I was a Teenage Railfan.

Re: New Years Morning Photo. 01/01/2012.

2012-01-02T14:32:00.001+11:00

G'day all, I received the following from Bendigo resident and motorman Mick McGowan.......so the pub would the White Horse Hotel. It's a bit embarrassing to have made the same mistake twice so by way of penance I've attached another photo, similar location but taken at ground level.

Regards,

Peter Bruce.

A correction the image depicts California Gully not Long Gully. See my reply to your post on TDU dated 9^th March 2004 at the following link - http://tdu.to/15541.msg?sid=64580.

What you appear to have done is turned 180 degrees at the same vantage point and captured the image of maximum traction #5 passing through California Gully on its way to Long Gully and from there to Bendigo and Quarry Hill.

Cheers.

Mick.

Re: Monday Morning Photo. Wednesday 14/12/2011.

2012-01-02T14:31:00.001+11:00

G'day all, a few days after I posted the Monday Morning Photo for 14/12/2011 Chris Wurr went out and shot the attached photo which I have resized and compressed. Apologies for the time taken to pass it on.

Thanks Chris,

Regards,

Peter Bruce.

G'day Peter,

Here's a comparative shot to this weeks photo.
You were standing on a mullock heap on the slopes of Windmill Hill.
The bogie car has just passed theManchester Arms Hotel [still trading] and is coming past St. Matthew's CofE on the corner of Creeth St.
In a few moments it willpass the Rose of Australia Hotel, which is also still trading.
With the tree growth in the foregroundit took a while to find the exact spot you were standing.
Note the communication tower on Mickey Mouse Hill has been joined by another.
The house in centre foreground of mine is the same house bottom left in your's.

Cheers from Chris in Bendigo.

2011-12-31T15:04:00.001+11:00

New Years Morning Photo. 01/01/2012.

2011-12-31T15:00:00.000+11:00

G'day all, it seems that I had more than one attempt at the panoramic shot of Long Gully and certainly the location justified it and the description "straggling suburbs of Bendigo" also seems pretty apt. The attached picture is a little messy but on the whole I think it is worth posting. The bogie car has just run through Long Gully loop and is about to pass Grenfell's butcher shop and The Rose of Australia Hotel before heading towards Charing Cross and ultimately Quarry Hill where the line terminated just outside the cemetery like many other tramlines constructed early in the 20th century.

Going by the number of cars angle parked out front the pub is doing a roaring trade on this summer Saturday afternoon in the days before random breath testing. In fact the year 1971 [when this pic was taken] saw the Victorian road toll reach its bloody peak, it has declined ever since in spite of massive population increases and a very much higher incidence of car ownership at least partly because of the sustained campaign against drink driving.

I just recently rediscovered this photo and looking at it I feel that I can still hear the rumble and jingle of this old tramcar on that hot and windless day. Next time I'm in Bendigo I'll have a beer at "The Rose" and a look around Long Gully.

I hope the year ahead treats us all well, and I'd like to thank you all for your information, appreciation and comments, keep them coming. I'll keep the Monday Morning Photos coming, albeit probably irregularly. If anyone would like to use a photo for publication or maybe to just make a print for their own use they can contact me and I'll send a large file. I would like to be credited for the picture but that's all.

Regards and best wishes for 2012,

Peter Bruce.

Monday Morning Photo. Wednesday 14/12/2011.

2011-12-14T12:11:00.001+11:00

G'day all, the trouble with only posting one photo at a time is that every photo I look at seems to be the one and so I work myself into a lather of indecision and suddenly it's not Sunday night anymore it's Wednesday afternoon so I make an arbitrary choice.

During the summer of 1971-72 I made a final trip to Bendigo and walked each line end to end. Bendigo is smaller than Ballaarat and the tramway consisted of just two routes, North Bendigo to Golden Square and Quarry Hill to Eaglehawk and they intersected at Charing Cross in the centre of the business district. The line from the Cross out to the Borough of Eaglehawk was the longest and most interesting and ran up hill and down dale through what in those days were the rather straggling suburbs of Bendigo.

For those of you not familiar Bendigo, like Ballaarat, was a Goldrush town and so slagheaps dotted the landscape and I'm pretty sure that I scrambled up one to take the photo attached.

The location is Long Gully, around about half way out to Eaglehawk from Charing Cross and an outbound bogie car is rolling down the hill and is about to cross Creeth Street. A quick look at NearMap or Google Earth will show you how much Long Gully has changed in the 40 years since I was there with my Pentax Spotmatic. I'm not sure if the slagheap is still there either. Next time I'm up that way I'll have a look around.

In the next few weeks I'll post some more Bendigo shots. Fortunately Bendigo Tramways still operate most of the former North Bendigo to Golden Square line, see http://www.bendigotramways.com

See all my previous postings at http://teenagerailfan.blogspot.com

Best regards,

Peter Bruce.

Monday Morning Photo. 21/11/2011.

2011-11-25T13:56:00.000+11:00

Have finally sorted out my problems with this posting and attached the right photo.

G'day all, wintry, gloomy Ballaarat again, 1970 or '71, this time we're looking east, down the Sturt Street hill and along Bridge Street. Ballaarat isn't always like this but its winter days are apt to be cold and overcast, that is if it is not actually raining.

The City Loop is accomodating four cars, three single truckers tucked in behind maximum traction bogie car No. 37. Another single trucker has made the stop amongst the shoppers and strollers in busy, bustling Bridge Street and just behind the tram is the junction of the Victoria Street and Mount Pleasant lines. The former continues up the hill in the background and the latter swings away to the right into Main Street. The weather may be miserable and the light hazy and flat but the scene is definitely lifted by the presence of these five old green and cream tramcars.

By the time this photo was taken street public transport in Australia ran mostly on rubber tyres. Brisbane's Lord Mayor Clem Jones having recently realised his long held ambition to banish trams forever from his domain and having replaced them with a fleet of Leyland Panther buses. The Ballaarat and Bendigo tramways also were not long for this world. That left only the large Melbourne network and Adelaide's line to the Bay at Glenelg. Both survive to this day and both have been extended in recent years.

My thanks for with this and last weeks postings must go to my editorial assistant and encourager Jennifer Crow, two heads are better than one.

Regards,

Peter Bruce.

Previous postings at http://teenagerailfan.blogspot.com

P.S. Thanks to John Gilmour for the correction. Leyland Panthers not Leopards, I got my beasts and buses of prey mixed up. And thanks to Leonie for correcting my spelling mistakes.

Monday Morning Photo. 14/11/2011.

2011-11-14T12:51:00.000+11:00

G'day all, it's five to two by the Ballaarat Town Hall clock and my sometimes unreliable memory tells me that it is a cold and miserable Friday arvo during the winter of 1971. The final and much postponed closure of the Ballaarat tramways is only months away. More about that later.

Putting memory aside the scene certainly has the busy air of an old-time Victorian Friday afternoon when everything closed at five..... or five thirty at the latest and the shops closed at midday on Saturday. The weeks business had to be tidied up and the shopping done. Hence the bustle.

