Raichase

We've all got to move on at some point...

...so, move on folks!

My blog has now moved to Wordpress, as I can hitch it in tandem with a personal blog of mine (plus I have a bit more freedom with the posting style, so hopefully it will be easier on the eyes).

Please direct your browsers here:

http://trackside.wordpress.com/

Catchy, huh?

R.

It's certainly how I will be going to and from Newcastle next time I travel. The XPT. eXpress Passenger Train. Although the name is a bit of a running joke in the railfan community, with names such as "eXpress Pensioner Train" among others, that's not what I'm here to discuss.

Bear with me, for I will introductionise my recent trip on the XPT, before sharing my... uhh... experience.

In the past, desperate for the earliest possible start in The Hunter, I tried a couple of options.

1. Leaving home at 0530. This would be the start of a bus ride to Wynyard. Go from Wynyard to Central. Get a train at Central leaving at 0645, arriving at Wyong at 0834. One would either alight at Gosford or Wyong to (theoretically) catch a southbound freight or two, and then jump onto a train ex Gosford at 0851 which gets to Hamilton at 1011. Change for a 1037 train out into The Hunter. Bleh.

I soon realised that this was a silly course of action. Thus, this method was altered to jump on the 0718 train out of Central, changing at Gosford to the same 0851* train, arriving the same time, but with 10-15 minutes extra sleep owing to a slightly later departure from home.

2. Crowd onto a Chatswood bound bus at 0620 (that service is usually quite crowded as opposed to the same bus going into the city), changing to a train at Chatswood to Hornsby, and joining the Gosford train at Hornsby. Same amount of sleep, but more standing on a bus. Also, less time to just sit and enjoy the journey, as one is always changing.

A new (and very obvious) option occours. Book a seat on the Casino XPT, due out of Sydney at 0715 (astute readers will note that this is three minutes ahead of the stopper to Gosford), arriving in Maitland at about 1030. Far less service changes, and a direct trip, all for $3.50 more... (roughly). Why not?

One can again use the same method to get home. The Sydney bound XPT from Brisbane arrives in Maitland at 1913, getting into Sydney at 2151. $25 each way, not a bad deal when Cityrail to Newcastle is $18 each way. Did I mention the whole "booked, reclining seat" aspect? Also, onboard buffet?

Sweet.

So, last Monday, I bowled up at Maitland Station at 1835 and rocked up to the ticket window. "One to Sydney on the XPT please". $25 goes from my wallet to the ticket agent, and my ticket is printed. Window seat, 37, in car D. Goodo. Because really, can economy be that bad compared to first on a Monday evening?

Yes, yes it can.

Some of you may have read this ramble on Countrylink. Those that have not, essentially the difference between First Class and Economy is not the quality of the seating (which is the same), just the company you keep. Also, of note is that the train I was getting on had left Brisbane a good TWELVE HOURS ago, and as my seat was booked after departure, I didn't appear on the passenger manifest.

The XPT pulls in, and those people getting off at Maitland detrain. I stand aside as three people lug their bags out of Car D. Fine. Problem being, the second they are through the door, they dump said bags and immediatly light up. No, that's fine guys, I didn't want to board the train at all. You guys can't last an extra thirty seconds for a smoke that you can't clear the bloody doorway? Heck, if they didn't have their bags in their arms, I reckon they would have been lighting up as they came through the bloody door.

So, having pushed past them ("excuse me" doesn't work to someone who hasn't smoked for at least five hours, believe me, I tried) and found my seat, I'm amused (bemused?) to find that it's occupied. The resident isn't there, but his rubbish and bag is. I plonk myself down anyway, and shift said pile to the isle seat. The owner returns, obviously having sussed out the station stop to see if he could light up and smoke a quickie before the door was closed and we left (he couldn't). He stands in the isle and looks at me, before picking up his bag (not his rubbish though) and going back to his seat, next to his partner. I'm sure he afforded me a dirty look, but I was buried in my book, with my ticket sitting open next to me, so anyone could see that I was sitting in my correct seat.

At this point, I would like to remind you that this train has been running for over 12 hours. It has gone from being a train where everyone sits in their seat and reads/looks out the window/talks quietly to the person next to them, to being a silver tube which is one giant lounge room. There are shoes kicked off (socks lying around the isle), people snoring, people listening to music with their mobile phone (and not using headphones), people walking back and forth for whatever reason. People have moved to "empty" seats and lain down, so that their feet hang into the isle. Bags are scattered everywhere. I felt immediately sorry for the staff of the train, walking into our carriage was akin to walking into a teenagers bedroom. The smell alone would have deterred anyone.

I put the armrest between my seat and the isle seat up and settle in for the trip. Immediately, it comes back down, and someones foot comes through the gap. Uhh, have we met? Seems this person wants to stretch out a bit, and they don't care where their foot goes. I slowly put the armrest back up, and the foot moves, digging into the back of my chair. That's fine, I didn't want to recline my seat anyway (although I might have changed my mind if the person in front of my wanted to recline theirs).

Diagonally across from me is a bloke with no shoes (although the soles of his feet look like the soles of my work shoes), dreadlocks, and what can only be described as "hippy attire". He is amusing himself by playing air-bongo-drums. He seems very pleased with himself, although he has no headphones, so the music is all in his head - I enjoy watching him, he's really enjoying himself. Then he misses a note or something, because he gets mad. Belts the seat in front of him, kicks his legs out and gets up and storms off. I have no idea WHAT was going on there... Sure enough, he's back ten minutes later (we're on a moving train, where else is there to go?), sits down and resumes his music. More strange kick moves follow, a bit of standing up and sitting down and some dance moves... A little odd.

All that being said, we arrived in Central ten minutes ahead of the timetable, and it was a fast, comfortable and cheap way to get home. Next time, I'm traveling first class though. It's only $15 more, and you swap the students and the air-bongo-players for pensioners who just sleep or talk to the oldie next to them. I like them a bit more...

;)

R.

* This is an interesting spot in the timetable. An 8-car train will go Sydney - Gosford, where it will turn around and convey the morning off-peak passengers into Sydney. As the return trip arrives about 10am, it's quite popular with people going into the city, but outside of peak hour. One changes at Gosford to a 4-car train that comes down from Newcastle and terminates. There is always the great moment when one train runs early/late and arrives exactly the same time as the other train, and everyone dodges each other playing "train swap". It is, however, inconvenient, as one can't doze off at Central, lest one get to Gosford and come home again by mistake!

Well, I had yesterday (Monday) off, and I thought "gee, nothing interesting runs on a Monday" (a lot of intermodal freights are running Tue/Wed/Thur/Fri/Sat). So, the natural thing to do was to jump up to Morisset to snap some photos of the Interail coal train that runs between Newstan Colliery and Vales Point. It's an unusual train in that it uses far smaller hoppers than the "proper" Hunter Valley trains, and far different rolling stock.

Hunter Valley coal trains are traditionally behind large locomotives, like 82's, 90's or 5000's. The exceptions are always the most interesting, such as the PacNat train on the SMR (South Maitland Railway) behind 48 class, using ex grain hoppers, and the new South Spur service on that line using T class and containerized coal. So yeah, this is one of the exceptions.

If I was hoping to see a 421 or 422 leading, some great vintage NSWGR motive power, I was to be disappointed, with 42306 and 42304 leading the train, with 42109 stuck in the shafts. The 423 class are ex QR diesels that have 49 class bogies. Annoyingly enough too, the lead loco wasn't even in the old Interail/Northern Rivers Railroad colours, it was in the new QR National scheme! Doh!

Knowing that when the train came back, it would be exactly the same, having run around a balloon loop, I resolved to move up to Newcastle - I was going to meet a friend in the CBD for a beer, as he's moved to uni up in Newcastle, so we don't see each other much anymore. To kill time, took some very average photos at Metford, before moving to Victoria Street.

Naturally, it was at Victoria Street that the Pelton train made it's appearance, behind PL2, 48134, 48143 and 48120, while the camera was still in the bag (I'd gotten off my train and let the herd push their way up the stairs ahead of me).

