Diversions on a wet afternoon

Just sitting here on the farm, watching the creek rise. Figured it was time to do something productive so I have dug up more photos from Phil Clarke's collection.  These first three date from January 1982 and are taken at Bellambi on the south coast (the station can be seen in the background).  First up, 42204 and a 44 on the down Intercapital Daylight Express to Melbourne - diverted down the Coast.

Wherever the Daylight goes, the Riverina Express follows (or precedes, can't remember which).  So here is a little DEB goodness. Bit of an eclectic mix here, livery wise.

Then finally, at approximately 10:50 am or so (the train was scheduled into Wollongong just before 11), a scheduled service with five Budds and a Tulloch making up the down morning South Coast Express.

Phil was pretty good at giving details on the back of his photos but this one he missed. Anyway its 42212 on an air-conditioned passenger somewhere in NSW or Victoria.

Anyway, back to watching the creek rise.

Cheers

Don

 

3203 on the Coast

Just a quick one tonight to dust the blogging cobwebs off me.

3203 came through Wollongong in January 1972 on its way to points south (presumably Kiama).  Phil Clarke was there to capture the event.

Here's a few shots of the P getting out of Wollongong, fast, it would seem.

Cheers,
Don

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

The lost children of Wollongong

The last two posts have been rather sombre affairs so I thought I would take it up a notch before the month is out... this time covering the motley collection of vehicles which seemed to congregate on the eastern (down) side of Wollongong station.  

I had started planning this post with a question - which wagon or carriage are you aware of that stayed in (some sort of) service but remained in the same place for the longest.  I had been thinking the diner parked near platform 15 at Sydney Terminal - it always seemed to be there in the 1970s and 1980s.  I have surprised myself by apparently taking a photo of it (AB91 methinks) in 1981, and then being able to find it for this post.

But I digress, Wollongong. This next shot was taken sometime between March 1961 when the Budds were introduced to the Illawarra, and mid-1965 when steam had disappeared.  The photo was taken from one of Dad's favourite family-dinner-out locations, the top floor of the Sydney Wide Discount store on the corner of Crown Street and Gladstone Avenue.  We got hundreds of chip dinners on the top level of this store, so Dad could snap shots like the following.

From the shadows, I am guessing this was a midday sojourn.  My interest is only for the three vans in the left of the picture, but I guess other readers may be interested in what was squatting around the turntable.  This next shot gives you a better view of its inhabitants.

But I digress once more... back to the vans.  Rolling into 1966, 3014T did a week or so of relief work in the Illawarra whilst the usual 30 tank was serviced.  On dusk on 28 April 1966, 3014T can be seen pulling past one of the more unusual vehicles in the collection.

One day I will Photoshop that slide.  OK, by 1969 when the NMRA visited rainy Wollongong and points south in CPH19, the line up may have changed somewhat.

I have nothing from the seventies to add right now, but the following snap from the favoured location in 1980 shows the collection of vans had been joined by an FO-type carriage.  And yes, not ot digress again but those orange things in the yard are AIS diesels.

It only took me two years to get around to it, but I did manage to photograph that carriage.  I could be totally wrong but I think it was carrying the title of L875 at the time.

And here is L875 with its collection of six runty orphans.

I suspect the line-up didn't stay together for long.  By December 1983 L875 had been joined by a number of cream-coloured vehicles.

And then the great leveler, electrification, came.  This final shot show Wollongong yard under transformation.  The little collection of vehicles have gone - most likely trundled at a slow speed to the back of Port Kembla, then torched. Oh dear, ending a blog on another sad note.

I will try to devise a cheery post over the next week or so.

Don

When 3501 came to town.

On 29 August 1968, 3501 made what I think was its last trip to the Illawarra. Here's three shots of this tour.

The first has 01 on the down platform road at Wollongong.  See if you can spot Wally...

Yep, some hoon is photobombing from the end window of what I suspect is a HFL?

The next two shot is from a photostop at the Inner Harbour.  Do this these days and you'll be either run over by quad 82s or arrested for breaching national security.  Or both.

Number 3 shot is the loco shooting back through Mount St Thomas, which suggests the photographer was too slow to the location to get a front-on shot, or it got mucked up somehow.