My camera was a Pentax Spotmatic and the lens a Takumar 200mm and I was standing part way along Bridge Street looking west along Sturt Street, the city's main drag. I don't know the make of that approaching sedan but the cars in view are typical of the time. They are the cars that killed the tram. The line was single track in Bridge Street but at that waiting shed at the bottom of the Sturt Street hill it divided to run either side of a broad central plantation.

The two single truck trams in Sturt Street are stabled in the City Loop awaiting the PM peak and further up the hill a bogie car has turned out of Lydiard Street North and passengers are boarding for the trip out to Sebastopol.

The Ballaarat system and it's sister tramway in Bendigo outlasted the huge Sydney operation by a decade and the very efficient Brisbane system by a couple of years thanks to the pecularities and the odd alliances of Victorian parliamentary politics.

Several attempts had been made to close these working museums in the post war years but our State was governed for 20 or so years by a coalition of the conservative Liberal Party with the perhaps even more conservative Country Party and up until the '70s they could reach no ageement re closure and so the little tramcars continued to ply their provincial streets carrying fewer and fewer people and losing more and more money every year. At night during winter when the cold and the TV kept people indoors they were empty more often than not.

Trams still run in both Ballaarat and Bendigo thanks to the energetic efforts of the preservation movement and Bendigo has a very active workshop that undertakes work for all comers. A Google search for the Bendigo Tramways and the Ballarat Tramway Museum is worthwhile. All my previous Monday Morning Photo postings can be found at http://teenagerailfan.blogspot.com

I'll post a photo next week taken looking down the Sturt Street hill and along Bridge Street to the east.

Best regards,

Peter Bruce.

P.S. A couple of books that might be of interest.

The Golden City and its Tramways.

Alan Bradley.

Published by the Ballarat Tramway Museum Inc. 2005.

Last Tram at 11.

William. F. Scott.

Published by Full Parallel Productions. 2008.

Monday Morning Photo. 31/10/2011.

2011-11-01T00:17:00.003+11:00

G'day all, I count myself very lucky to have been born in the mid 1940s and into the relative prosperity of Australia in the immediate post war period. My parents were able to provide us with a pretty secure and comfortable upbringing and a good education with just a bit of help from the government of the day. At the time I didn't really appreciate my good fortune but I did put it to good use from about 1962 on along with my new found independence. Along with others of my age I witnessed the end of the steam age in Australia. Talk about lucky!!

Enough reflecting on my good fortune. The photo attached is as good an illustration of that as I can find.

Tuesday 24th of January 1964, Junee, New South Wales just after 11am and the "Riverina Express" will depart for Sydney at 11.21 led by 3823.

On a Tuesday the "Riv" originated from Griffith and I had travelled up from Albury behind 3801 with just a couple of cars behind its tender to connect with the train pictured here, having camped in the Waiting Room at Albury overnight.

3823 had come up from the Junee roundhouse with a shed crew and the Goulburn men are leaning on the platform railing waiting for departure time.

I took this photo and headed back to the cars, I wanted to ask for a cab ride but I chickened out and pretty soon we belted out of Junee in that inimitable and unique NSWGR way with me back in the cars reproaching my fainthearted self. Needless to say before we drew up to a stand at Cootamundra I was at the steps of the cab asking for a ride up front.

"Yeah righto son, up you get, you OK with the shovel?"

So I got to fire a 38 up Morrison's Hill and I've gotta say I managed pretty well, the 38s rode well and the firedoor had an air operated treadle and of course the driver and fireman kept an eye on me.

I went back to the cars at Yass Junction, the crew didn't want to risk taking me into Goulburn, too many bosses there.

An unforgetable experience, the planets lined up for me that day. And since that day just before my 20th birthday I've always counted my lucky stars.

Regards,

Peter Bruce.

See http://teenagerailfan.blogspot.com for previous postings.

Monday Morning Photo, 17/10/2011.

2011-10-16T21:49:00.002+11:00

G'day all, I've finally settled down back in Melbourne after my trip to the Kimberley, took me a while, not quite jet lag but it's taken me a while and I'm looking forward to going away again but no plans yet.

Anyway there was next to no railway interest on this trip, I saw the northbound Ghan at Katherine, had a bit of a poke around Darwin station and then nothing until I was at Benalla back in Victoria. I had stopped off to take some pub photos and was getting some shots of the Northeastern Hotel by the level crossing at the up end of the station when the bells and lights started up and the booms went down. The hasty photo is attached.

A couple of things..... I've decided to revert to one photo per posting, it was originally "A Monday Morning Photo" and going back through the many previous offerings I've become aware of much repetition so I'm going to try to be more selective in future. The other thing is that I've become aware that many of you would prefer that your contact details not be so publicly available so not before time I've gone to Bcc for the mailing list, I hope this suits everyone.

In the meantime I've enjoyed the contributions from Bob Wilson and John Phillips every week, they are both a little more reliable than me.

Until next time,

Best regards,

Peter Bruce.

Monday Morning Photo, Monday Evening 08/08/2011.

2011-08-08T21:08:00.001+10:00

G'day all, been out of circulation lately and will be again very soon as I'm off to the Kimberley on the weekend so I thought I'd better post something to show that I'm still drawing breath.

I've belonged to the Association of Railway Enthusiasts for 50 years now, well maybe there was a bit of an hiatus back in the '70s and '80s, but I did join 50 years ago when I was a beardless youth and now I'm a whiskery senior.

On the 23rd and 30th of July the ARE ran a couple of trips to mark its 50 years and I travelled on the first one and renewed acquaintance with many of the other originals, most of us had at least a few nicks and scratches and other odd evidence of wear and tear.

So I thought I'd leave the Queensland 1964 epic for a while and put up a few photos of the trip to Ballaarat. I had a great day and I'd Like to thank the ARE and the organisers, Graeme Cleak and Bruce McLaren

We travelled to Ballaarat via Bacchus Marsh and returned via North Geelong and at Ballaarat we visited the Tramway Museum and rode No 40 with Motorman Bill Kingsley and Conductor Neil Lardner.

The railway station at Ballaarat has always been my favourite in Victoria and the first time I saw it in the late '50s that magnificent trainshed arch was blackened by years of locomotive smoke and many times I saw "The Overland" stretching way out beyond the western end and across Lydiard Street while a little single truck tram waited for the crossing to clear. That hasn't happened since 1971 when the tramway closed and "The Overland" misses Ballaarat now.

I suppose that spelling Ballaarat with the double a might be thought of as a bit of an affectation but that's how it used to be spelt and I like it that way.

Back in a month or so,

Best regards,

Peter Bruce.

More Monday Morning Photo, Wednesday Arvo 22/06/2011.

2011-06-22T15:27:00.000+10:00

G'day all, the photo is a bit repetetive I know but I just thought I'd draw attention to the differing styles of accomodation available to the discerning traveller on the Queensland Government Railways in 1964. The airconditioned "Sunlander" set is stabled next to some passenger cars of an earlier era. That was the sort of basic accomodation you got if you chose to ride a mixed train, the first choice of any teenage railfan watching the world pass by the window at 20mph.

It is obvious from the photo that Cairns in 1964 was a very different town from today's mini metropolis. It seems from Google Earth[our friend!] that the station has moved too, am I right?

Regards,

Peter Bruce.

Monday Morning Photo. Tuesday 21/06/2011.