Having passed the two T class in Broadmeadow Yard already, I gave up and went to meet my friend. Of course, on the way back, I passed the Cobar ore train behind BL26 and BL33, and at that point I just decided I wasn't going to bother anymore. Had some drinks and got the XPT home again at 7:15 from Maitland (that experience in itself is worthy of a whole 'notha blog post...)

The advantage is, aside from hitting the main south this Sunday, the next days off I get, I'll be back to The Hunter to make up for yesterdays shortcomings.

R.

P.S Todays photo was taken back in January, not yesterday - hence why it is actually kinda good :P

(Authors note: I apologise to my readers who are not mad about Railpage, I posted this report on Railpage planning on posting it again here, and totally forgot. For those of you who have read this, please pass it on by, this is for those who don't follow every nuance of Railpage in all it's... erm... glory. Regards, Trent).

That would have to go down as one of the most enjoyable days I have ever spent trackside in my experience chasing trains (which, while meager, is still enough to make this day a true standout).

The mission? To chase 3642 on it's mystery tour around the suburbs, with no timetable or any clear idea of where it would be going, and limited to two legs (four legs, as [b]Fred3801[/b] obligingly came too), buses, trains, taxis and ferries (although how the latter would plan on out pacing a 36 I don't know). We only had a starting time (10am) and a finish time (5:30pm), and the knowledge that it couldn't go west of Blacktown.

Let me just say, wow.

A couple of points before I launch into a long winded recap:

1. Timetabling for this trip was amazing. They did some things I didn't think would be possible, as well as doing some really unexpected things. They covered a lot of ground and did some really fancy driving, so to speak. Massive amounts of kudos to the bloke who sat down and planned the whole thing out, it was such a mystery tour that it was very exciting to chase.

2. The 36 looked and sounded great, and all of the crew were really friendly and they put on one heck of a show. I would encourage anyone who came along on the day or went out to see it to make your appreciation known to the museum staff either by e-mail or post, because it must have been a lot of work getting the 36 back to running condition, and the logistics of the whole day.

I was, and still am, blown away by the whole day.

First stop was Summer Hill, about 10am. Right from the get go, things got interesting - we both knew that it wouldn't be a simple "sit here and wait for it to go past", we would have to work for it. Sure enough, the text message comes through from a mate on board "we're going into the (Illawarra) dive". Cue a frantic rush to Burwood to get a bus to Campsie to try and catch them on the Banko (provided they didn't hit the Illawarra). Success, our first sighting of 3642 charging into Campsie Station, where it...

...stopped. We scramble for the platform, then Fred spots the key - they're reversing (he noticed the marker lights on 4916, who was trailing, had changed from red to white). Cue a frantic dash for a cab to get us to Dulwich Hill before the train. Great cabbie did his best to get us there ahead (they were limited to 40kph due to the 36 running tender first) of the train, but we failed due to some poor luck with traffic and traffic lights.

So there we are, at the platform. Sightings, 1, photos, 0.

No time for a rest though, as we are soon moving onto a train back to Campsie, the plan being to catch the Enfield bound Mungo Scott train - we may have missed the main event, but no sense missing another oft unseen working, is there? Especially not with 8050 on the back in shiny new PN paint. Having arrived at Campsie (again) we rushed to a trackside lane to get some good shots.

Then we find out that the return working (as 3642 went to Botany) might not be coming through Campsie, it might reverse again and go down the Meeks Rd junction onto the Illawarra, we run back to the station just in time to get onto a train to Marrickville. Seconds after arriving, 3642 comes racing over the hill out of Cooks River. Cue much whooping and cheering from myself.

Sightings 2, photos 1.

Perhaps she's going north? We go back to Central, then head up to West Ryde. No good, she's going back to Central for lunch via Sydenham. Doh. We then head down to Summer Hill, as the lighting is now very favourable. Sure enough, our secret source on board the train is right again, and after a quick photo stop at Stanmore, The Pig charges uphill past a platform full of dazed inner west passengers, before pausing to cross over onto the suburban/main (we didn't see which) before going through Olympic Park.

We move to Strathfield, reasoning she could go west or north. We guess north again, and get as far as North Strathfield before our source tells us they are bound for Granville. Well, sort of, as soon they are branching off onto the Carlingford Line at Clyde. As the service to Clyde is unreliable at the best of times, we go back to Central to await more instructions from our secret source.

Success, they are going north again, but only as far as Rhodes. So the whole "West Ryde" scenario is out the window, and we jump a late running train into Rhodes, arriving just after the 36. We jump out, cross the platform and meet up with our friend and source for what was initially going to be a quick chat. He introduces us to one of the blokes who volunteers with the RTM (both my friend and our RTM friend will remain nameless, for no reason other than I don't want to go throwing names around if the owners of such names don't want me to). Our new friend with the RTM was amazing, he showed us the cab, and then offered us a ride back to Central.

Of course, we were gob smacked and jumped at the chance to get a ride back to Central, which was made in very good company (and at a nice relaxing pace, as there was no more chasing to be done, simply relaxing in a comfy chair with good folk to talk to)

Back at Central, we got a good long look at the 36, and we were also allowed inside GMS1(?) the luxury observation car, which, after a quick poke around in, seems like a rolling hotel suite!

So really, what can I say? An amazing day of chasing and laughter, laughter at the "whoops, there it goes again", and so much fun. Thanks to my two contacts aboard the train, for keeping us updated on where the tour was going, and for the VIP treatment when we finally caught up to you :). Thanks also to Fred for putting up with an ever-so-slightly under-the-weather-It's-only-a-small-hangover Raichase, and for his good knowledge of buses in the Inner West area (without whom I would have been forced into a cab).

Thanks for reading, I'll hopefully have more to say, and plenty more photos to come. Here are a couple from the "chase" period, as I was shooting in black and white all day (I was cheating though, I shot in RAW, so the camera showed me a monochrome image, but I still get to play with a full colour photo at home), I present them to you in b/w.

More photos and chatter to come, hopefully also from Fred :)

Find the rest of the photos here

R.

Yes, as one can tell from the title, my latest batch of photos have been uploaded from December 7, 2007. Why the old photos, you ask?

Well, I'm not feeling 100% over the last week and a bit, so these two days off from work will be spent between the bed and the PC chair (and perhaps the kitchen, if the urge to eat arises). Mostly the bed. Heck, most of today was spent in bed.

So yeah, no new stories or photos until easter, it would seem. Due to the mandatory two days off, plus another regular rostered day off earlier in the week, I might find some time to get some reporting done.

Question is, where to go?!?

R.

The Main South is my new favorite spot to take photos - simply because of the lack of wires, it gives one so much more freedom to take great sweeping curve photos of trains.

Problem is, it gets boring fast, so my advice would be to find somewhere with a level crossing and just chill out in the shade with a book until the alarm starts going off. With 2 hours between each passenger train, and sometimes over an hour between freight movements, you don't want to burn out too quickly...

Things started off badly, with MB7 arriving into Sydney a bit early(1), making the difference between a photo of them powering through Menangle Park, and no photo at all. I scored the latter. Never mind, just triple CLF/CLP's, nothing remarkable about that!

At Menangle Park, made just the one sighting of note:



0820 NR101/AN4/NR105 MB4 up PN Intermodal.

Of note, NR101 seems to have all her National Rail Diamonds intact, which is quite rare these days. In fact, the photo could have been taken recently, or back in the days of National Rail...

With a good three/four hour gap between trains, the decision was made to move a fair way south to Mittagong, for some snacking and to check out a pedestrian level crossing south of the station. We arrived about 30 minutes late into Mittagong, after a delay at Menangle Park (turns out the front car of the Endeavour had broken down, and we were operating on one motor only)

Success! The level crossing is good for northbound trains, as demonstrated by 8159:



With the above movement running earlier than normal, and nothing due from the north for another three hours or so (2), I decided to try out Yerrinbool, somewhere on a curve that I'd not tried.

Again, result.

Sighted 2212 heading light engine back towards Moss Vale at 1110 - quite a surprising movement, and I was glad I caught it. 2212 had just a day earlier brought the AK cars back into Sydney - rare to see a GWA unit up Sydney way, normally they go no further than Junee.

