Orange was the new black at Spencer Street in 1993

I have never been a big fan of the V/Line livery, though as it recedes into history I am more inclined to appreciate for its 80s ambience.

I got to see a fair bit of V/Line orange in the early 1990s, thanks to my employer (the NSW Government) insisting on sending me to Melbourne for long stretches to partake in various legal proceedings. I wasn't the defendant in these proceedings either, for the record.

I was never silly enough to admit I simply loved these trips - so they kept sending me.  But it was the best of times - breakfast at Pelligrinis, a race around Melbourne's hobby shops at lunchtime, afternoons watching trains roar into and out of Spencer Street station, plus the bonus of pre-XPT rail travel to and from Victoria. If I stayed down over a weekend there were tram rides, footy games with real pies and beer and a pretty good nightlife.  A Sunday stroll out to Dynon was always worth it too.  

Anyway, little wonder that the following photos taken on 7 June 1993, a mere 28 years ago now, feel just like a couple of years ago.  This particular trip was a quickie - down on the night of the 6th of June and return the next. I failed to photograph the 81 or G on the MEX, but I did get Y150 shunting the bum of the train as I headed off to work.

In the opposite direction, A66 temporarily diverted this public servant from the intended purpose of his trip.

The afternoon was pretty productive.  In no particular order I managed to photograph A70 on an up Ballarat train.

I always liked the way the trains needed double-stacking at Spencer Street.  I have this next photo recorded as N469 on a Geelong train, with P20 behind it.

And P20 for posterity.

I could never hang out to departure time to eat in the Sydney Express's dining car, so usually dinner was taken at Spencer Street's fairly ordinary dining room, or in a local hotel.  I managed to butcher this photo of A60, seemingly newly repainted, on the 6:25pm Bairnsdale train.  Probably shaking from cold or hunger, or both.

Returning from dinner there was a very pleasant surprise.  R766 rolled in on the 'Just Jeans Special'.  It was the first time I had seen a R class in steam up close.  A very impressive sight.

And then it was off to bed, which was someone down the back of this following train.  8166 was the less than glamorous power up front, but it did its job.

Not a bad day at the office.

Cheers

Don

Wilton Hill

These days its too overgrown and it would probably trigger a national security emergency, but in 1982 it was technically possible to pull off the highway near Wilton and trot up to the top of a hill overlooking the Main South for a Saturday morning of rail photography.  To give you an idea of where I am talking about, here's a location shot showing the mighty little Suzuki which took us half way up the hill.

 I have these photographs marked as January 1982, but that is just a proximate date.  I do remember it got bloody hot but it was still quite fresh (and quite early) when the first train arrived - the Spirit led by a 442 and a 44.

 

The Spirit was followed closely by 4447 and 44223 on the Southern Aurora - worth two view of this one!

Coal - Tahmoor coal - was king this morning as the following shots show.  First up, 8010 and 4880 head south - bloody telegraph poles!

Then two shots of 8031 and 48146 on an up coal - the second shot just for the white roofed van.

And then 8004 and 4809 on a down coalie.

It was also a morning for the express passenger trains - the 'varnish' as the Americans coin it.  Here's a couple of landscape shots of the Canberra Monaro and then the Inter-Capital Daylight expresses.

I apologise for this next one - I was youthful and always looking for a new angle. This is a DEB set on the Riverina Express run and I decided to shoot it through a set of binoculars - oh well.

More humble passenger consists included these CPHs on the Picton squirt.

Equally prosaic was the Goulburn day train with a 48 up front.

More colourful was 4836 on its sister service.

 
Back to the freighters - here is an up wheatie with a 422/442 combination. I believe them to have been 42202 and 44229. 

I stuffed the approach photo of the up Southern Highlands Express being led by a 421, but here it is going away as 8021 and a 48 approach on a down coal.

Finally, the aforesaid 8021 heads down the hill. And I gt the telegraph poles right on this one!

Sorry for the dark grainy nature of some of these shots.  I had loaded the camera with cheap, slow Kodak film which was suitable for low light photographs.  Who knows why I did - call it youthful enthusiasm.  Will leave you with a degraded shot of my two compatriots that morning - father and Frank B. In the next photograph Frank is the one lining up the money shot of the day.  Father looks like here is wondering when the morning tea will arrive or if the Suzuki will get towed.
 

Cheers,
Don

PS - Cheers to all my friends in Petrograd who regularly tune into this blog.

North 'Gong non-stoppers

Continuing a very occasional series of trains past the paternal grandparents' family home at North Wollongong, here's a few snaps of diesel-hauled express passenger services through that location.  There were taken in the days that North Wollongong was just another suburban station and not the jumping off point for the University of Wollongong. 

Perhaps start by a capture of the train least likely to ever stop at this location? A diverted Southern Aurora with 4444 at the pointy end.

And the second least likely - the Commissioner's car attached to an air conditioned set.  I am guessing that this was a Sunday South Coast Daylight service (ie the day that the Budds got serviced). This service may have been conveying some minor royal - hence the family's use of black and white film. Its from the early 1970s.
 

Onto the more routine express trains, a 421 on an up South Coast Daylight.  Lovely set of cars.

By the late 1970s we had lost the 44s for 422s on most of these trains as shown in the following shots - the 44s were to make a return in the 1980s and 1990s.

This next one was the Sunday morning (near) express - it worked ahead of the air-conditioned set.

Moving into the motley era - the late 1980s.  The passengers in car B were certainly the unlucky ones.

This is out of focus and deteriorated but it does show a rare jumbo (442) on a passenger.  Probably a weekday afternoon service.

The 44s returned about now - including the candy ones like 4460.

Post electrification it was Sunday which provided some good GM action.  On 1 August 1993 42217 shot through North Wollongong headed south, while a year later (or thereabouts) it was 42210's job.

Might close off with the last word in loco power on the Coast in those days - 8157 hauling a  special north in 1989.

Cheers!
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