2011-06-21T12:55:00.000+10:00

G'day all, first thanks to Arthur Robinson and Geoff Kirton for their clarification of various points about the long North Coast railway, apart from the fact that there is a lot I can't remember, as well much has changed. I have posted their replies to http://teenagerailfan.blogger.com

We finally made it to Cairns and Kuranda but I think I must have been running low on film by this time, I set off from Melbourne with a pack of 12 rolls of Ilford FP3, 144 frames to last about four weeks and just enough money for necessaries so I couldn't count on being able to buy any more film.

I know we went to both the Victoria and Macknade sugar mills, whether on our way north or south I'm not sure but attached is a photo of a Victoria Mill cane train scuttling across the QGR main line at Ingham station. Of interest also is No.23 shunting in Cairns yard, I think it was built originally for the Chillagoe Railway and Mining Company up on the Atherton Tableland out west of Cairns. We had intended to hang around Cairns for a while but we were told that the train headed by 1029 was going to be the only southbound steam hauled goods for some time and as we had already been up the range to Kuranda we decided to take possession of the brake van and head for home.

I'll post some shots from the mills next time.

Regards,

Peter Bruce.

P.S. Arthur, can you tell me where the present day Townsville station is, I can't seem to find it on Google Earth although every pizza shop and tanning salon in town seems to be picked out!!

Fw: Townsville

2011-06-21T12:11:00.001+10:00

Forwarded from Geoff Kirton.

--------------------------------------------------
From: "Geoff Kirton"
> Thanks Peter and Rick for these,
>
> T'ville must have had the most complicated rail layout in Aust.
> Had the workshops, loco depot, railmotor depot & station north of Ross
> Creek.
> South of Ross Ck. was Townsville South Yard which had a diamond crossing
> of the main line to access the wharves, nickel loading facilities & sugar
> terminal.
> Also a yard which was roughly oriented north-south in the appropriately
> named suburb of Railway Estate.
>
> Have a feeling that South Yd may have been replaced by a park & a motor
> racing street circuit, after looking at a photo in a Qld travel supplement
> from a "Herald Sun" recently.
> Also that a new station was built on a bypass in the southern or western
> suburbs somewhere, like Mackay.
> Looking at this travel supplement, I could see the former station in the
> distance.
> Think there was a requirement that it had to be kept for heritage
> purposes, especially for the original GNR building.
> Townsville still has the carriage workshops.
> I think the original T'ville 'shops were that saw-toothed building in the
> background.
>
> The ancient looking railmotor was a Panhard, I think - the other bigger
> ones probably AEC's.
> One of those RM's was in your photo at Bowen, with the 2 trailers - & the
> bonus water & hills backdrop.
> Have a feeling that Bowen has been by-passed as well with a new station
> once again to the south or west.
>
> Cheers
>
> Geoff

Townsville

2011-06-21T12:09:00.001+10:00

Forwarded from Arthur Robinson

Peter,

I am sending this to you only as i keep getting messages some of the adresses on your list are rejected.

See attached diagram.

Geoff is partially correct. See comments below.

Arthur R

----- Original Message -----
From: "Peter Bruce" <pbruce1@optusnet.com.au>
Sent: Friday, June 17, 2011 1:22 PM
Subject: Fw: Townsville

> Thanks to Geoff for this clarification.
>
> Peter Bruce.
>
> --------------------------------------------------
> From: "Geoff Kirton"
>> T'ville must have had the most complicated rail layout in Aust.
>> Had the workshops, loco depot, railmotor depot & station north of Ross Creek.

This is correct.

Passenger trains from the south travelling on to Cairns would diverge to the right at South Townsville enter the staion from the north.

They would then depart for Cairns direct.

Passenger train from or to the GNR would use the southern connection.

The train hauled by 1302 would have been heading south to Stuart and then most likely west to Mount Isa, probably with passenger acommodation thus leaving from the station area.

>> South of Ross Ck. was Townsville South Yard which had a diamond crossing of the main line to access the wharves, nickel loading facilities & sugar
>> terminal.
>> Also a yard which was roughly oriented north-south in the appropriately named suburb of Railway Estate.
>>
>> Have a feeling that South Yd may have been replaced by a park & a motor racing street circuit, after looking at a photo in a Qld travel supplement from a "Herald Sun" recently.

No! the South Yard is still there and is the main yard for the Townsville area.

There is a long term plan to provide a new line to the port and move the freight facilites to the Stuart area.

Long is the definitive work in this case.

>> Also that a new station was built on a bypass in the southern or western suburbs somewhere, like Mackay.
>> Looking at this travel supplement, I could see the former station in the distance.

The New station is just on the south side of Ross Creek, see attached diagram.

All tracks north of the blue line on the diagram have been or are to be removed.

>> Think there was a requirement that it had to be kept for heritage
>> purposes, especially for the original GNR building. Yes, but without a rail connection.
>> Townsville still has the carriage workshops.
>> I think the original T'ville 'shops were that saw-toothed building in the
>> background.
>>
>> The ancient looking railmotor was a Panhard, I think - the other bigger
>> ones probably AEC's.
>> One of those RM's was in your photo at Bowen, with the 2 trailers - & the
>> bonus water & hills backdrop.
>> Have a feeling that Bowen has been by-passed as well with a new station
>> once again to the south or west. Yes.
>>
>> Cheers
>>
>> Geoff

Monday Morning Photo. Tuesday 14/06/2011.

2011-06-14T23:13:00.001+10:00

G'day All, only just got around to scanning these photos taken at Townsville. The area around the loco depot and the railmotor depot was probably the most ramshackle major rail installation I've ever seen.

I've realised that there has been a substantial re-organisation of the railway at Townsville, the original station has been abandoned by the looks of things on Google maps so it is a bit hard to imagine what the layout was back in '64.

My guess is that GE diesel 1302 is heading west with those early freight containers behind the loco but perhaps someone can correct me if I'm wrong.

I think that the Great Northern Railway railmotor was somewhere near the old station, it seemed not to have turned a wheel for quite some time. Every railmotor I saw in Queensland during this trip seemed to be different. Can anyone enlighten us about this elderly luxury chariot? It looks like the Northern Division's breakdown crane is in the background of the earlier pic of 1302.

We were in Townsville on a Sunday so the joint wasn't really jumpin', I think 1302's train was the only movement we saw between the departure of the northbound "Sunlander" and whatever slow roadside goods it was that we left town on...... later that night I think it was, it would have been our sleeping accomodation anyway.

I'm going to have to do some serious recollecting about the trip north to Cairns, I know we took in a sugar mill or two and I know that at either Ingham or Innisfail we were bailed up by a zealous guard who demanded that we pay for the privilege of riding his particular length of the old QGR, most unreasonable! We couldn't really complain though, we probably only paid for 150-200 miles of the 1043 from Brisbane to Cairns and probably less on the return. I'm using the 1962 Timetables so I'll leave it to the readers to do the metric conversion. According to this timetable it would have cost us 253 shillings for a return 2nd class fare Brisbane-Cairns, $25.30. No wonder we tried to avoid paying!!

Cliff Olds, I've really enjoyed the account and photos of your Nullabor saga.

Regards to all,

Peter Bruce.

