Junior's efforts

The Junior Train Hunter (JTH) passed a chronological land mark this week, so to commemorate this event i thought I would invite him into the Rambler blog as a guest photographer.  

He has picked most of these as being among his favourite photographs, which is evidence of his rather quirky range of interests.  So, please, sit back and enjoy 10 of his finest.

We'll start with this 2005 Australian classic.  The only thing missing is a half-stripped HQ Holden, to go with the BBQ, Hills hoist, inventive backyard fence and Tangara.

Number 2 is from Marrickville in January 2005, showing veteran Alco 4483 and even older GM27 wandering by with a trip train, both carrying virtually-new Southern Shorthaul Railroad's yellow livery.

Just down the line at Canterbury, the driver of JL404 (nee 44209) opens the throttle to give JTH's photograph that extra element.

 

In June 2005 the trip back to Sydney from Thirlmere behind 4201 and 4803 after a Rail Transport Museum event produced this rather ethereal scene.

Junior has always been rather lucky... and none more so than the day he wandered down to Koolewong station to have these strange Western Australian K class visitors rumble through. The camber of the rail through the curve adds to the angular look of the locos.

In Christmas week 2005 2214 stropped just under Unanderra pedestrian overbridge, whilst coupled to 2208 on and AFG grain train.

Into 2006 and the luck continues. Being in just the right place at the right time, JTH catches a quad coalie being led by 8230 crossing double ELs at a rain Canterbury. 

 

Back down into the Illawarra to a scene no longer available to most - the once-wide open spaces of Port Kembla Inner Harbour for quad 82s.  The blues in this photograph just scream typical South Coast weather.

 In mid-2006 the JTH made it to California. He got to Tehachapi, Vegas and Disneyland, and Cajon Pass for these two BNSF C44Ws on a container freight.

In July 2008 when he was supposedly studying for his HSC we spent a weekend at Parkes. One of the highlights was the hospitality provided by the locals, including a SCT driver who took the JTH out to 7PG1 prior to its early evening departure.

 

There is enough left in the bank for another couple of blogs by Junior, so if he behaves himself he will be invited back.  Will leave now with this posting of a bonus photograph... a rather inventive time lapse effort at Koolewong in 2009.

Salute to the last Nanny

I have had two very nice days so far this June long weekend in Sydney, each capped off with a jaunt from Sydney Terminal to Clyde and return, courtesy of the NSWGR's last remaining nanny, 3526.  

Like any 95 year-old it struggled a little with its footing in the rain today, needing assistance from a more junior colleague from the 36 class stables. However on both days its performed sterling service. Here's a shot from yesterday, when the weather was slightly better.

When 3526 was a much younger locomotive, it trod the rails of the north of the state.  So it was only really 1967, when it was withdrawn from service to operate on tours for the Rail Transport Museum (RTM), that 3526 came into view of the family's cameras.

Probably the earliest photograph we have of this locomotive was shortly after its allocation to the RTM, when it worked a tour to the NSW southern highlands.  Here it stands, taking a drink at Picton in 1967.

Some months later, 3526 scored a 'heritage' style livery, returning to a royal blue hue reminiscent of its 1930s Caves Express days.  It was in this livery one rainy Sunday in Wollongong.

The next time it made an appearance on the South Coast was to collect 4203 as a consort before climbing the Ilawarra escarpment on its way to Joppa Junction.

There were to be a couple of years interregnum before 3526 made it into the family slide box once more.  But this time was special, because we chased a train using a train.  Having missed out on tickets for the RTM's tour to Newcastle on 4 April 1970, the family followed the nanny to that city by regular train.  

I don't remember much about the trip to Newcastle, but we were obviously in Sydney to see the loco head north in its newer royal blue livery (with thinner lining).

And we were in Newcastle to see the nanny set off for its return trip.

While this was all very good and nice, the one thing I remember as a very impressionable 6 year old, was the very, very fast trip on the following passenger train - at least from Newcastle to Gosford.  It was hauled by a 40 class - I think 4017 from family folk lore - and it was the fastest trip I ever got on a train in NSW until an XPT ride in the mid-1980s.  This 40 class left nothing in the tank.  

Four decades later, it is still one of the most exhilarating rides I have ever experienced.  And it was all done in a clapped out Alco hauling a 10 car train into the fading sunset.  And thankfully, the Senior Train Hunter was game enough to stick his head out the window.

But back to 3526.  Its next appearance was a non-appearance.  It was scheduled to haul a tour train to the South Coast on 11 January 1971.  When a diesel arrived with the train, the passengers brought a story of a loco failure at Waterfall.  The Senior Train Hunter set off in the Cortina to capture the loco in its disgrace.

Eleven months later there were happier times.  In front of a crowded Farmborough Heights, 42103 pilots 3526 up the hill.

Its rather nice to reflect that nearly 40 years later, both are still plying NSW's rails.  While both locos have made it, there was a very long time when 3526 didn't look like a museum piece.  

In 1975 it steamed out to Thirlmere and then stopped - until its return service in 2004.  Since then 3526 has been at the centre of most steam-related events in NSW.