You can hear northbound trains a good minute or so before they arrive, so a very loud diesel sound woke me out of my doze and prompted a move to the end of the platform, just in time to fudge a bunch of photos of NR98 leading NR75 north towards Sydney with 1XW4 Port Kembla bound empty steel.

Whoopdie doo, I said. Then I noticed the two green trailing units on the train were none other than G543 and G526 on their transfer run up from Victoria, likely headed for Port Kembla to replace GL's on Southern Coal trains(3):



Cue a move to Bargo to see what else I could see - ideally a good possie for BM7 to come through. With a good two hours before it was due through Bargo, I wanted to hike along the road for a few minutes to get up a hill to get a great curve spot. Lighting would have been perfect, with a good view of the signal to frame the shot with!

Naturally, just after leaving the platform, a pair of CLF/CLP's roar through with their train, with me in no position at all to get a photo.

Doh.

Back to Yerrinbool then, as all the traffic now is headed south, and it's too hot in the sun at Bargo.

1310 NR73/NR67 NY3 down PN Steel
1331 Down Canberra Xplorer.

Apart from those movements, nothing so I chance a quick doze in the sun, until I am woken up by passengers arriving for a southbound service. So I move to the northbound platform and head home, passing BM4 on the way (behind two NR's, so no loss there).

Good day for interesting photos, shame about the QRN trains though. Ah, better to get a photo of 2212 than a couple of orange bulldogs though!

R.

(1) Normally they, and MB4, follow a Campbelltown-bound Endeavour into Sydney, but the last couple of times I've been down there, MB7 has gone ahead of the Endeavour, obviously overtaking it at Moss Vale.

(2) Should have known better, of course...

(3) You'd be forgiven for wondering about all the b/w photos, truth be told, I was having a shocker of a day for colour photos/lighting/contrast, so I took the easy way out...

Just a quickie (hehe, quickie), and another reminder to take photos now, because tomorrow it might be gone.

You might remember this photo:



Have a look at the siding to the right of the main line. Looks disused, yeah? Looks pretty comfortable where it is though, right? Bet you thought it'd be there forever?

Hah.

Was there just over a month after taking that last photo, and saw this:



It's gone! Sure, the turnout is there, but the siding? Vanished.

Something to think about...

R.

I'll be perfectly honest, I'm a very, very lazy man. Not at work, that would be an easy way to cut off my income, but in general, I'll opt for the comfy lounge over the long path up the mountain. Probably why I've been so slack with the photography recently. Not slack in the sense of taking photos, I've got over a thousand again from February alone... Mostly in the "editing and uploading" business.

Come to think of it, perhaps that's why this hobby appeals in the first place. Do I like trains? (check). Do I like photography? (check). Do I like lazing about in the sun for hours on end, exerting myself once an hour or so to move slightly push the shutter down, perhaps wave, then resume my position of slothfulness? YEAH :D.

Was there a point to this rambling? I imagine so.

Ah!

Of course! While trying to remove 236GB of crap from my HDD (that's it's capacity, and it's full...), I moved a lot of my older photos onto two external harddrives, as a temporary measure until I can (a: get a new HDD of 500GB, and b: hook up my last PC to this one as some kind of slave HDD machine). While doing so, I stumbled on the 300+ photos I shot on December 15, 2007. What so about that day, you ask? Well, that was the day I went bezerk around the city chasing another RTM train (for those of you not on Railpage looking for my latest adventure, rest assured it's coming), the RTM members Xmas Party Train.

The tour was pulled by veterans 4803 and 4916, and went Thirlmere - Campbelltown - Central (via East Hills) - Valley Heights, then back south through Enfield to Botany Yard, before moving back to Leightonfield, again via Enfield, then back via Regents Park to Central (if my dodgy memory serves).

I made a number of other sightings on that day, which may be of interest. Some of them mundane, a couple of them interesting!

I first caught the tour at Tempe, having just come off Wolli Creek Junction, with the 49 in the lead:



I moved northwest to Summer Hill, again catching the tour, this time with 4803 leading (as seen above).

With plenty of time to kill, I moved to Campsie for lunch, then on to Canterbury with the intention of snapping the train as it made it's way to Botany. While I failed to get any noteworthy photos of 4916 leading the train towards Botany (a shame, as it was a good view), I did see a couple of other movements, such as this one:



Veterans 603 and 602, still wearing their AN colours stomped past with a rake of empty Southern and Silverton container flats. These poor old veterans are being flogged into the ground, never to receive a new coat of paint. That's not all bad, nice to see a splash of colour around the place :).

I also managed a shot of an Inner Harbour bound coal train, and NR28 running light engine to Chullora, having come off the Indian Pacific...

...which is why I found myself back at Summer Hill, to snap an unremarkable looking NR54 hauling the Adelaide bound train. I jumped to Lewisham to see a 3801ltd tour pass behind 4486 (managed to fudge the photos, of course), before moving back to Central to see the RTM tour arriving back. The option was there to catch them again at Wolli Creek, or somewhere on the East Hills Line, but... well, see above. Raichase = lazy.

Which makes you wonder, how did I go to all the effort of not only remembering, but bashing all this stuff out from last year? Call it boredom, if you will. Perhaps those Codral's are affecting my brain as well as my symptoms.

:)

R.

(Find the rest of the days photos on Flickr, link below):

http://www.flickr.com/photos/raichase/sets/72157603853030816/

Yes, I realize I'm being rather lazy in not finishing my list of the major players of NSW Railways - I will, but I've been spending too much time socializing and not so much time in front of photoshop, or behind the camera.

Anyway, was trackside during the morning of 21/2/08 at Dulwich Hill, and recorded the following sightings:

0924 GM27/4471 down PPL Intermodal to Botany
0932 442s2 down S&S Intermodal to Botany*
0944 8221/8209/GL111/8137 up PN empty coal**
1007 2208/3103/3106 down ARG/Manildra flour to Nowra
1013 8226/8110/GL106 up PN empty coal**
1017 4458/train/4703 down IRA Intermodal to Botany
1024 4906/4903 down PPL Intermodal to Botany
1112 8126/8184 up PN Stone to Cooks River/Enfield
1121 8203/8216/8107/8256 down PN Coal to Port Kembla
1128 EL61/4514 up PPL Intermodal to ???***
1133 8148/8153 up PN Stone to Cooks River/Enfield
1145 8236/8222/8111/8135 up PN empty coal

much later... at Marrickville
1508 8153/8148 down PN Stone to Cooks River
1528 3104****/2201 down ARG/Manildra Intermodal to Botany

Track side again outside Botany on the following day, as the sun began to dip low in the sky...

1727 4708/1434/1435 down IRA Intermodal to Botany*****
1756 442s2 up S&S Intermodal to Leightonfield

*Who else would happen to be hanging out of the jumbo but well known dribbly foamer Davo? Great timing :D. The other passengers on the platform thought it odd that we were trying to have a conversation as he rumbled past.

**Unlike previous sightings, where only one or two passing coalies would contain GL's, and would have 2-3 of them, they have recently been split up again, running as single units supporting other PN units. If this has something to do with the expense of running these leased locos, or simply due to more locos being available, it is unknown.

*** 4514 was a first sighting for me, and is still in Indian Red, owned and operated by Patricks. Normally (except for the other week when it was sighted behind double GL's) this run is hauled by two or three EL class locos leased from CFCLA. I assume it is a western container train, as I've never seen it on the Main South/North, despite seeing it every day at this time running out of Botany/Cooks River.

**** Interestingly running no2 end leading.

***** Apparently this is a daily (?) transfer of containers from Cooks River to Botnay. All this time, I thought it was done by trucks :P

Feel free to stick the boot in if I forget someone!

What was once a single, government owned entity transporting everything from mail, to passengers, to commuters, to fruit, to steel and everything else, The Railways of NSW have had many faces. At the moment, it's the face of privatization, which began in the 1990's, the results really coming to the fore now. Read on, to find out about the current players

Pacific National
AKA Pathetic National...