All postings can be found at http://teenagerailfan.blogger.com

Monday Morning Photo. 23/05/2011.

2011-05-23T15:35:00.001+10:00

G'day all, I've been away a bit over the last few weeks as well as being fairly busy so havn't had the time to spend on MMP. In the meantime I've had some very informative emails from Queenslanders Arthur Robinson and Brian Webber as well as from Geoff Kirton here in Melbourne and I have posted them at my blog http://teenagerailfan.blogspot.com I'll pick up the journey at Bowen, I'm guessing [definitely not remembering] that we travelled the 115 miles and 38 chains north from Mackay on a very slow goods behind Pacific 1028 seen here with fellow traveller Graeme Westwood always and still only known as Westy.

Some time later RM94 arrived, according to the Working Timetable for the Northern Division issued on 22 July 1962 this left Townsville at 7.55am and stopped almost everywhere before getting to Bowen at 2.10pm on this particular Saturday arvo.

About all I can remember about Bowen is catching the northbound "Sunlander" to reach Townsville, there was nothing else running so we actually had to contribute to the QGR's financial health by buying tickets.

We got to Townsville not long after sun-up and stepping out of the airconditioned cars was like stepping into a sauna and the sun was bouncing off that big rock that dominates the city.

I'll take a break from 1964 Queensland for my next effort and post a few pictures taken on my recent visit to South Australia.

Regards,

Peter Bruce.

Fw: More on Mackay

2011-05-23T15:03:00.003+10:00

--------------------------------------------------
From: "Geoff Kirton" <geoff.kirton@rmit.edu.au>
Sent: Thursday, April 28, 2011 4:25 PM
To: <pbruce1@optusnet.com.au>
Subject: More on Mackay

> Hello Peter,
>
> Having got the pronounciation debate out-of-the-way yesterday and sent the
> email - suddenly remembered why you would be having problems with Mackay
> Railway Stat.and Google Earth.
>
> Reason is that the railway was deviated from Paget to the south to the
> west of Mackay some time in the early to mid. 1990's.
> Fortunately our RMIT University Library has a Qld. country street
> directory.
> Sure enough the former railway and yards near the CBD and from the south &
> west have been removed, with a new station for Mackay constructed at
> Paget, 4 km south of the original station.
> Paget was the junction for the North Coast Line & the branch west to Finch
> Hatton, and a couple of other places originally, including Victoria.
>
> Reasons were to upgrade the NCL to 21 ton axle load, concrete sleepers,
> CTC and replacement of wooden bridges, so that marvellous 180 degree curve
> to enter Mackay from the east has gone.
> The steel girder bridge over the Pioneer River west of Mackay was needing
> to be upgraded or replaced, I seem to remember, so another station out of
> the city centre and another deviation was constructed.
> Added benefits of course were removing level Xings and freeing up valuable
> real estate ha! ha!
> Unsure whether the original station has been kept - this where Google Maps
> & Google Earth are required!
>
> Still does not conclusively solve the location of your 3rd & 4th photos,
> but still inclined to suggest Prosperine with its sugar mill, the next
> major town heading north up the NCL.
>
> Cheers
>
>
> Geoff Kirton
>

Fw: Mack-a or Mack-i

2011-05-23T15:03:00.001+10:00

--------------------------------------------------
From: "Geoff Kirton" <geoff.kirton@rmit.edu.au>
Sent: Wednesday, April 27, 2011 4:11 PM
To: <pbruce1@optusnet.com.au>
Subject: Mack-a or Mack-i

> Hello Peter,
>
> Thanks for the photos.
>
> Unsure myself as to the location of your 3rd & 4th phots, as the last time
> I visited Mackay Railway Station was in June 1984.
> My first guess is Proserpine, given that you travelled from Bowen to
> Townsville mostly in the dark (i.e. the small hours)
> The further north and west we are from Rocky and Toowoomba, the greater my
> unfamiliarity with rail stations and yards.
> A Queensland equivalent of Weston Langford's plans of track layouts is
> desperately needed, unless such info. already exists.
> Would be a fascinating document, given the "interesting layout" of some
> Qld. rail facilities.
> My first guess is Proserpine, given that you travelled from Bowen to
> Townsville mostly in the dark (i.e. the small hours).
>
> As to the pronunciation - when I first went to school in Toowoomba, I had
> a teacher who was born in Mackay, and he said "kay" as in "bay".
> Later on though, another teacher who had taught there used "kay" as in
> "eye".
> Both seemed to be used, but nowadays, people in radio & TV tend to use
> "kay" as in "eye".
> Perhaps "kay" was a local or regional decision from long ago.
> My feeling is that between 1971 and 1986, I rarely heard "eye" was mostly
> used.
>
> Enough of the grammar and railway lessons!
>
> Cheers
>
> Geoff

Fw: Monday Morning Photo. 25/04/2011.

2011-05-23T15:01:00.000+10:00

From: Dad

Sent: Tuesday, April 26, 2011 8:24 AM

To: Peter Bruce

Subject: Re: Monday Morning Photo. 25/04/2011.

Peter,

I am fairly certain that the photos of B18 1/4 No. 27 at the north end of the yard and and BB 1073 and PB15 105 are at Mackay, the sugar boxes are the confirmation.

The other two photos are at Bundaberg, 569 is has just come off the bridge over the Burnett River and is crossing Burbong Street.

1617 is on the same road crossing which is at the end of Bundaberg station.

I have forwarded the photos to Arthur Hayes and Brian Webber, both spent some time in Mackay in the days of steam, Arthur a a fireman and Brian as a railway enthuasist and photographer.

The locomotive 105 is a C16 not a PB15. The C16s when rebuilt with the "Master Mechanics Front End" were the only QR locos with the distinctive tapered funnel.

The numbers are interesting as QR reallocated locomotive numbers. For example of B18 1/4 No. 27 was built in 1935 after C16 No.105.

Back when I was a young lad I thought that PB15 No. 5 was QR's the fifth loco, it was all very confusing especially as there was a C17 No. 2.

Incidentally when I joined QR in 1981 my service number was lower than others with longer service, another QR venture into the world of recycling.

QR also recycled bridge girders, so far I have found 65 instances, some for rail bridges and others for road overbridges.

Others were sold to The Main Roads Department and sugar mills for reuse.

Arthur Robinson

Fw: Monday Morning Photo. 25/04/2011.

2011-05-23T14:59:00.001+10:00

From: Brian Webber

Sent: Tuesday, April 26, 2011 9:31 AM

To: Dad ; Hayes, Arthur ; pbruce1@optusnet.com.au

Cc: Hallam, Greg ; Farlow, Caitlin ; Campbell, Dennis ; Elsol, John ; David Langley ; Bruce McLean ; jgof@datafast.net.au ; Graeme Cleak ; Bob Wilson ; Weston Langford ; John Phillips ; John Thompson ; liamdavies@optusnet.com.au ; milantram1859@yahoo.com

Subject: Re: Monday Morning Photo. 25/04/2011.

Gents

My credentials are that I worked for a Bank in Bundaberg in 1962/63 and in Mackay in 1963/65, 1969 and 1979-81. How lucky can one be!!

1617 is leaving the [South] Bundaberg station on the main line [platform road] and running north probably to North Bundaberg loco to stable.

