1709

I only ever saw one 17 in action. Thanks to the efforts of many we got to see it working well into the 21st century, and we might get to see it once more.  Since preservation it has led a colourful life.

It was a tasteful green when captured by my elders with 2605 on a tour to Tarana and Oberon on 9 March 1963.

By the 1970s it had gained the hue all Australia was wearing - purple. Well, maroon actually. Here are a few shots of it taking water in Wollongong.  Incidentally, the little bloke leaning against the pole with the Hitler haircut is me - thanks Mum.

 In fact, its 1970s appearance was so startling we only photographed it in black and white.

Things became more subdued after that... here's probably the last time I saw it in action in 2005 at the 150th celebrations of NSW railways.

Until next time.
Don

Orange was the new black

I have just been digging through the family archives to find a small bunch of photos that I think I may have skipped over previously... and only because the majority are an unsightly orange hue.  I was never much of a fan of the orange locos scuttling around Port Kembla, as they had:
(a) replaced those cute Porters 
(b) orange was everywhere in the 60s and 70s when I was growing up 
(c) their Port Kembla abode just stank of sulphur throughout the 60s and 70s and 
(d) the head of the household was always cursing their radios (I am led to believe his electrical skills were the only thing keeping the radios on those locos working!).

But, now, looking back, they were sooo much better than those PB things now scuttling around the works..  So, here's a few snaps... not sure of the dates at all so I am just going to stick them up without a commentary. Lets start with D11 and D36, maybe around 1981.

D6 got into a bingle at some stage, which bent its frame nicely. This was worth two photographs.

In February 2016 I posted a blog showing one side of D6.  Here is the companion shot - showing the other side.

And here is D6 and its slightly younger sister, D7.

Its not all about D6 folks.... here's one of D10 visiting the deceased remains of S 9131.

Class leader had its privileges, like dragging tourists around in near-condemned NSWGR rollingstock. I think this was from 1985 - quite possibly the slowest train chase I ever did.

Five years after that last shot it was D40's turn, with similarly superannuated carriages and no orange paint (we had been through the 80s, after all).

And then everything got painted blue, buildings, locos, certain workers who didn't move fast enough...

Time to sign off!
Don

Ah, the South and the Deep South!

Happy New Year to the entire readership!

Although Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest and Flickr seem to dominate our social media lives these days, I continue to be grateful for the opportunity to wax lyrical through blogging.It seems so 90s these days!

For no particular reason I thought I would reproduce a few of the family's deep south shots from the early 1960s in this edition.  Lets start with a couple of 1210 from a dull day in 1963. Lets hope 2019 brings an improvement in this loco's fortunes - certainly the recent announcement about the Canberra Railway Museum seem to indicate such a trajectory.

Jump forward a year to April 1964 and just up the road in Goulburn sits 5718 among other goods locos awaiting scrapping - including several 58s. 

It can't be all about 'dead' locos so off the same roll of film we have 5118 at Cootamundra and 5157 at Junee - both the epitome of activity.

And now to wrap up with my usual conundrum for a final photograph. The writing on the slide frame says '3817 on down Melbourne Express at Holbrook 1960'. It may well be 3817, but it definitely isn't Holbrook as the Main South doesn't pass through that town. Based on the silos in the background it could be either Culcairn (which is just a few paddocks away from Holbrook) or even perhaps Henty. And it is technically not a 'Melbourne Express' either - it is either the Riverina Express (most likely) or an InterCapital Daylight Express (less likely? - I am only guessing). 

Regardless of these quibbles, it is a lovely snap of a black 38er on an air-conditioned set, and I am grateful in 2019 that one of my forebears stopped the Hillman to photograph. I can be certain about the Hillman because this family only ever drove Hillmans!

Anyway, once more - Happy New Year!

Don

Dubbo, from the platform

The beaut thing about Dubbo is that the station platform gave and gives an excellent viewing platform for whatever was in the yard. Although it was on the southern side of the railway, some good shots could be had. So here is a few, though I suspect the photographers shuffled off the platform to trespass down the yard at time. 

First up, 3815 is on the up Through Mail around 1964. A 36 class sits opposite.

    

A year later, Dubbo's small loco shed was found hosting two garratts, two 32s and 3818.
 

Lets move to some colour fillum! A cleaned up slide of 3237 (we suspect) and 3144T, themselves spruced up in front of the shed which needed a little sprucing itself. It was 10 April 1966.

 

Finally, for this installment, its January 1967 and 3649 and 3328 are residents at Dubbo loco depot.

That's enough for now!

Don

Its a mystery to me

So sang Roy Orbison... and I found myself humming that very tune as I wandered through a few photos this Sunday afternoon. Why, I know you ask? Well, I have come across two in locations which are mysteries to me.  

This first one has a 45 and a 48 in a small loco depot, taken probably in the late 1960s or early 1970s. I had thought Cooma, but it could be Armidale for all I know.

 

This second one really has done my head in.  I would love it to be somewhere exotic like Batlow, but it could be Lithgow or somewhere out west.  This latter guess is based upon the cloud formation!

 

Any better guesses folks?

Cheers,
Don

Port Waratah loco

Wintry Saturday afternoons lend themselves to blogging. And so it is today.

Not really sure what made me think of Port Waratah depot. Anyway I have, so here comes a dozen snaps from that location running from April 1964 through to the end of steam.

From that earlier period, 5251 leads a line of stored steam locos.

