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

Grafton, Spring 1976

Earlier this year I acknowledged Phil Clarke's passing. Since then I have been fortunate in receiving some of Phil's photographs, including this neat little set of South Grafton in September 1976. True to the times, he shot in black and white using a trusty instamatic so please do not adjust your screens. Here is a nice location shot of the depot.

Phil then managed these three shots of 4303 being prepared for a working southwards, almost certainly to Broadmeadow.

And he wasn't averse to snapping the newer locos - like the yard shunter, 7318.  44204 is the mainliner in the background.

More from me, and Phil, over the coming months.

Cheers,
Don

Port Kembla's railway crematorium

Its been a while.  Reasons for the quiet include blowing up this computer, but normal service is resuming.  I figured I would mark the return of the computer to life with a collection of photos of carriages and wagons about to make their final trip.

Out the back of Port Kembla loco there was (and probably still is) an area which could only be described as the railway equivalent of purgatory. Its where you got shunted until someone decided whether you had further revenue service in you, or a trip to the scrapper's torch.  Quiet a few locos ended up in this area too, but most managed to survive.

In the mid-1980s all sorts of stuff arrived, sat around, got stripped of useful parts and then usually burned. They were simpler times.  The metal went off to the local furnaces. And life carried on, albeit under a cloud of air pollution.  

And so it was for all sorts of rolling stock, much having little or no connection with the Illawarra. Like this little lonely 4 wheel hopper. It got to spend a fair period literally at the end of the line.

I am unsure whether unit stock trains ever ran on the South Coast - certainly the odd BCW was shunted at the stock races at Unanderra and points south of there.  I am almost certain that the next rake of BCW and BSVs did not bring a trainload of happy sheep and cattle down to the Port Kembla seaside for the day. 

BSV 30216 may have been part of this consist. Like how I lined it up, not on the level?

In the 1980s, modest 4 wheel vans were routinely hunted down and sent to Port Kembla to be vanquished from the network. Didn't catch the numbers for these two beasties.

Even vans made it to the killing grounds. NGVA 30950 was caught obstructing a good view of the now-lost stack.

S wagons were regularly in attendance. Less common were KKG horse floats. Someone else will remember the details - this one may have escaped the carnage after this photo was taken. 

As mentioned earlier, carriages made the odd appearance.  I have this next one marked as CR 1373. 

And to finish off I am going to wind forward a decade or so to 1994.  I am not sure what happened to NHRH 50166 after its bingle with 8122 in March 1994, but it made it past the overbridge and into the scrapper's arena for a while.

Back with more happy stuff soon!

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

A couple from Cowan (& not from me)

Just  quick one to clean out another selection from the camera of Mr Ian Brady.  These two shots apparently date from 24 November 1956 (the alternative offered date is 15 December 1956), and what great photos they are!

This first photo shows 3606 hauling a 4 car Pullman set up Cowan Bank, with what appears to be an EHO trundling behind.  I am always happy for esteemed readers to correct or add to this caption... going out on a limb to guess this could be the up Kempsey Day Train?  Just a stab in the dark but I seem to remember these carriages being used on this service prior to being condemned in 1960.  Glorious shot of a pig in its prime though.

This next shot perhaps eclipses the first? Here we have 3818 on an up Newcastle Flyer service. Gee it would have been something special to be line-side as it passed.

Anyway, this nearly ends my little cache of gems from the lens of Mr Brady.  There are a few more trams around Glebe to sort through, then a special collection of industrial locos in operation around Port Kembla in August 1955.  Will get them sorted and up here as fast as I can.

Cheers,
Don

PS for details on why I am displaying another man's (remarkable) efforts, please read my post from 12 October 2017.

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

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