105 is a C16 and is working a harbour shunt. It will take its train of sugar box MTWs through the Goods Yard and across one of the 3 Pioneer River bridges [at that time] to Mackay Harbour. Note a down train in the platform road and the Netherdale Rail Motor [a 102hp unit and two trailers] in the east Up dock.

569 is arriving [South] Bundaberg off the Burnett River bridge with a goods, probably from Wallaville or Tirroan although it is possible it is leaving the Millaquin branch [the junction is below the train and the line ran east [to the right of the photo].

When I first visited Mackay, the locals told me it was pronounced Mac K as that was how the person the town was named after pronounced it but when I last worked in Mackay in 1981 it had evolved to Muck eye.

Thank you for the memories. Bundaberg is little changed but the area of Mackay Passenger station is gone replaced by the by-pass and the current station at what was previously Paget.

Brian Webber

Bowen

2011-05-16T13:49:00.002+10:00

The original Bowen Station was on the seafront near the Jetty and the locomotive depot remained there when the new station to the west of the town was opened.

The old North Coast Line from the south turned right just before the Don River and ran into Bowen on a track parallel to the track from the north.

The newer Bowen Station had balloon loop to avoid the need to reverse trains.

The two tracks between Don and Bowen were operated as two single track lines.

This arrangement was bypassed in 1990 with a new bridge over the Don River. A triangular connection to Bowen and a new platform built on the main line to serve Bowen.

The only tracks that remain are to the freight centre at Don, the salt works siding and the coke works siding which is on the okd harbour line.

The attached diagrams should explain the layout.

In the Don screenshot from google earth the old line is blue and the present line black.

Arthur R

----- Original Message -----

From: Peter Bruce

To: Arthur Robinson

Sent: Tuesday, April 26, 2011 1:50 PM

Subject: Fw: Monday Morning Photo. 25/04/2011.

Arthur, edited text of my last posting below. Apologies.

PB.

From: Peter Bruce

Sent: Tuesday, April 26, 2011 1:29 PM

To: Dad

Subject: Re: Monday Morning Photo. 25/04/2011.

G'day Arthur, I have that photo of 1073 and 105 on my desktop and when I sat down at the computer just a few minutes ago I looked at 105 and said to myself that's not a PB15 it's a C16, as you say the funnel is the give-away. Your's was the first email I opened and sure enough I had got it wrong......and it was nothing to do with it being a long time ago because I've posted shots of C16s recently and I've used the qrig.org website to confirm loco numbers.

Thanks for the info on the two pics I was unsure about, I couldn't reconcile the position of the station platform relative to the level crossing and had no idea that it was Bundaberg.

The old QGR was certainly an interesting railway, I'm hoping to get up your way fairly soon to have a look at today's Queensland Railways.

Regards,

Peter Bruce.

P.S. Bowen is my next puzzle, I had forgotten its layout. I have had a look at Google Earth and can't find the station, does it have a balloon loop still? Anyway I'll put some photos up probably the week after next as I'll be away in SA next weekend.

Bowen

2011-05-16T13:48:00.002+10:00

Photo of Bowen Railway Station 1953.

Note that variety of wagons, no two seem to be the same.

This was typical of QR in the 1950s.

Arthur R

Monday Morning Photo. 25/04/2011.

2011-04-25T01:40:00.002+10:00

G'day all, back to the days of Mail Trains, telegrams and expensive interstate trunk calls brought to you in 2011 by instantaneous international communications.....who'd have thought it. No ATMs in 1964 either, you either carried all the money you needed for an extended trip or you had your bank forward your signature to a few of the places that you were going to visit so you could draw money out on any weekday between 10am and 3pm.....the good old good old days!!! And if the bank messed it up it was your bad luck!! I think there was some extremely advanced process involving your signature in invisible ink in your passbook too. Or maybe I just dreamt that.

Four pics today, two are definitely Mackay [I hope]. Old original B18 1/4 No. 27 at the north end of the yard and and BB 1073 and PB15 105 at the south end of the busy station yard. Lots of people worked for the Railways then, 24 hours a day, the lights were on all night in hundreds of tiny townships. I miss that. Not that Mackay was tiny.

I'm a bit puzzled by the other two shots, I have them as Mackay but they don't seem to line up with the other photos and Google Earth doesn't seem to offer any clues... is the present station building in the same location? Arthur, Geoff, can you shed any light here?

Another thing, I was corrected when I pronounced it Mackaye, as in" aye,aye sir", I was told that it was Mackay, the ay as in way. I would have said that I was sure about that but I'm not sure of anything anymore.........except that I did take these photos and I was in Queensland!! And that a notebook and pencil would have been handy. And what a great trip.

More hazy memories next week.

Regards,

Peter Bruce.

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2011-04-13T19:56:00.001+10:00

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Monday Morning Photo. 11/04/2011. Part Two.

2011-04-12T11:49:00.002+10:00

G'day all, what I miss most travelling by train today is the open window and the closeness to the sights and sounds....... the immediacy.

It could never get much more immediate than riding in the van of a very slow roadside goods train on the long stretch between Rockhampton and Mackay, if I'm not wrong it took well upward of 12 hours for the 201 miles, 320 odd kilometres, picking up and setting out wagons everywhere and waiting for crosses and overtakes. And in between we might have hit 30mph occasionally.

But if I may quote the title of Cliff Olds's wonderful railway autobiography "I wouldn't have missed it for quids". [the quid being the slang term for the pound, our old pre decimal unit of currency and quids meaning a lot of 'em].

I've no idea which places the three attached photos were taken at, except that from the frame numbers that they were taken on this long stretch. There is a chimney and smoke visible behind the trees in the shot of the C17 [957?] so there must be a sugar mill there. One of our Queenslanders should be able to put me right.

1070 was on a southbound goods just like our northbound.......the van of our train is just visible and I think we crossed the Yank not too far out of Rocky.

That was railroading in the old Queensland way and you won't see it anywhere in Australia today. Here there be Tilt Trains.

I'd love to make that trip again but I suppose at a pinch I could settle for an air-conditioned sleeper.

Regards,

Peter Bruce.

Monday Morning Photo. 11/04/2011 Part One.

2011-04-12T11:48:00.002+10:00

G'day all, Arthur Robinson sent me an email correcting some of my considerable misapprehensions about the railway arrangements at Port Curtis Junction. I had allowed myself to be mislead by Google Maps which of course show today's layout which is altogether different from that in my 1964 photos. The Google Maps screenshot is attached showing the changes, the purple lines are the originals and the blue are today's lines, the north to west curve at the Rocklands triangular junction should be in blue of course. So the line visible behind 935 and 1469 in last weeks posting is actually the old North Coast line and is not going to any port, so much for easy assumptions, thanks Arthur. And also Geoff Kirton who mentioned the changed alignment.

Regards,

Peter Bruce.

Monday Morning Photo. 4/4/2011.

2011-04-04T15:09:00.002+10:00

G'day all, I seem to have my computer problems sorted out. I recieved an interesting email a couple of days or so ago mentioning a mistake in my previous Rockhampton posting which can be found at http://teenagerailfan.blogspot.com. There is a photo there which purports to be at the south end of Rocky yard and it has been pointed out to me that it is nothing of the kind but is the northern end of Mackay yard. I am always grateful for corrections and comments because at this distance in time I cannot rely on my memory. I have to admit too that that photo bears no resemblance to any of my other Rocky pictures.

