Doot doot doot looking out my back door

For about five years, my train hunting was sorted.  I usually just sat in my backyard, pretending to garden.  It got the usual parade of about 40 daylight trains - like 26 September 2016 when G516 worked an up trippy past the back fence.

If feeling athletic I went down to the either ends of the street, or even the local stations (Hurlstone Park and Canterbury), both about 600 metres away. But mostly, it was 'head out the kitchen window' stuff, like it was on 19 December 2015 when S317, GM22 and VL356 popped through at breakfast time with 8146 up containers.

But now I am up country, an hour away from any decent railway action unless garbage trains are your thing. Not complaining, but I miss the whine of a Helga pulling a trippy with a load of flat wheels at 11:45pm.

But not anymore.  The last time I looked, Australia has fewer than five decent, live streaming, webcams.  We are lagging the world, even the USA.  I have since happened upon two sites Virtual Railfan (virtualrailfan.com) and Rail Stream (https://railstream.net). Both are brilliant! 

Virtual Railfan has 81 camera at 50 locations, covering 25 states and 22 railroads. It will come as no surprise to readers to learn that so far I have satisfied myself with the 15+ free cameras, although I am seriously thinking about upgrading.  Subscriptions equal the cost of a Netflix subscription,so wifey may be a disappointed very shortly because we don't need both.

I will admit that I have never heard of some of these locations, but boyo, the trains. I started in the terrific town of Flagstaff, even sorted the local scanner so I am a bit ahead of the action.  It is a bit gritty, but BNSF rocket through here about every 15 minutes. This screen shot shows a little consist - up to five units regularly work through, with mid-train helpers and pushers too. Amtrak turns up here when it wants to.

I have since moved to the mid-west, to places like Fort Madison with its preserved steamy watching double stacks roll by.

Viewing Kansas City got more interesting this week when some auto-racks derailed on the overhead bridge. No pontiacs were injured in the preparation of this blog. Heere's another screenshot, again with two BNSF locos. I fluffed the screenshot of seven Norfolk Southerns locos, showing that my actual rail-fanning photography traits are transferable to the virtual world.

There are many things this world lacks... two in particular are diamonds and street running. I am getting my fill of both.  Two diamonds I have been watching are at La Planta in Florida and Deschler, Ohio.  Here is the latter, keeping with my BNSF theme. 

Now, street running and, more relevantly, the perils of street running.  La Grange is a lovely looking place, especially when CSX work to the nearby Ford Motor plant. A couple of nights ago one such working took place.

This train rolled into La Grange at 7:51am last Thursday morning, local time, just as the town was coming to life.  When the last car rolled past 42 minutes later, the locals got their town back.

Anyway, it is time to get back to train watching, this time in Galesburg.  It doesn't quite equal sitting in your backyard, but it is better than watching the weeds grow.

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

This morning's capture

Just love the boredom of the commute to work being interrupted by these sorts of workings.

Saturday on the South

I am overjoyed.  I finally found a scrap of paper amongst my many other scraps of paper which explains a series of photos I have been hanging onto for years - 28 years to be precise.

On Saturday, 11 March 1987, we headed off early to Douglas Park on the main south line - it lies between Campbelltown and Picton. We just pulled up on the side of the freeway, as the line parallels the road for about five kilometres.  In those days one could just pull off the freeway for a couple of hours without getting the attention of the authorities.

The special part about these photos is that I didn't for once use a telephoto lens so the photos aren't a series of trains looking like sliced loaves of bread.  What we got that morning was just the then usual parade of local, intrastate and interstate services, stretched out against the background. 

When I scanned these shots in the late 1990s pixels were at a premium, so I scanned the section of the print with the train on it.  This produced a rather elongated and small scan.  I apologise if the photo is too hard to see on this blog - you should be able to just click on the photo to load a hopefully larger version if necessary.

Anyway, enough prose. Instead of putting a rose-coloured commentary to that morning, I am just going to reproduce the notes I took that day along with the photos (apart from the bracketed comments).  

 

7:15am       44 and five cars up service (No photo of this one - dunno what happened here!)

