Enfield's survivors

About a year ago I started what has proven to be a very occasional series of posts on Enfield loco depot in the 1960s and 1970s. Given that my last post on this subject was April 2014 it has proven to be very occasional.  Time to redress the absence with a post covering those locos which went though storage at Enfield and didn't end up scrapped.

First shot is one of an oil-burning 5910 being hauled across the turntable by 1033. I have this photo marked as June 1963. At this time 1033 was supposed to be the Eveleigh shunter but may have been doing a cameo.  5910 was converted to coal burning in early 1966 and both are now with the organisation formerly known as the Rail Transport Museum (RTM).

The alleged reason for the RTM's existence was the preservation effort focussed on 5711. Here it is around 1966 at rest. Ignore those youngsters climbing on it with screwdrivers - it was the 60s!

Around 1970 a number of RTM and other preserved locos were located together - 3265, 3801, 3642, 3616, 381 and 3820 at Enfield all make it into this photo.

1919 never looked better than when it was withdrawn.  It had a run on an RTM tour so had been spruced up somewhat.

1076 was another of those locos that probably shouldn't have survived, but did.  Now it rests at Goulburn.

3102T was about to escape storage and head to Canberra by the time this photo was taken around 1975.

Finally, in 1975 3237 had to wait a long time for preservation but it was worth it. 

Ciao for now!
Don

Picton - Part III

OK, charming comments like those from Linton never fail to elicit a positive response.  This post is a just a shorty, to take me up to 1994 which was quite a watershed year for  loco power in NSW.  

The following photo comes from at least five years before then (and possibly earlier). I may have posted it previously but its such a great caricature of southern NSW goods workings in the 1970s, with 42102, 4205 and 48148 heading south with an eclectic range of goods wagons.

I have always loved this next shot too - taken in those days when it was okay to swing off the end of an FO carriage. Here 3137 is about to pass 42211 in October 1980. Managed to ruin some guy's photo of the 30 tank too - oops, sorry!

The short south in the early 1980s was 422 territory.  Taken off the road bridge in 1980, the class leader works an up Southern Highlands Express.

 
And the next shot is from nearly the same location.  It provides a salutary lesson about the lamp posts of Picton, which jump out and move around randomly! I fell victim to one such lamp post in 1983 when trying to photograph 42209 on an up goods.

To avoid the roaming lamp posts, on a Sunday afternoon late in April 1984 I moved over to the western side to photograph an RTM shuttle - only to have triple 80s (including 8043 and 8008) obscure the train.  Thirty odd years later, I am not too sad that I missed the steam train.

 
Finally, its always god to finish with a gaggle of Alcos... this time it is 4887, 4805, 4807 and 4845 on a Tahmoor Colliery coal train at Picton on 14 June 1992. Wrong road too, so it is about to be stowed.

Ciao for now!
Don

Picton Part II - Steam in the diesel era

Its been three months since the first installment of the Picton series, so it is time for another dose of the best little town south of Menangle and north of Bargo.  This time I thought I would clean out a few remaining steam shots so the next installment can concentrate on superfreighters and block coal etc. 

So, to steam locos in preserved service. I appreciate the recent populist trends to colourise our rail heritage by painting everything that steams into a livery that may have some tangential connection to the locomotive concerned. In my humble opinion, there are few finer things than a black pig (one which comes to mind is a black pig heavily weathered after years working on the Western Division of the NSWGR). Exhibit A is 3616 on a tour at Picton on 20 December 1970.

3137 was a stalwart for the RTM in its early years at Thirlmere. I think these two shots are from the winter of 1979 as it works the last shuttle of a Sunday afternoon.

I think I was going through a glint-shot phase as I scored 3214 in basically the same position in 1983.

The next three shots are from the RTM's Open Day in 1989. First up is 3112 and 5910 working through to Thirlmere.

Another shuttle involved 3001T and 3137.  Nearly another glint shot!

And here is 3801, which once appeared at every steam festival because it was the epitome of rail heritage.  There is not much to the photograph, but take a look at the bloke on the footbridge copping a lungful of smoke!

Finally, for many years every trip to Picton meant seeing a green C38 Pacific. Sadly, it was 3813 (or the greater part thereof) loaded into S trucks.

Ciao!
Don

The early Indians

Twenty three years ago today, on 1 February 1992, Australian National assumed the responsibility to provide locomotives for the Indian Pacific. Prior to then it was possible to find just about anything hauling the train, including branch liners.  

We were generally blase about photographing the IP as it was a loco-diesel hauled passenger train.  Yes, another thing in life we were profoundly mistaken about. Lets have a look at the few times when we could be bothered.

The first two are of marginal photographic quality but describe the initial loco rostering - double 46s from Sydney to Lithgow and then double 44s from Lithgow to Parkes. The first is from the train as it climbs the Blue Mountains.

In May 1977 4485 and another western division 44 rip through Raglan.  The difference in shades of paint on the two locos is rather significant.

Once west of Parkes, the IP was usually a single 80 class roster.  8021 has made it to Broken Hill and someone has run to the end of the platform before it gets decoupled.