I then took a look at the other photos in the last posting and realised that the Garratt 1108 was actually passing through Port Curtis Junction heading north into the yard, it has just crossed Port Curtis Road, is that a Golden Fleece servo behind the line up of cars??, and has come in off the Central Line. It looks like from that photo and from Google Earth that there was a triangular layout at Port Curtis Junction and the station and signalbox were just north of the level crossing.

So this week all three photos were taken at the junction.

Both 935 and 1469 are headed south on the mainline and the Port branch can be seen behind both engines, I think the black hatted signalman is returning to the box after issuing the staff to the driver of 1469.

I realise that these musings are of no interest to the non railfans in this group so as I've said to you before, just look at the pictures!!

We took three side trips out of Rocky, to Emerald, Mount Morgan and Yeppoon but I'll cover these later and continue up the North Coast Line next, 202 miles to Mackay on a slow roadside goods train getting put away everywhere for crosses and overtakes.

Thanks again to the Queenslanders for taking the trouble to mail their corrections.

As an aside I was at the Ballarat Tramway Museum a couple of years ago and met an ex-engineman from central Queensland and his wife. He was a volunteer driver at the Mary Valley Railway and the Rocky steam tram and really interesting bloke. Maybe he is reading this now, I know the readership goes way beyond the mailing list.

Best regards to all,

Peter Bruce.

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Monday Evening Photo. 21/02/2011.

2011-02-21T20:58:00.002+11:00

G'day all, back to Rockhampton 1964.... Denison Street after the rain and an anonymous C16 clanks past McConnell's Hotel, "it's friendlier", at least so says the sign above the upstairs verandah, I suppose that's a water gin behind the tender of the C16......maybe not? Any opinions?

The other three photos are all at the other end of the very extensive railway establishment at Rocky, between the end of the yard and Port Curtis Junction. C16 614 is shunting the the south end of the yard, red Beyer-Garratt 1108 is approaching Port Curtis Junction on it's way west and I think 1202 is waiting departure time with a southbound goods while Pb15 520 knocks a few wagons around in a desultory, sub-tropical way. Although Rockhampton wasn't what you would have called a Railway Town, like say Ararat in Victoria or Peterborough in S.A it was a very busy location 24 hours a day and would have employed several hundred railway people altogether. I wonder how many it keeps busy these days!

Rocky was, and of course still is, too big to be just a railway town, it wasn't railway dependant for much of its employment unlike Peterborough and Ararat.

But in 2011 the trains still run along Denison Street. Take a look at Google Earth.

Regards,

Peter Bruce.

P.S. All Queensland steam locos clanked, I think much more so than any others. I remember the sound as being clank-clonk actually. Am I remembering accurately or is my memory playing up again??

Monday Morning Photo. 31/01/2011.

2011-01-30T20:33:00.002+11:00

G'day all, OK it's almost February, time to get MMP going again. I'm just going to ease into it with one photo this week, still in Rocky and still in Denison Street.

C16 421 has only progressed a few yards up the street, no metres in 1964, but the rest of the scene is a bit more informative about the railway end of town as it was in so many places back then.

Rockhampton railway station wasn't in the middle of town, it still isn't, and many passengers would have been met by family or friends and whisked away by car or maybe taxi to more salubrious parts of the city.

But in my experience of long distance train travel before the days of universal car ownership many of my fellow sitting up all night passengers were single blokes either travelling to a job or searching for the next one.

And what would such a bloke be looking for when he stepped off the Rocky Mail..........a beer, a feed and the local paper for the job ads and maybe the form guide.

They're all here, next to the station, the aforementioned McConnell's Hotel, the newsagent and the Railway Cafe [prop. A&V Angelos].

I don't think I ever ate at a Railway Cafe anywhere on the East Coast that wasn't run by Greeks, three courses for 7/6 plus bread and butter and a pot of tea, 75 cents in today's money. If it was breakfast it was likely a pile of eggs and bacon and tomatoes and toast that you couldn't jump over.

It would be pretty easy to get misty-eyed about the Good Old Days but they're long gone.... as I've said before, I'm just glad I was there.

Hopefully the floods in Rockhampton have subsided and life there is starting to recover. Not to even mention the rest of inundated Queensland.

Regards,

Peter Bruce.

Monday Morning Photo. 27/12/2010.

2010-12-27T14:35:00.001+11:00

G'day all, I'm listening to the ABC broadcast of the Fourth Test ,Australia v England, and it's pretty depressing, Australia all out for 98, the Poms rampant.

So time to lift the mood a bit with some pictures taken around Rockhampton, Queensland back in late '64. The weather was hot and very humid, it always is late in the year in coastal Queensland. As can be seen from the photos the cloud cover was mostly heavy, in fact sometimes it felt like we were walking around in cloud.

...............Now it's Monday arvo, family Christmas duties intervened before I had time to complete this on Boxing Day.

The cricket news is no better so back to hot and humid Rocky 1964 and a visit to the Loco Depot.

At this time Rockhampton was home to all 30 Beyer Garratts but as can be seen some were already out of use. Of those that were still operational six are present in the photo of the running shed and Pb15 737, a product of Walker's Engineering 1926, is shunting the coal stage. You would be hard put to find a scene like this anywhere in the world today, perhaps on an industrial railway in China, but this is what a working loco depot looked like in steam days, it was busy, dirty, grimey, noisy and above all interesting. It was a monochrome scene on this day with an overcast sky, the Garratts provided the colour, they were Midland Red lined out in Yellow.

I've also included a couple of pictures of the old Rockhampton station, C16 421 has just emerged from the train shed and is in Denison Street passing McConnell's Hotel and it's Ultra-Modern Bottle Store. We didn't sample it's wares but we did try Mac's Rockhampton Beer in the station Refreshment Room, it was truly vile. I think the brand died a deserved death just a few years later.

I've got plenty more Rockhampton photos so there will probably be at least another couple of weeks postings at least.

The next posting will be in 2011.

So all the best to all for the New Year,

Peter Bruce.

Monday Morning Photo. 6/12/2010.

2010-12-06T15:10:00.003+11:00

G'day all, I have had some very helpful feedback from Lynn Zelmer and John Browning about the sugar tramway photos I have posted recently, they have both come to the rescue of my failing memory, although perhaps my memory is not so bad, my knowledge was pretty thin to begin with.

See http://teenagerailfan.blogspot.com for more info and all earlier posts.

Anyway, on with the long, slow trip up the North Coast line. Four shots today and they bring us to Rockhampton, not even half way to Cairns, 396 miles and 11 chains to be exact. For those among us who are only metrically literate [possibly not the right choice of words], a chain is/was 22 yards, the length of a cricket pitch, and us Australians probably don't want to be reminded about cricket pitches at the moment, specifically the one at the Adelaide Oval where our cricket team is getting an absolute belting from England.

