More on the green mogul

No, not Rupert or Twiggy.  A real mogul.

About 5 years ago I complained on this blog about the paucity of photos my family had of 2535's time as the Corrimal Colliery shunter. Well, several more have emerged - this time of the visit by 3203 to the Colliery on 14 September 1969.  So here they are!

Enjoy!

Don

More orange stuff - this time out in the wild

Time for yet another instalment of 'things that went past the back fence' in North Wollongong. In this series I dredge up dead and damaged slides from the 1970s, just to show that if you stand in one place long enough the whole world will pass you by.

And so it was with locomotives owned by the company I knew as Australian Iron & Steel - AIS for short.

Lets start with a lesson in physics. Here is two photos of D44 on a short down goods, taken at a time when it was on hire to the NSW Railways in the late 1970s.  The time elapsing between the two photographs can be measured by the time taken to wind on a Praktika ML3, and then reset the focus. There is a little bit of nearly everything in the load.

Another going away shot, this time with double AIS locos nose to nose. Photos taken in this location generally meant that the photographer wasn't paying enough attention to what was happening over the fence, or was too busy having morning tea to get the money shot.

This time the photographer had been on his game, getting a lovely shot of a coke working.  The Victorian and South Australian railway commissioners' wagons add to the character of this working - there is nothing NSWGR about it, apart from the railway lines.. 

I will finish up with the following late afternoon shot, which I may have posted previously but the fresh-painted CHS wagon is so nice it deserves republishing.

Cheers all!
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

Bound from South Australia

In December 1979 I was part of a group trip to Adelaide.  Unfortunately my fellow travellers had little time for railways so it was only as we returned to NSW that my persuasive arguments won through.. hehe.

The first place I made the travelling troop stop was Olary, on the Barrier Highway in eastern South Australia. This photo pretty much sums up Olary - just add 9 million blowies and open the oven door to get the full ambience.

Even after the Olary stop, I was allowed to choose the caravan park in Broken Hill that night.  I think the one I chose had a small selection of steam locos quietly rusting behind it.  If the photos seem blurred its because I was more worried about the local snakes than framing the perfect portrait (all of my photography in the 1970s was done in thongs). I am not sure of the identity of the loco in the first shot, the middle shot is of Y82 and the final shot is No.99.  Nearly 40 years later, I am not even sure this was Broken Hill!

Once we were back into NSW proper, things got more familiar.  Like at Dubbo.  Here we found the Comet and a couple of 44s lurking in the yard.

Then it was home via Forbes and the railway high-point of the trip - the Lachlan Vintage Village.  As the other tourists participated in convict floggings and generally tried to avoid the 110 degree heat, stupid here was snapping away at the following.

Nothing quite like an undressed tank loco...

And then there was a selection of narrow gauge beasties...

And that was about it!  Can't believe it was 40 years ago - maybe that caravan park was Peterborough?

Until next time, 
Don

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

AIS locos

Just thought I would clear out a few photographs of the once mighty fleet of orange Australian Iron & Steel diesel fleet.  Most of these photos date from either the late 1980s or early 1990s, when the first thinning of the ranks started. Seems strange to think that there are still a few of the original fleet kicking around in 2016, in among the 82s, 81s and PBs.

As most of the following shots come from around the Steelhaven diesel shop, lets start with D35 and D20. The third loco is anyone's guess.

Always loved the little ones, like D6.

Only thing better than D6 is D6 and D7.

And keeping with the consecutive counts, D20 (I think) and D21.

 
And a better shot of D21....

And going up the count, D32...

Around this time, D40 and D26 got out of the Works on a special passenger train.

And to finish up,a number of the original fleet got to spend years on the storage line.

 Cheers!
Don

Hey Porter!

With apologies to the late great John R Cash, I thought I would post a few photos of a class of loco that we saw all the time (being Wollongongians) but never thought to hunt down before it was nearly too late. The eight Porters at Australian Iron & Steel's Port Kembla's steelworks.

We never snapped them in action but thankfully the senior photographer worked at Australian Iron & Steel and so risked life, limb, disciplinary charges and an honourable mention in the Illawarra Mercury just before the demise of 75% of the class in early 1975 to get the following four snaps inside the plant.

Here is a line of stored locos. OK, so we can't really blame him for cutting off the front of the first loco.  This was being shot on an Agfa Instamatic which had a viewfinder that indicated the general direction in which the photo would be taken.

Better luck with this side-on shot.
 

The next two shots show the last hours of the unlucky six locos -Bandicoot, Brolga, Baradine, Burrawa, Bellbird and Badger.

In writing up this post I actually discovered that only Bandicoot had been built by Porter in the USA. Four of the class were built by Clyde and three in the steelworks itself.  And apparently I thought Badger had escaped the fate of its siblings to reside in Dorrigo but authoritative sources (Wikipedia) suggests that it is actually Bantam with Badger's plates. So, it appears I am never too old to learn a couple of things.

Ciao for now!
Don