 Cheers!
Don

A very special pig

This weekend appears to be the last hurrah for 3642, as it is due to be retired once more. I say once more because it has retired in 1969, 1973 and 1996. So never say 'never', but I suspect its probably the last time that I'll see it run around unless I get to be a very grumpy old man.

Wikipedia tells me that 'locomotive 3642 is two-cylinder, simple, non-condensing, coal-fired superheated, 4-6-0... express passenger steam locomotive built for the NSW Government Railways in 1926 by Clyde engineering'. I had the great pleasure of being primed all over by '42 last Friday on my last trip behind her, but before I get to that shot, here's a few others from years past...

While still in Government service - at Wollongong on a Port Kembla Inner Harbour tour on 3 September 1967. 

 The following year as a Rail Transport Museum loco - also at Wollongong.

Coupling up to 3651 for a trip up the Hill at Unanderra on 22 June 1969.

At the 'reopening' of Central Station on 28 November 1982.

Back in Wollongong on a Beach Tour in 1983.

On Wentworth Park Viaduct on 31 August 1991.

Heading off to the Southern Highlands for the RTM on 18 September 1994.

On a down Steamfest shuttle at Beresfield on 19 April 2009.

Same even, in 2011, at Maitland.

Shuttling off to Clyde on 11 June 2011.

Off on a Southern Highlander tour, via the Coast: 27 July 2013.

Through Redfern on a shuttle around the suburbs on 28 July 2013.

At rest in Central on 6 June 2014.

Off to Maitland Steamfest on 8 April 2016.

And now, the present... the beginning and the end of my trip last Friday, 13 April 2018.

So, here's to a loco that has spent more time in preservation than in revenue service, and nearly as much time in green as in black... one last look at a very special locomotive, once again in Wollongong in the late 1960s, being admired by the locals.

Cheers,
Don

4499 after being a ghost

A couple of years ago (2016) I published some shots of 4499 shortly after it had been repainted into its unique grey ghost livery in January 1986. If you are wondering what I am talking about and can't be bothered scrolling down to find the article, here is another shot of 4499 heading north through Sawtell with a little Alco cousin - am thinking this was around September 1986 (photo snapped by the Senior on one of his numerous holidays).

I had forgotten that this livery only lasted until the following September (according to the Digest), whereupon it got the candy treatment. So here are a few shots of it in its candy scheme...

Well, here's a bit of '99 but to be fair, this was the shot I wanted - one of Keira Signal Box at Gipps Street, Wollongong.

I am guessing that 4499 spent its last years working out of Broadmeadow depot? I only saw it up north, like this day when I caught it squeezed between 44225 and 4448 near Tamworth at dusk.  The day was 13 April 1992 by the way...

The last time I saw the penultimate member of the 44 class was 22 August 1992 when it rolled by on a container train at Maitland. A nice train to remember it by!

Cheers,
Don

Gipps Road level crossing

When I was a whippersnapper the closest level crossing was at Gipps Road,Wollongong.  As Wollongong grew it became quite a bottleneck on afternoon peak hours, particularly given its proximity to a set of traffic lights.  Even though some of the family were quite keen on trains, there was unparliamentary language used on many occasions if the family sedan was detained in front of the boom gates.

Anyway, I loved the gates, especially if walking across them as you had the novelty of a chicane and those uneven timber boards to navigate, usually in a a pair of thongs.  All rather exhilarating for a lad growing up in the Gong in the 1970s.

Like most things one loves, absence makes the heart grow fonder.  So this afternoon when I realised its been 30 years since its passing (or more), I just had to dig out all the photos I have of the level crossing.  And then I found this motley collection.  Maybe I didn't love it as much as I do now - though its replacement the Tramway Bridge is a much better place from which to watch trains.

Here's the only one I have of the box in action.

From another angle, the gates have just opened and what looks like a Cortina passes a NRMA roadside van.

And now for a couple of the box closed and waiting for demolition.

By the time these shots were taken the boom gates had served their purpose and were resting, awaiting removal.

Not a bad place to leave it - resting in the long grass.

Cheers,
Don