Asides aside we travelled from Gympie to Maryborough and Bundaberg to Rockhampton by the preferred mode, very slow goods trains and the intervening stretch Maryborough to Bundaberg was in relative luxury aboard the "Rocky", i.e. Rockhampton Mail. This train was diesel hauled but otherwise basically as it would have been in the '20s and '30s. the Queensland Railways in the early '60s were far from modern, in common with all the government railways in Australia they had been starved of funds for most of their existence and ravaged by the Great Depression and then the massive traffic and minimal maintenance of the second war. In the post-war years there was a huge demand for both catch up money and new money for housing and various infrastructure and our railways mostly just made do. From later in the '60s to the present day the railways in Queensland have benefitted from very large and continuing coal projects and are almost unrecognisable from the primitive organisation shown here.

The photos..... which I never seem to be able to display in the desired order.

848 is supposed to be the first, it is drawing into Gympie from the north and is about to pass a bogie covered wagon which perfectly illustrates the points made above. We arrived in Bundaberg on a Saturday morning and went off up into town for a feed leaving our scanty possessions in the cloak room. Bad mistake, when we got back the station was closed 'til the next day and I had to improvise bedding with the national broadsheet newspaper, "The Australian". This was on the floor of a railmotor trailer on a siding down near the river where it was noticeably cool and damp. Brown Bomber 999 is posing in the station yard for my fellow travellers.

Our accomodation north out of Bundaberg was something that we would have avoided if it had been possible, only the Queensland Government Railways would have a brakevan that had the guard's compartment at one end, a compartment for "drovers accompanying stock" at the other end and accomodation for the said stock in between. We substituted for the drovers and although we weren't actually accompanying stock we did travel with what the stock had left behind!! We met 1032 on a goods somewhere south of Rocky.

The next couple of postings will deal with Rockhampton itself but in the meantime here is 1266 on a northbound Fast Goods, the QGR trying to show that it is as modern as tomorrow.

In every way these were very interesting times in Australia and I was very fortunate to witness them.

Best regards,

Peter Bruce.

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Monday Morning Photo. 29/11/2010.

2010-11-29T16:09:00.001+11:00

G'day all, I'm not too clear about the location of the various sugar mills around Bundaberg or about the distinction between the Bingera and Watawa Mills other than knowing that somehow or other there was a connection. Perhaps someone can put me right. I'm pleased that No.6 makes another appearance in the background of the shot of the ex QGR B13 because it has occurred to me that it made it's first appearance on Queensland rails just 41 years after Stephenson's "Rocket" first hauled passengers on a public railway, the Stockton&Darlington in the north of England. To put that into some sort of perspective I took these photos nearly 50 years ago, No.6 was born about the same time as my paternal grandfather. That thought brings home to me how rapidly the world was changed by industrialization and the self propelled vehicle on its ever extending rails, each of course dependent on the other.

Getting back to the photos, I think all three of the little cane locos are Bundaberg Fowlers, that is built by the Bundaberg Foundry Company under licence to John Fowler&Co of Leeds in the U.K, but again I am open to correction. My knowledge of the sugar cane lines was pretty sketchy to begin with and it has been mostly deleted in the intervening years.

Regards,

Peter Bruce.

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Monday Morning Photo. Tuesday 16/11/2010.

2010-11-16T15:31:00.002+11:00

G'day all, it's amazing how busy life gets when you quit full time work.

As well I've been scanning old negatives of our trip up the North Coast line of the Queensland Government Railways and trying to fill in the gaps in my memory. With limited success I might add.

I had thought that we made this trip in late 1963 but I've had to revise that to probably late 1964. My recollection is that we ran into the Wet as we got further north and it was certainly hot.

This week I'm going to bypass the strictly chronological because I've come across some photos that really need to appear on the same page.

1271 was at Gympie, an almost brand new [Feb 1964] English Electric loco, given that I didn't often waste valuable film on diesels I'm amazed that I have a photo of it.

But I'm glad I did because a couple of days later at the Watawa Mill near Bundaberg we found No.6, almost 100 years older, built by Nielsons of Glasgow in 1865 and just for a bit more contrast parked right next to it was a 1964 XM Falcon.

The link below leads to a bit more information about No.6.

http://www.qm.qld.gov.au/Learning+Resources/~/media/Documents/TWRM/Learning/Fact%20sheets/Fact%20Sheet%20-%20A10%20No%206.pdf

Some of my photos from this trip were damaged by the humid weather, the damage is apparent in the shot of 1271. I was shooting 120 paperbacked film, 12 to the roll, and some films suffered when the film stuck to the backing paper.

Next week I'll backtrack a bit and in the meantime I'll try to relive the trip in my mind so I can get it down on paper.....as it were.

We visited a few sugar tramways so I'm going to have to do a bit of revision via Google too.

Regards,

Peter Bruce.

Monday Morning Photo. 08/11/2010.

2010-11-08T15:15:00.001+11:00

G'day all, four photos today of the Shay at Moreton Mill in late 1963. It was out of service by this time unfortunately and that was a pity, seeing a geared loco in action is really something.....a lot of noise, smoke and steam and very slow progress.

This link will take you to further information and photos of all the mill's locos.

http://www.starfieldobservatory.com/MapletonTramway/29Where.htm

I remember reading about a fan trip behind the Shay in an Australian model railway magazine sometime before our visit to this mill. These days it just wouldn't happen, risk management would decree it far too dangerous, perhaps there are just more dills around nowadays, people likely to put themselves and others at risk. Maybe. In fact we wouldn't have been allowed to roam unsupervised around the property if today's conditions had applied then. As I have remarked before in these postings all you needed to do back then was ask permission to have a look around and once permission was granted take care and stay out of the way of operations, in other words, use your common sense.

The other two photos are of our transportation from Nambour, the Monday to Friday Caboolture to Yandina train. When we got to Yandina we were still almost 1000 miles and about a week from Cairns.

You'll soon see why it took so long.

Regards,

Peter Bruce.

Previous postings at

http://teenagerailfan.blogspot.com

A correction and Where are the Mill's locomotives now ?

2010-10-25T18:44:00.002+11:00

I found this useful page about the Moreton Mill engines. I had taken a second look at my photo, Coolum and Eudlo, and realised that Eudlo wasn't Eudlo but was probably a Krauss and as well had a dinky little tender.

So I went looking for further info and found it here. The other loco is in fact Moreton.

http://www.starfieldobservatory.com/MapletonTramway/29Where.htm

I'm most happy to be corrected further.

Peter Bruce.

Monday Morning Photo. 25/10/2010 and YouTube - Nambour Moreton Mill Sugar Cane BFC5

2010-10-25T18:43:00.001+11:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NOBiIjxRyc

G'day all, I mistakenly sent the link to the above Moreton Mill clip late last week, I had meant to save it for the regular Monday posting. Perhaps I should say semi-regular. I've included it again so that it will appear when this posting goes to the Teenage Railfan site. The loco is a Bundaberg Fowler, apparently it was an occasional guest at Nambour during the '90s.

Anyway this week and next we will be at the Moreton Mill at Nambour. This sugar mill finally closed in December 2003 and NearMap for July 2010 shows the mill site totally cleared but with the track still visible from the street into the site just west of the intersection of Howard Street and Currie Street.

Looking at the 1962 Queensland Railways public timetable I would say that we left Brisbane on the 8.22 am Gympie passenger which got us over the 65 miles to Nambour in 3 hours and 7 minutes behind dark green Pacific 1036.