In January 1982 we did one of those summer road trips where you nearly froze and it rained all the time.  It did stop for a bit at Wallerawang with 44210 and 4452 up front.

 
The following year we tried something similar and got a similar result - this time with a 442 leading an 80 class.

In July 1985 we found 8046 arriving at Parkes for a crew change - otherwise the bloke in the foreground is just a very enthusiastic passenger.

In July 1986 we spent a week chasing trains over the Blue Mountains. One we didn't manage to miss was the Indian Pacific.  In fact we caught it twice: firstly going west through Zig Zag and then the eastbound service at Lithgow.

When Australian National took over responsibility for the IP life didn't get quieter. I will finish with their greatest statement on the style of that train - double CLPs in the special IP livery.

Ciao!

Don

Hobart Town

Just celebrating the Australia Day weekend and celebrating that great Australian telco, Telstra, who have managed to restore broadband services to my abode after they accidentally uninstalled something in the local junction box on 23 December 2014. Anyway, enough of the grizzles about overseas-based call centres masquerading as 'service centres who care about you and your family'.  Time to get out of the telco bashing and into the trains...

In 1989 I did a trip to Tasmania and ended up in Hobart for Australia Day. I wandered up to the railway yard where there was absolutely nothing happening. I knew nothing much about Tasmanian railways at the time and still don't, so please bear with me.

Y1 looked a bit faded in its AN livery.

Its immediate sister, Y2, didn't look much better-kept.

 Actually I think the yellow ANR livery is pretty good.  Love the tiger stripes on the cab.

 By now you may have guessed that no-one in the Apple Isle owns a whippersnipper. They had scrumbled up the money to purchase a couple of Queensland veterans, like ZC27...

And ZC10...

And around about now, I needed to beat a retreat to the cool of the car as it was an unseasonal 24 degrees.

Ciao!

A few bargains

Twenty years ago yesterday the NSW State Rail Authority auctioned locomotives which were deigned to be either at the end of their service life and/or surplus to current and anticipated requirements.  

In what became known as the Great Loco Auction, at Cardiff on 6 December 1994, 128 locomotives went over the auctioneer's block. Most were indeed at the end of their service life or incomplete, and were nothing more than fodder for scrap metal merchants.  But others were complete bargains, returning to service for the next two decades in various guises and for new operators.  Thought I would mark the occasion tonight by saluting a few of those bargains.

First up, 4814 and 4836 cost a certain Dr Sheerif a total sum of $34,000.  They became the backbone of Austrac's operations until its demise and have since performed sterling service for Junee Railway Workshop and various lessees. I caught them six years after their sale, when they opened up through Canterbury on a trippy in April 2001.
 

 Another Alco bargain was 4829, purchased by the (then-named) Silverton Tramway Company for $17,000.  It was nearly 34 years of age when purchased, but it received a pleasing coat of Silverton's yellow & blue and was renumbered as ST33.  Over the years it morphed into 33 and it now 48s33.  Only recently it escaped the fate of many former Silverton/Engenco colleagues to be rebirthed by John Holland.  I found it in Orange a couple of months ago whilst chasing an errant dog through a railway yard.

Larger mainline units probably constituted a slight majority of the locos on offer, including a number of 45 classes.  Unlike their near-cousins, the 44 class, 45s haven't prospered in private hands. One which has made it nearly all the way through those two decades has been 4503, although it had to wear the Patrick's 'Big Red Tomato' livery for much of the Noughties.  Here it is on May Day, 2006, at Marrickville. Not bad for an $18,000 investment!

Another to survive the two decades through a series of (ahem) novel liveries has been 4488.  It was purchased for a meagre $17,000. Currently it sits in Goulburn, wearing the IRA/Qube all over silver.  But upon restoration to service in private ownership it wore the lavender of the New Central Railroad, as captured here.

Not all locos were scrapped or went on to wear innovative liveries.  One of my favourites - 4473 - returned to its original kit.  I think I have posted similar shots in other blog entries but, as I said, 4473 is a favourite so here it is once more.  If I had had $16,000 laying around at the time I should have bought it - instead I got a Trainorama version from Tom's at 1/87th of the size and 1/107th of the price.

And now I am going to finish off with a video.  Here's a minute of two great survivors - 44202 and 44220 passing through Marrickville in May this year. These days 44202 wears the silver and yellow of Qube and 44220 is disguised in green and carries the moniker 442s1 as a testament to its Silverton days. Its dark and I have truncated the video to make it easier to upload, but I defy you to disagree that it wasn't worth $60,000 to still have these two darlings dribbling around Sydney's freight lines.

I have had a lot of fun working this blog up - primarily because I have drawn heavily from the most excellent Railway News CD released recently. Definitely recommended as a Xmas stocking filler and it carries a great report of the auction in its December 1994 edition.

Ciao for now!

Christmas Kids Special

Great work to 3801 Ltd and LVR for packing 10 cars on this year's special. It's going to be a great day for lots of kids and their carers.

More photos on my other blog, Eumungerie Railway.

Better get off to work