In 2006 it ran shuttles in commemoration of the centenary of Sydney Terminal.

In April 2009 3526 ran shuttles as part of the Maitland Steam Festival.

As part of its current role to provide short distance passenger services, 3526 gets to run a fair bit backwards (tender first, that is).  In fact, its probably done more miles in reverse since 2004 than it did in 50 years of NSWGR service.  In honour of this, here's a photograph of 3526 setting off to Newcastle from its home base in the 2011 Maitland Steam Festival.

 

So that brings me full circle - to yesterday.  Here's a half-hearted attempt at an art-shot.  It is a reflection of 3526 in the window of a glass-fronted building near Burwood, as the loco trails 3642 out to Clyde.

Its a great shame that another member of the 35 class was not saved from the scrapper's torch, as the only thing better than one nanny is two!

 

42s

A month ago or so I covered the 421 class locomotives operated by the venerable NSW Government Railways and its successors.  Now it is time for a roll call of that class’s closest relatives – the 42 class. 

Most readers will rejoice here – not because they are particular fans of the 42 class (though there are many of those misguided souls).  No, the rejoicing will come from the knowledge that as there are only six members of the 42 class so this author cannot possibly prattle on for too long?

And sadly, this will be a briefer contribution it should otherwise be as I seemed to have missed ever photographing 4202 during its 24 years of service life.  So, lets get into a quick review of 83.3 per cent of the NSW Department of Railways’ 42 class locomotives.

Lets get started with the class leader, 4201. While I actually seem to have accumulated a fair few shots of this unit, and not all of them blurred, I have chosen a fairly recent snap.  

A reason for this selection? Well, by my calculations this unit is now serving its 30^th year in the preservation scene after its withdrawal in February 1983, after serving only 28 years in revenue action.  

During this last three decades it has carried a green livery of various hues, first shouldered in 1980 in recognition of the 125^th commemoration of the NSW railways.  On an autumnal March day in 2007 4201 was captured rolling through the very pleasant bayside village of Koolewong.

And now… the space where 4202 should be...  Sorry about this...  Normal transmission will resume in the next paragraph.

Like its class-mate 4204, 4203 got to spend a number of years at Cowra.  Sadly for 03 it spent its last years in a bizarre livery adjacent to a local caravan park.  There wasn’t a real lot of it worth saving after a while, and now its gone to GM heaven (except its nose, which is apparently at Emu Plains).  Here’s a shot of lonesome 03 in August 1996.

Now, onto happier times.  4204 lives on, and is a fine specimen these days.  Its present livery captures that essence of maroon which isn’t evident in later NSWGR diesel-electrics’ liveries.

In 2010 4204 spent time at Eveleigh, where the following shot was captured.  Now, I would normally wince at poles growing out of the centre of a loco, but this pole has a sign atop it which states ‘no parking beyond this point’, which apparently doesn’t apply to 42 class drivers.

Because I am of a particular vintage, my major recollections of 42 class locomotives are on the south and in the shafts.  By the former I mean somewhere between Sydney and Goulburn, and by the latter I mean not being the lead locomotive in a multiple unit combination.  The following photograph isn’t the finest quality but it does sum it all up – 4205 being led by 42102 and being pushed by a little Alco battler, 48148.

This photograph just screams the dying embers of a quiet Sunday afternoon at me – because it was. About a minute after taking this snap, I knew that the good burghers of Picton had their afternoon solace severely disrupted by the two lead units.

And now, for the wackiest of them all.  Not the loco so much, but the combination of loco and location.  In the early 1970s both the NSW Rail Transport Museum and the NSW Division of the Australian Rail Historical Society ran ‘Mystery Tours’, usually around 1 April.  On one such tour, in a moment of inspired madness, someone let someone else drive 4206 around the Sydney underground.

To whoever dreamt this up, sincerely thank you.  To whoever let it happen, thank you, too.  And thanks Dad for getting out of the train whilst it was still moving (I recall it was not permitted to stop) to photograph this event and then jump back on.  And Mum, thanks for not letting me go with Dad on this once in a lifetime event - I’ll be in therapy for years for that exercise of parental control.  Anyway, back to the photograph…

 

 So, that's another class down... not looking forward to the 48ers.

 

The small stuff - short cements

Instead of waxing on about overtaxed locomotives straining to keep overloaded and over-length trains to overly ambitious timetables, its about time to celebrate the shorter freights in life. And in particular, cement trains, just because cement wagons are usually more interesting shapes than the locomotives hauling them.

So, whether you are a rail photographer searching for that quintessential iconic freight photograph, or a model rail aficionado seeking to capture the essence of a NSW freight train, consider for now the short cement train...

First up is our little friend 4833 on a very short cement, coming out of the Maldon Cement Works.  The companion photograph has appeared earlier in this blog in the collection celebrating this little Alco’s 50^th birthday.  Here is another shot of the same train, showing it being monstered by a 7 car DEB set on Maldon Curve.