8150 in the current Pacific National livery leads a shabbier looking classmate north through Thirroul with stone from Dunmore Quarry

Pacific National was formed in 2002 with the sale of (the then) Federal Government owned National Rail Corporation, and the NSW-State Government owned Freightcorp to Toll Holdings and Patrick Corporation. by 2004, they had also acquired "Freight Australia", the Victorian Rail Freight Company.

Pacific National own the lions share of the locomotives and rolling stock in NSW, with a large fleet (and, correspondingly large stake in the market) of coal hoppers for use in The Hunter Valley, many locomotives ranging from the branch line 48 Class (see below) to the modern NR and 90 Classes. The former being used mostly on interstate container/steel runs and the latter being used exclusively on Hunter Valley Coal.


4898 rests at Moss Vale

Pacific National operate a number of Brisbane - Sydney - Melbourne intermodal services a day, as well as a number of Perth - Sydney services each week. Other notable operations involve a hook-and-pull contract with Great Southern Railways "Indian Pacific" (see further on in this post), as well as the ever popular Hunter Valley coal traffic. Pacific National, at least until late last year, operated a number of export grain trains during the grain season.

QR National


CLF2 leading a QRN intermodal service from Melbourne, north towards Sydney at Menangle Park

QR National is an expansion of the Queensland Government owned railway, QR. QRN broke into the interstate intermodal market initially with a pair of ex PN G-Class and a pair of ex PN X-Class locomotives, running a twice weekly service from Brisbane to Melbourne and return. Following their acquisition of ARG (Australian Railroad Group), and through the leasing of locomotives from CFCLA (Chicago Freight Car Leasing Australia), they have since expanded their standard gauge operations on the east coast, as well as expanding west to Perth. Now, their trains can be seen hauled by their colourful G-Class locomotives, X-Class, or, more commonly, a combination of CLF/CLP/EL locomotives. Regardless, QRN trains are always seen to be more interesting than their PN counterparts due to the interesting lash up combinations on the front of some of their runs. Plus, the crews are always happy to give a wave and a smile.

Australian Railroad Group


2208 leads an Manildra Flour train into Unanderra

ARG is currently a branch of QRNational, operating in NSW on Manildra flour and container trains. They also operate a lot of trains in Western Australia, but that is not the concern of this article here, which aims to focus on NSW Railways. Of note is that, among their fleet includes a number of ex NSWGR 422 locomotives, renumbered into the 22 class, as seen in the photo above.

Southern and Silverton
...or whatever they are calling themselves this week.


80s6 leading an equally cruddy looking 602 north with an empty cotton train

South Spur Rail Services, formerly known as Southern and Silverton, which itself was formerly known as Silverton Rail (and seperate company South Spur Rail, in Western Australia) are fast coming to rival Independent Railways of Australia as the new "Dodgy Brothers" operator.

With a habit of breaking down and blocking main lines, a clapped out looking fleet, and a series of other goings on, the company keeps changing it's name to avoid (among other things) the negative stigma that follows them around. Originally two seperate companies, South Spur Rail and Silverton Tramway, Silverton was bought out by South Spur as a base for their NSW operations. The South Spur name, having gained a bad reputation was dumped in favour of the (then) well respected "Silverton" name with it's eye catching fleet of yellow and blue locomotives (themselves on lease from ALLCO). Having run both the fleet and the name into the dirt, the operators changed to "Southern and Silverton", before abandoning the Silverton name altogether (a sad end for a company that began in Silverton back in 1886) and picking the South Spur flag back up again.

Despite having a very... uhhh... historical fleet of locomotives, offering a variety of motive power and an always entertaining show (nothing like a thick black cloud of smoke that screams "jumbo"), they often break down on hills (just recently, a pair of IRA MZ locos had to give a SSRS train a push up Cowan Bank) and generally get in the way of other operators.

The locomotives in the photo above, for example, are a pair of vintage English Electric units from Western Australia that would not talk to anything other than another EE locomotive, and even then, only to some members of sister classes...

Independent Railways of Australia
...perhaps better known as LVRF or "Dodgy Bros"



Independant Railways of Australia, originally known as Lachlan Valley Rail Freight, or, more commonly "Dodgy Bros" due to their poor maintenance of their fleet, their use of heavily graffiti'd, overworked locomotives that were long since retired from government service and headed for the scrap heap. They break down, they belch smog, they clank and rattle, and they look like they are on their last legs.

Most of their fleet is made up of locomotives leased from other operators, such as Lachlan Valley Railway (A heritage railway based in Cowra), although the current state of the "heritage" units means there won't be anything left to preserve at the end of their lease. They also own a fleet of ex Danish Railways NOHAB MZ Class, refitted at Braemer near Mittagong, and painted in IRA's eye catching silver livery.

IRA do a lot of work for Railcorp/ARTC hauling spoil and infrastructure trains.

To be continued...

(Any comments or corrections? Please contact me!)

R.

12th of February saw Greg and myself trackside on the Metro Goods Line.

Some sightings for you, and information to follow (please note that I am using "up" in this case to refer to trains going towards Enfield and "down" to refer to trains going away from Enfield, even though this is not technically correct for trains terminating at Botany):

Marrickville:
0916 8208/GL105/GL104 up Empty Coal from Port Kembla
0921 MZ 1432 down (light engine) to Botany/Cooks River
0927 GM27/4471 down Container (Patricks) from Yennora to Botany
1007 8218/8135/8137/8107 up Empty Coal from Port Kembla
1014 4906/4903 down Containers (Patricks) from Sandgate(?) to Botany
1020 EL61/EL5x up Containers (Patricks) from Botany to ?
1038 4717*/4458 (push/pull) down Containers (IRA) from Minto to Botany
1045 442s2 down Containers (S&S) from Leightonfield to Botany**

Cooks River:
We then took a walk to Cooks River to see the IRA "Motive Depot" (my overseas readers will get a kick out of this when I bother to get my photos up, I promise), which basically consists of a siding that no longer sees use. At one end, it is horribly overgrown with a bunch of dead wagons in it. Nearby is the final (?) resting place of (wait for it...) Heritage-owned-but-leased-to-IRA 47 Class loco 4707 which has more graffiti than original paint on it, dumped in the weeds. The "depot" itself is a shipping container with a couple of deckchairs outside of it.

Wonder no more why they earned the nickname of "Dodgy Bros" (stay tuned for a proper run down on our various operators, for those just joining the show).

Locos having "work" done at Cooks River included MZ Locos 1435, 1428 and 1437, with another pair lurking in the Cooks River Container Facility. 4463 was also present, sounding just as sick as last time we saw it, when it broke down at Marrickville... Red terror 4498 was also present, also looking as rough as guts.

Poor old buggers.

Campsie:
1244 2202/L265 up Containers (ARG/Manildra) to Enfield.
1257 GL110/GL101 up Containers (Patricks) to ?
1306 8257/82xx/82xx up Coal to ?
1314 4471/GM27 up Containers to Yennora
1321 8221/8230/8209 up Coal to Clarence (?)***
1324 2202/L265 down Containers (ARG/Manildra) to Botany

We later saw the two stone trains from Dunmore wandering about, but were in no position to get loco numbers or photos. Unusually, we didn't see them until close to 1400, when normally they've been seen multiple times already!

Anyway, that's all from my corner for now...

R.

*Click on the link to see the "Locowatch" for 4717, for sightings submitted by various foamers. Stay around to read the blog itself, "Aussie Donks" which follows the various classes of Locomotives operating around the place.

** Note that the double EE locos as shown in the photo on this blog, which used to ALWAYS run this service, seem to have been withdrawn from service in NSW, to be returned to Western Australia. Thanks to Aussie Donks for the heads up about their withdrawl from service here. As much as I enjoyed getting photos of a working that would go down in history as being particularily unusual, it warms my heart to see the variety of S&S motive power back on the front of this service, having previously seen 80s6 leading this train, ages ago.

***Stopped right next to us, covering the return of 2202/L265!

...or, why Raichase managed to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Let me back up a bit. The title of this posts represents the fact that I was at Macarthur, Menangle and Mittagong in one day, for a bit of photography. Hence, the notion of 3 M's. Nothing to do with a radio station here folks.

