of locomotive. 'Classic' and 'vintage' are only a matter of five years away. Anyway, its a chance to put a few more shots into the ether so let's get at them.

The first few a scans from  slides taken in the 1970s so they are a bit blurry around the edges but they are worth including, like this one of 7319 on a transfer in the Newcastle area with a shunter's wagon and a CHG. 
 

This next one is from May 1975 and has a 73 trundling across the Peel River viaduct at Tamworth.

Heading out west, this could only be Dubbo with the sanding tower in the foreground.  Also worth noting the S truck. Dubbo still had a couple of these until a couple of years ago.

Roll forward to 1984 and the 40th and 41st editions of the class were stowed at Thirroul between overhead wiring train duties.

I hope the cold seeps through this photograph of 7316.  Its Goulburn in July 1984.  Amazed I got out of the car.

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Its warmer again. This time its back to Newcastle for 7335 on another transfer through Broadmeadow on 26 November 1986.

At nearly the same location four years later 7334 and 7337 head south.

 
I'll only post one '73s at Central' shot as I did an entire blog of them in 2011 (http://nswrailrambler.blogspot.com.au/2011/10/chasing-73s.html). This one is from the end of 1983.

Now to the end of their government service life - 7311 and 7313 rest at Port Kembla on 16 June 1990.

7334 served out its last part of Government life at Lithgow depot. Here it is in March 1995 wearing its unique livery.

So now its time for the birthday girl - 7301.  Here she is at Canterbury in 2002.

And here is a short video of her shunting a XPT set at Central in November 1992.

That's all for now.  
Ciao!, 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

Borenore, I think...

I have been off the air for a fortnight or so thanks to the Internet gremlins... obviously my last post offended them.  

In my absence from the air waves a gentleman on the Ausloco chat group was asking about Borenore in the 1960s and 1970s.  I don't have anything from that era but I do have a story from the 1985 October Long Weekend which started in Orange and ended up in Borenore.  Or at least I think it was Borenore... not sure I have been there since!

I think I have said in other posts that I usually tried to avoid Orange and tried to avoid rail photography on long weekends because nothing ever happened.... and here is an example of that, but this time it paid dividends.  

I sat at the one position in Orange for the next photo for probably 90 minutes.  Although I was happy with the initial shot I wanted one with a typical Alco start-off... smoke and oils going everywhere.Instead I got humming, for a very long time.

Finally dispensing with the idea of chasing the train back towards Sydney, I headed further west.  Deciding to travel along the Scenic Route I gave up on seeing anything before Dubbo,  But lovely little Borenore changed all that.

I had stopped to photograph this lovely yard crane. Obviously the local fettlers were artistic types who didn't mind suspending a length of rail 8 feet in the air for the weekend.

 

No sooner had I taken the photo then I heard what I had yearned for in Orange - an Alco burble. Indeed, I was to be rewarded by two Alcos trundling down the hill to Borenore. Yep, 44210 and 4492 were treading through territory which was clearly  slated for some emergency track repairs.

And they trundled to a stop. I must have been saving film for places west, as I only took one shot. (Hey, if you forgot to buy film before a long weekend there was usually bucklies of replenishing it until everyone went back to work).  Anyway, here is a lovely shot of the 442 nestled against the out-of shed.

And then I was off in the Gemini to Dubbo...

If I had not sat in Orange for what seemed like forever, I would have missed this.

So, if anyone knows who was asking on Ausloco, perhaps you would be so kind as to send him the link? Who knows, maybe he really needs to know that the road side of the out-of shed was a rather sturdy affair?

Ciao for now!

Orange

Just  back from a few days in the Central West of NSW, observing the near wipe-out of all railway infrastructure and operations in that region.  Nowhere is this scorched-earth policy more in evidence than at Orange.  Before I show a few shots of Orange over the years, its worth seeing what is left - the station and platform, two roads, the shed and the signal box in the distance.

It wasn't always this way - even fairly recently.  Here is a snap of 5390 shunting a packed Orange yard around 1970.

In the mid and late 1980s Orange was always worth a drop-by, although it was a lesser venue than Lithgow, Bathurst or Parkes.  For example, in October 1985 I found 8046 leading another 80 and a 48 on a Sydney-bound freight, with 7332 adjacent.

Even five years later in August 1990 the Dubbo fuel train was often a daytime visitor.

It wasn't all freights -  Orange was 'home' to the Silver City Comet.  In the next three photographs it is seen in Orange in May 1977, May 1978 and at the end of its days - in June 1988.

 

  

The Comet was the signature rail service, but from the late 1970s the Central West Express became an XPT service.  Four years later we snapped one such service on the outskirts of Orange.

And to wrap up this installment,HPC 402 was caught at Orange station on 25 March 1993 during its numerous trips to the region when involved in radio testing for the then State Rail Authority.

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Will take a 'now and then' look at Orange East Fork in the near future.