This next photograph is an inspiration to Alco-holics, and to people who hear a loco whistle while still in bed.  Yes, in March 1992 I was bunked in a local Tamworth motel, only to hear a 48 class call to me.  So it was up and at ‘em, in the words of Atom Ant.   I caught 48136 and 48153 in glorious morning sunlight approaching Nemingha  about ten minutes later.  Thank you, Mr 48 Class Driver, for laying on the smoke too.

In 1983 the Senior Train Hunter captured 4609 and 8614 at Katoomba on a very lucrative freight run…. Well, it would have been lucrative if the wagon was full of gold flakes.

The next three photographs are from a short-lived and probably not all that profitable foray into southern NSW by Freight Victoria (later Freight Australia) during 2002.  Still, it made for good train hunting.  First up is EL61 and EL51 heading north through Werai in March 2002.

On another weekend in the dead of that winter, EL51 appeared once more – this time with T408 as a travelling companion.  Thankfully it arrived at Moss Vale just after the sun did that morning.

And just as the sun left the Southern Highlands in October of that year, G535 stormed through Bundanoon at speed.  It is getting a tad long to be described as a true short freight, I suppose…

So its back to the short stuff.  On one of its first forays into the general view in its new and still current livery, in 2004 I braved the elements which always seem to appear whenever I reach for a camera.  On this day 8113 paired with BL27 at Warrabrook.

And finally, the shortest of them all.  Just don’t bother with a loco at all.  Just get a tractor and shunt cement wagons up and down the track, as evidenced in the next photograph from Wauchope in 2006.

So folks, chase the small stuff in life!

Alcos at Maitland

I acknowledge the validity of others’ views that Maitland is a ‘hack spot’ unworthy of the serious attention of rail photographers.  But I respectfully disagree.

To this day, Maitland provides two elements of rail photography atypical of most locations across NSW – this first is quantity of offerings, and the other is quality of offerings.  Explaining the first – unlike most NSW locations, there is a steady flow of rail traffic in both directions.  Explaining the second – I disagree that all you see at Maitland is coal trains – sure, there are plenty of those but there are also other gems.  Grain trains, container traffic, passenger trains of every ilk and even rail maintenance trains can be seen in abundance.

And have I mentioned the amenities?  These days I would recommend the burgers at the station’s café, the provision of undercover seating and the regular station announcements to warn photographers and travellers alike of approaching events. 

In previous times I could also vouch for the hospitality of the Great Western Hotel, just across the road.  It may still be a great place for lodgings, a cracker jukebox and refreshments (a pie warmer behind the bar).  However it has now lost the one element which made it particularly valuable – train crews.  Even well into the 1990s one could sit in the front bar with a full view of the railway, and listen to the stories of railwaymen as they relaxed after a shift.  Random drug and alcohol testing of train crews seems to have diminished this practice which, on balance, is probably a good thing.

As a result of my affection for Maitland, I am sure that this location will grace this blog on more than one occasion. But now lets start with 22 August 1992 – nearly twenty years ago as this issue goes to cyberspace. 

I journeyed to Maitland on this occasion to photograph the ever diminishing numbers of 45 class and 44 class locomotives.  Of the former I was totally unsuccessful, and in relation to the latter the final score was marginally in the positive.  Still, I had a mighty good time perched on the flood gates at the western end of the station precinct for the majority of the time.  The following are some of the photographs taken that day. 

I will get the only non-Alco shot out of the way up front.  Despite the derision of others and the cost of film, I always photographed the two car diesels which were ubiquitous at that time.  After 20 years and countless shuttles between Newcastle and Telarah, they are no more.

Early in the day (OK, I start later than most) I was pleasantly surprised by triple jumbos on an up interstate container freight.  On this occasion,  44239, 44220 and 44226 were doing the work.

There wasn't much longer to wait before their slightly older brethren - 44212 and 44207 headed northwards with another container train.

While I wasn't getting to see what I had traveled 100 miles for, there was plenty of Alco product in evidence. Mostly the examples were little Alcos in charge of big coal trains, lashed up into groups of three or four.  The first set was the all-red-terror combination of 4864, 4868, 4873 and 4880 heading to the port of Newcastle.

Get ready, alcoholics - there are another four sets of these unit coal trains to come!  Next up was 4860, 4876, 4874 and 4878.

Then it was the turn of 4885, 4868, 48152 and 4886 - the middle two units wearing the first and the last liveries worn by this class of locomotives whilst in public ownership.

Is if to test my patience at observance of these rugged little units the great controllers in the sky (at Broadmeadow Control, of course) sent 4899, 4854, 4856 and 4893 and their train away from the port to return to some non-descript colliery up the Hunter Valley.

Then, finally, what I had come for, actually arrived.  Off the 'Coast' came a burbling 4499 with another container train. 

And then it was back to... you guessed it... 48s!

This time it was another all-red-terror combination -4899, 4854, 4856and 4893 working their way back up the Valley.

By mid-afternoon the bright lights of the big city of Sydney beckoned figuratively, so I headed back to platform 1 for the trip home.  And then, just before my passenger train arrived, two more of the Alco world series arrived - 4482 and 4481 trundled through with a general freight - a bucolic conclusion to a fairly interesting day.