At any rate, slept in a bit, figuring on getting the bus to the city to jump to a train to Campbelltown, with the intention of going to Menangle to snap a couple of up trains, before moving south to Mittagong to get SM9 coming through.

Bus got stuck in traffic, and I missed the connection at Campbelltown by all of three minutes (due to being on a "non connecting" train, so not Cityrails fault)! Buh! So, this resulted in my standing at Macarthur Station, thinking "well, it's not a bad photospot then".

Don't get me wrong, I'd heard about the bad stuff that goes down in this end of town, but, being from The Northern Beaches (kinda like The North Shore, same attitude, only with proper beaches and less money), my friends fear for my life when I go to places like Rhodes or Marrickville, both of which have been completely fine when one gets there...

Macarthur? Bugger that shit man. I'm never going back there again unless I want to die.

I arrived, messaged Greg to tell him I was in the area and I'd missed the train, and as he was bored to tears, he decided to come keep me company - thank god, as I was also bored to tears, although I soon preferred being bored over the alternative.

Dropped off for a coffee, and when I got back to the station, I snapped a northbound Endeavour, and a northbound PN Intermodal. Put the camera in the bag (even though the station was deserted, I felt no need to advertise). Cue a bloke walking down to the platform with a longneck in a brown paper bag. I thought, oh shit here it comes, and he just nodded and said "G'day". Perfectly harmless bloke.

Couple of school kids come down the ramp, followed by a couple of Lebanese kids out of school uniform. Next thing I know, one of the school kids has kept walking, and the other one is being held up against the wall by the collar of his shirt as these two Lebanese blokes demand his phone and/or his wallet. At this point, I'm freaking out, expecting to be next - the one not doing the threatening is standing there wiedling a broom like a weapon.

Holy shit.

Next thing I know, they're parting ways (turns out the guy didn't have a phone or any money on him) content to ignore me. Then these girls come down the ramp and start pushing the Lebanese guy around demanding to know why he was hurting her mate. The guy looks like he's going to hit her, and I was fair dinkum astonished at how fast this could get out of hand.

Broom guy puts his broom down (thus losing an identity in this posting). At this point, the station attendant comes down the ramp, and I think "here we go, this will be over soon". She calmly takes back her broom and walks away again, before vanishing from the station altogether - she didn't lock herself in her station room, she just closed up and left.

At this point, I nicked off too. Greg arrived a few minutes later, and broom guy was long gone, but his mate had called in his "cousin", this really big looking, angry man. The big dude then hassled the girls wanting to know why they were picking on his little brother or whatever. Fortunately the angry guy realised what had happened, and left the girls alone, who were in tears, and started harassing his brother/cousin/mate for picking on school kids and girls.

Cops never turned up, I might add, so if the staff member called them, they never came, or she might not have bothered. I don't know which is more worrying.

Train wise? Didn't see squat. A grand total of four NR locos on two workings, and a smattering of Endeavours (one of which dumped a lot of oil on the tracks at Mittagong).

Massive thanks to Greg for coming out to (firstly) keep me company, but also for hanging out with me at Marrickville. Had I not known he was on his way, I would have transformed into a gibbering wreck.

So yeah, the life lesson here - stay the bloody hell away from Macarthur. No photospot is worth that kind of drama.

R.

In a surprising display, the honest and not-at-all-tomato-looking-Raichase-and-42101 pair were turned away from Dulwich Hill Station, their dreams of taking great morning photos of the morning trains sweeping past the station shattered by an angry looking woman behind the counter. Clearly she'd not had a chance to talk to her superiors recently, or she would have received word of praise that one gunzel sent to Railcorp regarding the friendly staff of that station, and their assistance to gunzel-kind. That was me, who sent the letter, and yet, in a cruel twist of fate, here we were at the station of awesomeness, being turned away by a small minded woman.

Bah and buggery to her! we moved to Marrickville, the staff there are always friendly to talk to, and often pop their heads out to give any nearby foamers a good heads up, so that tripods can be positioned, buckets placed to catch any stray froth, and lens caps can be removed (before embarrassment strikes).

Of course, the staff there were more than obliging both times we were there. The young chap who gave us a heads up when something was on it's way was not there, but he was replaced by another bloke who could have been his equal in friendliness.

A nod of thanks, and we set into a long, grueling day of sitting around talking rubbish, foaming and smoking (well, as I don't smoke, I didn't partake in that activity, but did the other things, possibly moreso to make up for the lack of smoke!)

A quick break for a misguided wander to a park between the goods lines and the suburbans (although, both Greg and I agreed that we'd been lied to and mislead by the view from the passenger trains windows, as it looked such a good spot from in the passenger train), we toddled down to Cooks River to watch Independent Rail "maintain" their "fleet". Such a phrase (without demeaning quotation marks) conjures up a large shed, crawling with workers in overalls, and a fleet of many shiny and well looked after locomotives.

Well, close.



That there is what one would expect their locos to look like, given my misleading statement above. NAAAAH... Add a fine layer of grime, give vandals with spray cans near unrestricted access to your locomotives, then kick them or hit them with hammers until they don't work properly.

Now we're getting close!

At any rate, after this quick divergence, we were at Campsie for some lunch and more train spotting.

After that, we finished at Marrickville, looking for a train to photograph. Anything would do, and it was at that point that I realized that we could be useful after all!

I've nodded to Greg that the door of a departing S-Set was open. Greg, having better eyesight than me, quickly ascertained that a bunch of dropkick teenagers (who should have many hot and sharp things applied to their genitals as punishment) had gained access to the cab and were hanging out of it tagging the back and side of the control car. I sprinted down to the ticket window, and told the station attendant of the problem, and she quickly jumped onto the phone to Sydenham to (hopefully) catch the little shits red handed (or, if they were using blue paint, blue handed). Little turkeys were still in school uniform too...

Now seriously, look at that R-Set in the photo at the top of this post. That's what they were doing to it, making it look scummy and crappy. What must tourists think when a train looking like THAT pulls up to their station? When trains look like THAT, is it any wonder that nobody wants to take their rubbish with them, or look after the trains.

Compare to this train set, of the same type, but cleaned and looked after:



Now, THAT is a much nicer looking train, despite being 30 years old.

At any rate, after a fun and eventful day, I feel even more inspired to keep pushing for gunzels like myself to be allowed to take photos from the safety of the platform. Provided we don't stray into areas where we should not be, or interfere with the running of trains or moving of passengers, we can be a benefit to the railway. We saw not one other person react to those scum bags blatantly vandalizing one of our trains - with such apathy, they may as well be showing silent support.

Raichase out.

R.

...then I've said it a thousand times.

A day out talking rubbish with your mates is tenfold better than a day trackside with perfect lighting and nothing but a constant stream of awesome lash ups.

Yeah, you're thinking, I heard this rubbish before, well, you'll hear it again.

Checked the weather forecast yesterday afternoon, as I had today off, and they were saying "fine with late showers and thunder". I then ummed and ahhed as to if I wanted to drag my sorry arse out of bed at 0430 to get down to the Main South for a solid day of sitting on my backside. More indecision, as I was torn between a nice day in a week of shocking weather ('cause I knew in my heart that I would want to go out THURSDAY, but of course it would rain all day), and well... my own inertia not to move.

Sat on my hands for a bit looking at my camera, willing myself to get into the mood to get up not only before the sun does, but before the cat does (you know you're up early when you wake the cat up).

Deciding to end my indecision (that's possible, right?), I sent a quick message to Greg, as I noticed he had the day off too. Another person waiting for me with conversation and good cheer would motivate me to drag myself out of bed really early. As we were hitting the main south, fired off a message to Anthony too, as he is to the Main South what I am to the Main North (Everyone thinks we know what we're doing, but we're really just flying blind).

So, the trio was assembled, and the meeting place planned - Menangle Station, at 0800. That would place us in a good spot to watch the two morning intermodals into Sydney from Melbourne, and then give us plenty of time to move as far south as we wanted before anything else would happen.