7:20am       G518 up containers (looks like this was the last photo on the reel from the discoloration on the right hand side of the print)

7:25am       8156/G up containers (couldn't resist a close up)

7:47am       Double 81s – up Sydney Express (this is worth snaps of each end of the train)

8:16am       4468 up passenger ex Picton (another close up)

8:26am       Double 81s and 38 wheaties (another bloody close up)

8:35am       Down 7 car DEB set on the Canberra Monaro

8:45am       42201 Down Intercapital Daylight Express (five cars and Spirit dining car)

 

8:50am       44/4481 up wheaty (worth two shots for the close up of the first 44)

9:35am       42204 Two FGs, BN and MFH on a Goulburn passenger

9:45am       42208 in reverse Indian Red on a five car interurban set

10:25am     Up Canberra XPT

And that was it - 12 trains in 3 hours; a typical Saturday morning 28 years ago.

Ciao for now!

Don

Getting out of Mexico

A couple of weeks ago I posted a blog about the Melbourne Express, otherwise known as the MEX. The counterpart service was called the Sydney Express, but it was rarely described in the shortened form.  

As with all journeys, there had to be a start.  For the Sydney Express, it was alawys Spencer Street Station in Melbourne.  Here are two shots taken from August 1993 showing the two options in motive power.

 

I have a lot more photos of the Sydney Express than its counterpart due to geography. Saturday mornings could involve trips to Maldon or Picton to see the Express, numerous other Southern Highlands passengers and the Superfreighters. On 9 October 1993 G520 did the honours through Picton.

When the Express started it was a much larger train than its 1990s version.  Here it is stretched out through Wilton in 1986 with double 81s up front.

Enough of the static representations!  Here is a link to a short and jerky video of 8171 on the up Sydney Express at Maldon on 16 October 1993.

 

It wasn't all sunshine out there.  On a foggy 20 November 1993, the third last loco-hauled Sydney Express cantered through Maldon with 8172 at the front.

Here's evdence of why this train needed to go.  At least there was one other patron at breakfast on this day.
 

And now to where it finished, the buffer stops at platform 1 (or 2) at Sydney Terminal. G527 made it there on 20 January 1993.

Here is 8177 arriving at the same location on 29 January 1993.
 

Even at the end, on Saturdays decent loadings required double heading. Here is 8170 and G518 having done the work overnight and into the morning of 15 August 1993.

 
As the end neared, platform 2 became the preferred destination.  Here are two shots from November 1993 recording such arrivals.

Finally it was over.  The last service on 22 November 1993 had 4463  leading 8174 into the shade.

If you want to watch a slow moving G514 arrive at Central in November 1992, do no more than press this button!
 

Ciao for now!
Don



 

Taking the MEX to Mexico

On 2 August 1986 the railway authorities decided to amalgamate the two premier named trains on the east coast into a single service between Sydney and Melbourne. Instead of continuing with either name, the Southern Aurora or the Spirit of Progress, they decided to resuscitate an even earlier name, and so the Melbourne Express was reborn. 

It even got a nickname or sorts, the MEX. No doubt that encouraged patronage.  At least you could say you could take the Mex to Mexico, so I did. Almost no-one saw the pun, or appreciated it.

It was an inglorious attempt to stave off the inevitable, rather than to invest and compete.  And the inevitable arrived after just seven years, in the form of an XPT service.

I managed to get a fair few photos of the train locos resting adjacent to platform 1 at Sydney Terminal, and I also scored quite a few rides on the train thanks to my employer (who was always willing to pay for a cheaper option than flying). So here are a few...

Here is the quintessential Mex horsepower - a single candy 81.  On 6 June 1993 it was 8166's turn.

If it wasn't an 81, it was an 81 in another guise.  Here is G519 at Spencer Street Station on 21 October 1992 after it had hauled me to the southern capital.

This is the view that I walked past a 1,000 times and photographed but once. G517 (you are going to have to trust me on this) at the front of the Melbourne Express on 16 September 1993.

 

When the decision to replace the loco-hauled trains with XPT services was announced I got a bit more serious about photographing the Mex. Even managed two or three times a week! Here's 8177 on 16 November 1993.

And here is 8175 on the third-last Mex.

And now, for the final service... on the evening of 20 November 1993 we ducked across to Tahmoor (just south of Picton).  Fittingly a very big train was hauled by a G and an 81. Not happy snap, but a video.

And then is was all over.  I will get around to doing the Mex's sister train, the Sydney Express, eventually.

Ciao for now!
Don