This line of stored steam sandwiches a 35 between two standard goods locos. 

Next up, working steam, but a bit quirky.  5195 has an EHO in tow. 

5114 has a shunting tender attached, in the foreground of the coaling tower ramp.

A couple more shots from around this location. First up, 1904 up high.

 Then 3090T going about shunting duties (taken from a heavily degraded slide)

And 3246 getting coaled at this location.

1955 was caught shunting non-air four wheel coal hoppers.

Finally, to the turntable - 5475 is adjacent to the roundhouse.

And to finish off with a couple of garratts between shifts.

Cheers,
Don.

Don't try this at home

I thought I would toss up a few photos showing health and safety issues from earlier times. Its supposed to be light hearted so please, no comments either for or against what is happening in these photos!

First up, only one bit of soot in the eye from the standard goods' exhaust and its backwards off that tender!

That was 4913 being banked by 5364 on Tumulla Bank in January 1965, by the way.

Next up, look at these two lads taking the shortest possible route in front of 2010.

It was the last train to Camden and it was stationary at the time.

Next up, laying a 30 class down to rest.

Those men inspecting 3137 were railwaymen.  I am not sure that all of the people in the following shot were, and it would seem that not too many were sun-safe either!

The last snap was from New Year's Day 1964 when 4529 ran off the rails at Unanderra.  Nice start to the year for that crew.  Next up, the ordinary, but with the potential for so much to go wrong.

I love how 3 kids appear to be climbing into the cab, all at once.  That was the sort of thing you did in Wollongong in the late 1970s and nothing ever went wrong.

Next up a toast-rack tram at SPER's old site.  These were great fun and the conductors encouraged the kids to hang out.  Also from the 1970s. 

  

 In 1980 the Railways ran a successful celebration of 125 years of service at Central.  I just love the angle that this interested patron takes whilst on 4836's running board.

 Definitely don't try this at home.  How do you test  for hot boxes on express trains? Well, you use the back of your hand...

That was also from 1980 - at Taree as the North Coast Daylight rolled through.

And what could go wrong with slippery soapy water to clean 44234's windscreen???

And to finish up, imagine getting that hair caught in the buffing plate....

Things are certainly safer and maybe just a bit more boring these days.

Seeya!
Don

Just saying...

Today I have been musing on the manner of technology and how it affects how I see this hobby/past-time/vocation. 

I grew up in the pre-analog world. Slide nights were 'technology'. Paper timetables and semaphore signals, operated from 'manned' signal boxes. News about the NSW Government Railways arrived in monthly bursts, courtesy of the Railway Digest or less frequently through the Schools Railway Magazine.

Things certainly sped up when the Internet arrived.  Things went from monthly to near real time. Emails proliferated through groups though now these 'chat groups' appear to be on the wane.  But basically emails had rendered my consumption of railway magazines to viewing the pictures.  The news in those magazines seemed stale.

More recently I started blogging.  Now most of the stuff I write is rubbish but others' posts aren't.  And so I started getting news and seeing good photographs on blogs everywhere.  And it was free!

A little while ago I plunged into Fickr.  Why? I could hunt out particular photographers and collections around the world, as well as uploading my family collection into a free cloud - sorting, dating and geo-tagging it.
 
And then I got into Instagram and Pinterest.  More photos. Fabulous photos. 

Never really did catch onto Twitter - but it is good when the trains are running late.

And then there is Facebook. I have used it for a few years to post dog and family photos but only recently did I join a few Facebook groups. And they have been, most of the time anyway, wonderful.  One group in particular declared April to be 30/30T month.  As of last Friday there had been hundreds of photos covering 70+ different members of the class.  As I managed to find a few of the missing members in the family collection I posted them as a first time poster.

The value of Facebook can be shown in just one photo, this one.

Its worth pointing out that the slide was labelled '3044 MV (Moss Vale) squirt 28-4-66 - 50 years ago this week.

I posted it last night and went to bed.  This morning I got a helpful correction that 3044 was a tank loco.  The numbers are indistinct and throughout today other locos were proposed and then discounted, leaving 3014 as the likely suspect.

And it turned out to be 3014T, after all.  How do I know? I went back to the paper - the Digest this evening (albeit the digitised version). 3076 was the regular loco but had failed for the umpteenth time in early April 1966.  3025 and 3137 were sent south.  3025 had a small bunker and no headlight so was unsuitable and sent straight back. 3014T joined 3137 on 18 April 1966 and stayed until 2 May 1966.

So, technology? Always good to have at least a couple of sources I suppose. In this case, my latest (Facebook) and my oldest (paper) combined to clear things up.  The readers of this blog have at other times sorted me out, for which I am truly appreciative.

So, to end, I 'll post a few others of the 30s and 30Ts that I loaded up onto Facebook last night.  I'll start with 3076, the apparently unreliable tank engine, at Wollongong.
 

Here's a series of four from Enfield, all awaiting their demise.  In order of appearance, 3007, 3035,3039 and 3094T.

 

 
 And here is another photo Facebook has helped with.  I had 3065T but not much else.  Turns out its on a tour with 3224 at Glenee, thanks to the folks at Facebook.

I also posted this one of 3004T at Eumungerie with an up stock train. I thought few would appreciate it but it does have its rural charm.

And finally, one of my favourite 30Ts - 3127, again at Enfield, hauling a lifeless 36.

So it is a bit of a pain having to run all these 'channels' but it does make for a richer experience, in my humble opinion.

Cheers,
Don