Got on the bus okay, connecting seamlessly with the correct train at Wynyard. I had noticed Greg and I would be on the same train to Menangle, and he was planning on getting the same train I was to Campbelltown (where one changes for the diesel railcar service). Unfortunately, the train I was on managed to stop at East Hills, Holsworthy, Glenfield and then sail right on through Macquarie Fields before making all stops to Campbelltown. Stupid schedule. At any rate, poor Greg didn't make it to Campbelltown until after the Endeavour had sailed away (which wasn't a big deal, as the Interail train cruised into Campbelltown at around 0800 anyway, so we would have missed it going to the photo spot).

Fire off numerous texts to Anthony, and we decide to meet at Bargo, a good photo spot a bit further down the line:



(Okay, so on that particular day it was raining)

We arrive without incident, and Anthony is on his way in his four-wheeled transportation, so all is well. Anthony arrives, along with an Endeavour or two. That being all. We got bored, wandered to the shops, got drinks. Many smokes burned through (no pun intended) by the lads, and still nothing.

So, we pack up and head to the NSWRTM for a quick tour and some lunch. Greg took us around with his wealth of knowledge easily enough to combat the most hardened of tour guides, and was literally pointing out details I never knew existed. Certainly helped having someone there who knew what they were looking at, otherwise I would have walked around blindly thinking "train, train train, train, train..."

We then asked a guide super nicely and got a guided tour of the workshops where the active rolling stock is kept, including a close up of 3642 under restoration, and a tour of "rotten row", as the guide called it, where the museum keeps relics that are sadly, beyond saving for whatever reason, and are only kept around for parts.

Had some lunch, burned some rubber and got to Mittagong, after a stop off at Bradkens Braemer Workshops (I know I spelt all of that wrong...) and we saw some brand spanking new "Batgirl" hoppers ready for transport to The Hunter.

Saw a couple of NR's burn south through Mittagong on a BM service, before packing up and heading home.

We might have seen all of ONE freight today, but that was easily one of the most enjoyable days I have had - spent the entire day either walking, sitting, or standing around, talking rubbish, cracking jokes and generally enjoying ourselves and the weather.

Great company, a nice day and some great fun had by all. I rate that over a day of train spotting on ones own anyday.

Anyway, enough ranting from me, I got a few photos from the RTM I want to share, so watch this space:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/raichase/

R.

Well, with a spare day under my thumb last week (Thurs 31/1), and with the threat of rain, I didn't feel the need to get up at the crack of dawn and repeat my earlier rainy day on The Main South. Likewise, I didn't feel like roaming the metro goods again, nor did I want to plod down the Illawarra. I wanted a bit of a sleep in, so I decided to revisit my roots on the stretch of track between Hornsby and North Strathfield.

Started things off at Thornleigh:

0925 saw a southbound combo of no less than four CLF/CLP locos hauling the morning 4BM7, led by a very grubby looking CLF7.

At 1035, the Northern Tablelands Xplorer went streaking northwards. Due to a freight train derailment, the line to Moree is once again closed, and the train as an unusual (but not unheard of) 4-car Xplorer.

Minutes later, at 1047, CFCLA owned 44204 (in it's attractive blue and yellow livery) lead CFCLA S317*, B61* and FL220. The latter of course being an ex SRA 422 class, and painted in the contemporary silver and blue livery of CFCLA.

Having waited plenty of time for the AK Cars to arrive, the decision was made to move south (so as not to pass them enroute). My only concern was that they would pass us outside of Epping/Eastwood/West Ryde, but it was not to be the case (fortunately).

I jumped a train to Rhodes, and shortly after arrival (mere minutes, traveling any further south would have missed this), 8164 slowly pulled into the platform with 48128 (the latter loco showing plenty of it's older "candy" livery under the peeling Freightcorp colours).

As they pulled to a stop to give the road to the suburban on the main behind them, a quick decision was made to head to West Ryde to photograph the northbound XPT as well as the northbound grain. The risk of missing the AK cars was minimal, as I was expecting a southbound suburban yet (usually I see a freighter shadowing the suburbans into Sydney), so figured I had a couple of minutes before a "slot' would come up for the AK cars to fit into. Combined with the fact that they like to run at track speed meant I had a decent gap to work with.

So, after no more than 10 minutes at Rhodes, I was off to West Ryde.

Success!

1158 saw the northbound XPT rocket through, followed shortly after at 1203 by a northbound interurban and then at 1208 came 8164 at speed leading a chugging 48128.

A move to the Sydney-bound platform to get a train back to Rhodes, and lo and behold what comes around the corner, but 8105 gleaming in PN's Rural and Bulk colours hauling the AK Cars. Cue a flurry of out of focus photos of it on the curve itself (darn), followed by a decent landscape shot (cropped to portait):



Nothing fantastic though, as it doesn't show enough of the AK Cars themselves!



Trailing shot came out well though, with the pantograph and the large end windows well represented in the photo.

Off topic, I hear via the grapevine (also Railpage) that they will be headed for South Australia, so may not see them for a month or longer.

As I'm waiting on a fair few interesting southbound freights at this stage (having seen 4NY3 steel and 4BM7 Interail Intermodal, I was waiting on a possible pair of IRA trains and a S&S train, with a pair of PN Brisbane intermodals also. Northbound was limited to a couple of Brisbane bound intermodals (PN), as I'd seen the northbound S&S cotton train run earlier in the morning.), I decided to move south again, to Rhodes.

It was there I snapped the photo at the top of the blog, as there were a fair few track workers out and about today surveying the track and testing the track circuits (as this group was doing).

At 1341, a very long PN Intermodal rumbled through behind NR9, DL44 and NR51. I suspect this to have been a combined 4BS6 and 4BM4, as it seemed longer than the normal BM trains are. This was the only PN Intermodal I saw all day, which was an interesting change. Normally every throb or chant you hear is an NR climbing or descending through a photospot!

Taking a chance on the weather, I stayed around for a bit before making a move up to Gosford, again in pursuit of the elusive 4152 Interail train from Broadmeadow to Yennora, conveying loading for Sydney from the 4BM7 train earlier in the day.

I'd seen it a week before, on the Thursday the 24th of January. Thanks to a friend of mine who was with me a week before (who is far faster at uploading his photos), I can link you to this photo of S300 leading B76 (the exact same combo I photographed again on this 31st of January). Interesting aside, on that day, we spoke to a Cityrail driver who saw the pair really struggling up Cowan Bank. Having heard that, I was looking for a different combo today.

Fortunately, I was lucky to see S300 and B76 leading their train through Gosford at 1709.

Granted, that was the extent of my luck, as the normally punctual 4BW4 and 4124 (both normally arriving before 1800) both failed to arrive before I left.

Still, all the bulldogs I saw today (granted, two of them were stuck between a couple of boxes on that light engine run) was more than enough, and I returned home with a full memory card (most of those photos are still untouched on the HDD) and a big smile.

The rain that pelted me on the way home made me a bit damp though :)

R.

* On long term lease to Southern Shorthaul Railroad, and painted in their "bumble bee" livery of yellow with black.

Well, as I may or may not have imparted to all two of my readers here, I continue to send and receive letters from RailCorp, who on the whole are very helpful and supportive of my chosen hobby.

Whenever I have a negative experience through my hobby, I'm quick to let the folks in the office know. I find, more often than not, that the problem is due to the staff member in question not knowing what an enthusiast is, and treating them like a terrorist/piece of dirt/child is their natural response. Likewise, whenever I have a positive experience, I'm always quick to let everyone and anyone know. Case in point, on Friday the 18th, we were at two different stations, Dulwich Hill and Marrickville, and on both platforms the station staff were friendly and they tolerated our presence through the day. Today (21st) I put a letter in the mailbox to RailCorp thanking them for their co-operation.

I think a lot of "uninitiated" don't realise that for every crazed dribbly foamer who gets excited by trains, there is a bloke out there simply interested in pursuing a hobby. No matter how odd it may seem, such individuals enjoy sitting quietly for long stretches, waiting for *that moment* when *that noise* is heard, and *that train* comes into view for (and this is important) *that shot*.

I have received a letter today, which bears both good and bad news. Something I am unable to argue with is the statement that until the policy is re-issued, the station manager (station master to those of you in sunny Briton) is the be-all and end-all of decision making. So, they can let me indulge in my hobby should they desire, but if they are having a shitty day, or they don't like my hairstyle, they can tell me to get the puck off their station.

I'll make a point to jot down some "key" station phone numbers, so that before arriving, I can call them and ask them for the relevant stations number so I can notify them of my arrival. Perhaps if I call in advance they may be more willing to let me sit quietly and take a photo or two.

Of course, if they tell me where to go, I can't argue. I can complain, and like it is inevitable that when I meet nice people, I compliment, I will complain if I meet people who won't let me indulge my hobby with no reason. Obviously there are reasons they don't want me hanging around (hairstyle aside) that are fair and legit, and on such occasions, I won't bat an eye, but if they tell me to sod off because they're having a bad day...

At any rate, I'll continue talking to RailCorp, the more I push to have this hobby recognized the better. Easier than sitting back and complaining about station staff and not actually doing anything. I'll continue to push for a set of "gunzel guidelines", perhaps included with a set of "conditions". Conditions that already exist, but some people could benefit from having them spelled out anyway. I can think of many gunzels I know who don't understand the yellow line principle...

Anyway, thats all from my corner right now. Counting the work days until my holiday, that's for sure!

R.

I hear you crying "Whats this nonsense? More 48's?". No. Well, not really. Okay, yes, in a way. Don't like it? Hard cheese.

On Friday I'll be leaving on an Xplorer for my annual commute to Canberra for the Australia Day long weekend. I know what you're thinking ("why Canberra?").* So, of course, I'll be detailing my trip with photos of Canberra Station, and hopefully (and thus I reveal the point of this ramble), the heritage around Canberra Station.

On the day I arrive, I've a couple of hours to cab over to the hotel to check in, and then get back to the station to watch the arrival of one of the ARHS ACT divisions school holiday specials. Normally hauled by one or two of their 73 class locomotives, the train is currently being worked by a heritage 48 from Junee Roundhouse. For a second, I was disapointed that I wouldn't get to see a heritage 73 in action, but only for a second. How often does one see a 48 class in Canberra?!?

Also, the day before I leave to return to Sydney, I've booked myself on a CPH Railmotor tour to Bugendore and back again, which I'm very much looking forward to, having never been on a CPH before. Again, expect plenty of photos from the platform and train.

I do enjoy a good heritage outing, and this is one I'm looking forward to!

R.

* I go primarily to attend CANCON, a large war gaming convention at the Exhibition Ground, which is one of my other hobbies. A hobby I've neglected the year past due to my urges to go train chasing.

As any railway related blog worth their bandwidth is talking about 48 class locos, figured I'd throw in my bit. While I don't have any information at all to contribute, I do have a couple of photos from the archives that may be worth a look.

More importantly, if you're interested in reading about these great old beasts, take a wander over to A Semi Retired Foamers Blog for a good read. Specifically, Brad lists the location of the various 48 Class locos as of 2008; 4801 to 4840, 4841 to 4880, 4881 to 48165. Not only that, but inbetween those articles he also has some really great history and background from a gunzels point of view from way back when they were in SRA/NSWGR colours.

What set off all of this 48 Class rambling? Stuart, of Model Trains and Things posted an interesting tid bit on locos sitting on the scrap line. Things then snowballed, and a 48 "weekendathon" on Model Trains and Things became a weekathon on A Semi Retired Foamers Blog. Madness! Well, not for someone like oneself, who is fascinated by these historical photos, and information from people who were actually THERE to see these great beasts in their heyday. With oppertunties so rare, I can only imagine the day that people are talking the same about the 81 class!



It's been a while since I sighted 4898 and 4889 at Moss Vale, on one of my first trips out of the metro area. Needless to say, Moss Vale itself was a big waste of my time, but it was the first time I've been able to shoot 48's on their own.

Obviously now, I'm in a better position to hunt the buggers down, but still, short of going up to The Hunter to see them on the Pelton train, or heading out to a branch line, you're lucky to see a 48 leading a train - most of the grainies running past/through Sydney are headed up by one or more 81 class, with the 48's sitting in the shafts.



While at Moss Vale, I was also shocked to see an Indian Red 48 class. Closer inspection revealed it was none other than 4833, out earning some bread for it's owners, (Goodwin ALCo pty ltd) working for ARG.

Despite having removed most of the photos from those first few baby steps of foaming, the ones shown in this blog remain, either due to them being a lucky fluke (the featured photo at the top is still a favorite, to this day), or their historical importance (how long before QRN/ARG get new locos and stop hiring out locos from heritage groups?).



Far more recent sightings of 48 class locomotives have been made on the metropolitan goods line (a rant on which I am preparing in earnest), and most days you'll see the resident shunter (on loan from Pacific National), hauling XPT locos or trailer cars to or from the workshops at Chullora...

I went back to The Hunter Valley for a visit yesterday (Jan 9). The first two times I visited, I had no idea what I was doing. They were really my first two trips out of the Sydney area, photographing something other than suburban trains. So naturally, apart from a handful of photos of the 620 railmotors that were still operating at the time, I didn't bring back anything else worth keeping.

My journey started when I finished work on the Tuesday prior, it was quite a race to get out of the store and onto the bus home, which preceded a mad panic to get a couple of changes of clothes packed, along with all the cables that follow the mandatory electronics around, various chargers and what-have-you. Dash back to the bus stop to go back to Chatswood, and then on a train to Hornsby, followed by a train to Gosford. Accomodation was at the very acceptable "Gosford Best Western" for $115. Dinner was (the rather unacceptable) McDonalds for under $10.

Awoke at the ungodly hour of 4:20am. Packed up all my junk, had a quick shower, checked my camera for full battery and empty memory card, and it was off to Gosford Station, arriving about 5am, beating the sun. Departed at 5:20am, on a fantastically tedious all stations to Newcastle train. Change at Hamilton, and I find myself standing at Sandgate platform.

Sandgate itself? Less than exciting.

Watched trains for about an hour and a half, took some photos. Annoyingly, the two things I came to get photos of (Pelton Colliery train, and QRN 5000 Class) managed to sneak up on me, and there was heavy cloud which made for some poor photos... Regardless, it's a decent spot to visit for some photos.

I then got a message from Tom (flathog) who sent me to Beresfield. Forgetting that I arrived REALLY early, I was expecting everyone else to be there already, so I was a little confused when I was the only one on the platform. I amused myself in the interim watching the Ingham train (which I'd photographed lurking outside Sandgate) shunting the siding off the down coal road. Seemed to take a fair while, and blocked the down coal road for quite a bit of time!

Eventually, the gang turned up. We all moved off to suss out photospots, all of which were exactly the same as the last time I visited, only the gang appeared from one of the new Goninan Hunter Cars, rather than one of these beauties:



At any rate, the action soon picked up after the grain train left. A few 90's trundled past, as well as a few 82's. The morning Casino XPT streaked by at near light speed on it's way north, and there were plenty of Endeavours and Hunters about.



As all the traffic was more or less the same, we* decided to move on to another photospot. As nobody had any ideas, I ventured that I wanted to take a look at the old branch line platform and semaphores that still exist at East Maitland. So, off we go. Plenty of photos taken of the semaphores, and eventually we all end up back on the platform, in time to watch a couple more coalies go past.

Tummies rumbling, we all move to Maitland for lunch at the pub, which was... well... cheap. The barman was gruff, and he had all of four beers on tap (none of them fancy city beers, just VB, Carlton, Coopers and one other I forget). So no Blonde or Guinness...



We ate and drank our fill, and you could hear the steady throb of diesels passing through the station. The only movement we missed of interest was a 48 stuck between two 82 class. Never seen THAT before!

We moved to an overpass just east of Maitland Station, and saw some more coal, still no cane toads though. We also saw a single 81 hauling empty iron ore wagons west towards Cobar. Eventually, someone** suggested we move somewhere else, get some more photos from a different spot. Of course, as we're all packing up to go, there goes an XPT. Whoops. When we're arriving back at Maitland Station, there goes a loaded QRN Coalie. Double whoops. Of course, everyone looked at me at this stage, so I decided not to have any more bright ideas***. Much discussion was entered into. Do we chase the Pelton train (not enough cars)? Someone wanted to drive to Werris Creek (yeah, right). Do we head up the North Coast Line (problem is we lose most of the traffic then)? Eventually, we settled on Thornton.

So, some of the gang piled into the one remaining car and off to Thornton they went, while the rest of us sat in the shade to wait for another train. Cue a phonecall asking us to go to Metford, as Thornton is a terrible spot (I didn't think so...). Metford of course, was better than Thornton anyway.

More photos taken, more coal seen. Still no cane toads!

Someone**** then suggests that we move to another spot, citing Victoria Street as a possible location. This proves to be the best spot of the day, with magical afternoon sunlight. I'll certainly be visiting here again!

Eventually, we move down to the platform to hop a train to Maitland. We've finally seen the cane toads, and a couple of NR hauled intermodals made appearances going north. While sitting on the platform (those of us with large, unwieldy cameras have packed them away at this stage), we hear the distinctive chant of a 48. Sure enough, it's the Pelton train making an early return. Cue the bringing out of camera phones and point and shoots in an attempt to get a photo. I got one, but as I plan on returning to The Hunter in the near future, we'll keep it tucked away in case I can't get a better one :).

We finally end up back at Maitland again. Since we were last here, we've shed quite a few members, and the group is now down to five. Soon, it drops to four, the last of us waiting for the XPT back to Sydney. As he leaves, Andrew (Bwana) jokingly comments that he will beat us home (he's going via Cityrail, changing at Hamilton, at which point (in theory), the XPT would dash past the junction) while we're going Countrylink). Soon enough, we realise he might be right, as the XPT from Brisbane is running a good hour late. By the time we arrive in Sydney, it's 11pm and we're exhausted. Sure enough, Andrew is waiting for us (he missed his train home, so is killing time), and I rush to the next platform for a photo of the XPT.



Hope you enjoyed my rambling tale of magic and heroism!

R.

* Okay, I admit, I convinced everyone to move

** Okay, me again...

***For about three minutes, at which point I went back to loudly voicing my opinion on anything from how dirty that 90 class loco there is, to where we should go next...

****No prizes... :P

Well, once again it's January, and that means that I'll soon be making my way to Canberra to visit CanCon, a large expo/tournament of model wargaming. My favorite wargaming event in Australia.

As usual, I'll make the trip with Countrylink, by train. It's comfortable, it's enjoyable, and it lets me view the scenery.

Whats the point of this blog post, you ask? I'm going to relate to you my experiences...

2005:

Well, the first year I booked online, and I went economy. Haha, big mistake. I got a window seat, which was nice, but I went down on the evening service, departing Sydney around 5:30pm/6pm. So, I didn't see much scenery. Food was nice though.

On the return journey, when I arrived at Canberra Station, ready to depart on the 6:30am train... There was no train. They were frantically scrambling all over the little bugger in the siding, and couldn't get it working properly. As far as I understood it, it wasn't functioning well enough to get to Sydney without breaking down again. So, they called road coaches, to replace it. The announcement came at about 7:30, and I was very dissapointed. I was looking forward to watching the scenery, and travelling by train. All was not lost though, as by 8:30, the coaches had not turned up, and they announced that they would have a stab at getting the train back to Sydney. They warned us that we might not make it, and that we might break down en route and end up pushing*. I jumped on, and we limped back to Sydney, arriving a good 4 hours or so late. Fun though!

2006:

Again, booked online in economy. However, this year I was going to go down on a midday service, so as to see some of the scenery on the way down. Returning, I would again be on the 6:30am train.

This was probably the worst year, through no fault of Countrylink at all.

On the way down, I boarded the train to find it already crowded. Checking the seat numbers, I found a herd of people clustered around my seat. Little Johnny** was travelling by train, on his own to visit grandma and grandpa, or something, and everyone was there to see them off.

Also, I had an isle seat.

My traveling companion would alternate between playing with his iPod, reading or looking out the window. All fine with me, as I could see over him and out the window. When we reached Goulburn however, he decided to close the curtain and take a nap. Fair enough, I'll take a nap too. Turns out, he just wanted to close the curtain to stop the sun reflecting off of his gameboy screen :|. Faced with the loss of the scenery, I took a napplanning on waking up somewhere outside Canberra.

As the train was rather crowded, it was also rather noisy. There were unrestrained little redneck children and their grossly overweight mother who got on at Campbelltown running back and forth on the train. When they were not running around (mum chasing her little darlings to get them to sit down), the four uni students sitting a few rows ahead had some kind of networking system set up... across the isle. Trying to get to the bathroom and/or buffet warrented a stop, an "excuse me" on my part, followed by a groan and a few frantic minutes of unplugging cables so I could get past.

The return trip was not much better, with an equal number of loud children and unruly students coming back from their long weekend away. I had an isle seat again, and on the way down sat next to someone with their nose in a book as far as Goulburn, where they alighted. Thinking I might get lucky and have an unrestricted view of the scenery for the rest of the trip (there was only one or two people on the platform, and quite a few empty seats in my carriage), I was soon disappointed, when one of the passengers dropped into the seat next to mine, and closed the curtain for a snooze. Didn't help that the two housewives in front of my talked too loudly about the most boring things either... I think by the time we got to Sydney, everyone knew everything about their lives in detail, whether they wanted to or not!

2007:

This time, I thought, I'll get it right. I booked first class.

First class seems to be where the XPT gets the name "Xpress Pensioner Train", as without me, the mean age would have been at least 65. I'm proud to say I dragged that down a bit.

On the trip down, I nearly didn't make it. Having misread the departure time when I got the ticket, and wrote down the times in my diary, I arrived at Central, thinking I had about an hour before I was due out. Plenty of time to check in my luggage and take some photos with my camera (phone, at that stage of the year. I didn't get a proper camera until a month or so later).

On the train from Chatswood to Central, I glanced at my ticket, and thought "hang on, thats not right". Turned out that when I got to Central, I would have no more than 5 minutes to get from platform 18 to platform...? I grabbed my suitcase and backpack and modelcase, and bolted. Running past a Cityrail driver, he yelled "you going for the Canberra train mate? Platform 2, go mate go!" - which was a big help, as I knew it must still be there. Made it about a minute before we left...

Not doing that again.

Scored an isle seat both ways, but both times the conductor moved me to a window. On the trip down, two people across the isle had not shown up, as they were due to board at Central. Tickets were checked outside of Campbelltown, so she let me scoot over across the isle.

On the return, they'd half booked first class, but the rear half of the car was completely empty, so after we left Canberra, everyone on isle seats got moved to windows for the trip back to Sydney.

Great staff :).

First class as a whole was far quieter than economy, and was closer to the buffet which was really nice (but bad for my wallet). Again, all pensioners, except for a mother with a really distraught child. Fortunately they child was upset because mummy was LEAVING, and she had to stay at home with daddy until she came back. The noise she made, I was thankful that she wasn't coming too!

2008:

This time, I thought, I'll be smart and go in and book my tickets at Central. The bloke read back the times to me, showed them to me on my ticket, asked if I wanted window or isle, and offered economy or first class, explaining the main difference (well, the only difference in theory) was legroom. Of course, everyone knows the main difference is the passengers whom keep you company...

I'm looking forward to my trip to Canberra this year. I get in about midday, hopefully enough time to dump my gear at the hotel and get back to the museum as the museums 73's will be out and about in the afternoon. On my last day in Canberra, I've extended my stay for a day to travel on the CPH "tin hare" to Bungendore in the morning, and find some time to see the museum in the afternoon.

That'll be the most exciting part, seeing the ARHS museum.

Anyway, I've typed enough for now...

R.

* At the time, I wasn't sure if they were kidding or not... :P

** Names changed because I don't know the originals.