If I remember correctly our first sight of the mill operation was Petrie running light engine across the intersection of Currie Street and past the two pubs that still stand at this corner, the "Club" and the "Royal George".

The other photos are all at this intersection or in the mill yard. It was a busy tramway with four steam locos working, Coolum, Eudlo, Moreton and Petrie and at least one of the diesels too, I think there were only two at the time.

Later that day, after dark in fact, we were lucky enough to be taken out along the main line of the tramway deep into the canefields. We travelled on one of the diesels on a very dark night right out to somewhere along the river, all I know about the actual location is that retired tramway loco Valdora was preserved out there. The intrepid railway explorer Westy ventured off to get a photo but was, I think, defeated by the total absence of any light.

So when we returned to Nambour we camped for the night in a wagon in a siding near the station, sheer luxury.

All the locos carried the once ubiquitous canvas or hessian waterbags.

In the background of the photo of Coolum and the diesel shoving a rake into the mill you can see an old Commer truck and also a Blitzwagon. The Blitzs were all over Queensland in those days before the invasion of Toyota 4x4s and I remember a sales yard in South Brisbane devoted to them and the occasional Land Rover.

Next week I'll post some pictures of the out of service Shay at the Mill.

Previous postings at http://teenagerailfan.blogspot.com

Regards,

Peter Bruce.

P.S. Denys Williams disregard what follows, remember, It's the opposite of Playboy, you only get it for the pictures!!

I consulted widely about the location of the Ipswich Loco Depot and Dave MacCartney told me that it was actually over the river and near the workshops. I have just had a look at my friend NearMap again and the imprint of the turntable and the roundhouse tracks is clearly visible in the area between the Workshop leads and North Street and the school that I was using to try and locate the roundhouse is just southeast at the corner of Downs Street and Fitzgibbon Street. And it is not a Catholic School at all, I must have imagined the cross, it is Ipswich North Primary. The junction for the Workshops is a trailing one just west of the station and there is a signal box there still and a turntable is visible near that and in the shadows of the Ipswich City Mall buildings. Dave thought he recalled a facing junction west of the station for the roundhouse/workshops access track. Thanks Pat Cairney for your educated guess but we were all looking in the wrong direction and we were in the wrong place anyhow.

Monday Morning Photo. 18/10/2010.

2010-10-18T12:01:00.003+11:00

G'day all, as I mentioned in an earlier post the three of us spent two or three days around Brisbane riding and photographing the steam hauled suburban services and anything else that moved on the Queensland Government rails. I havn't been to Brisbane since 1978 and the suburban services have been electrified since then. A quick look at NearMap shows that much else has changed since the days when Brisbane was regarded as Australia's biggest country town. Even in those remote early '60s days the line out as far as Corinda was four track but elsewhere there was also much single track running. Three of these photos were taken on that four track main between Sherwood and Corinda near the Quarry Road overbridge I think, English Electric 1272, hauling the wooden cars is heading inbound for Brisbane, the other two are outbound.

Yerongpilly on the Southside lines was/is connected with the main system by a line over to Corinda, back then it was the only connection. Nowadays there is a connection in the city between South Brisbane and Roma Street stations.

When I took the photo at Yerongpilly there were three Pb15s shunting the yard there. The Yank, 221A, is hauling a coal train just north of Ipswich I think, that looks like a road bridge under construction in the background and in the foreground the track gang is leaning on their shovels while the train passes.....it's always a good idea to stand well clear of passing coal trains, big lumps of coal are apt to fall off!

Ferny Grove looks pretty rural in the photo of baby blue 1049 and again NearMap tells a very different story. I prefer NearMap over Google Earth, it enables much clearer coverage of the Australian cities.

Off up the North Coast next week, first stop Nambour and the Moreton Mill.

Regards,

Peter Bruce.

All postings at http://teenagerailfan.blogspot.com

Monday Morning Photo. 11/10/2010.

2010-10-11T00:59:00.001+11:00

G'day all, I've been overtaken by indecision over the past few weeks but I'm OK now, I'm over it at least for the moment and we're back in Brisbane late in 1963. In fact we're in Ipswich hangin' around the Loco Depot and the Workshops. Ipswich is southwest of Brisbane. I can't figure out where the Loco was, in the shots of the roundhouse there is a two or three story school building which seems to have a large cross on the end wall.....I'm guessing that it is a Catholic College and I've searched for it on Google Earth and NearMap with no luck. Ah well never mind, it may not be there anymore

For the most part suburban passenger services to Ipswich was steam hauled and as well there were main line trains and considerable coal traffic from the mines in the district.

The General Motors diesel 1466 seems to be on a through freight train and the Yank, 221A ,at Ipswich station is towing a rake of coal hoppers.

The Yanks were so-called because they came to Queensland from The Baldwin Locomotive Works in the U.S.A during the war years. They were officially known as the AC16 class and one is preserved in running order.

The very shiny Pacific was fresh out of the overhaul and was tearing up and down under test, it hasn't even had it's number restored to the buffer beam.

The other shots are pretty much self explanatory and are at the Loco Depot. The close up of the Yank gives some idea of the everyday grime and dirt around any steam locomotive.

If anyone knows where the Loco Depot was I'm curious to know.

I reckon that eight photos almost makes up for a week or two of neglect of duty.

More Brisbane next week and then we'll set off on the 1000 mile trip north to Cairns.

Regards and apologies,

Peter Bruce.

Monday Evening Photo. 13/09/2010.

2010-09-13T20:42:00.001+10:00

G'day all, Brisbane has three major city stations, Roma Street, Central and South Brisbane. South Brisbane in those days had no direct cross-river connection to the other two and Central was served only by suburban trains while Roma Street served both suburban and long distance trains. As well as providing all south of the river services South Brisbane was the terminal for interstate services to and from New South Wales.

On our 1963 trip we spent some time in Brisbane and usually rode the last train to a suburban terminus and slept in the cars after they were stabled, I don't think I slept in a bed for over a month.

Most of the suburban services were provided by loco hauled trains and only a few were diesel hauled. The rolling stock was a mixture of modern stainless steel cars built for conversion to electric multiple unit sets and elderly wooden bodied compartment cars.

Today's photos are all at or near the three city stations. 1036 is at Roma Street and is on a pretty typical country day train , a miscellaneous, not to say motley, rake of wooden cars headed by a clean, dark green Pacific although it could as easily sport a baby blue and white diesel.

All the rest are suburban trains, 754 is approaching South Brisbane with a rake of the aforementioned wooden compartment cars and the three shots of Central show what a smokey hollow it was in those days.

I havn't been to Brisbane for some time and I just had a look at the city on NearMap, I'd say it's pretty much unrecognisable as the same town. It was known then as a very big country town and had very little high-rise developement. It certainly wasn't anything like the southern cities. I liked it.

Just to round this posting off I've also attached a later photo of the evening tramway peak on the Southside, not too far from South Brisbane station. At the time the Brisbane City Council tramways ran a really efficient and intensive city and suburban service. Sadly the Council headed by the Lord Mayor Clem Jones, destroyed the tramways in favour of bus services in the late 1960s.

Most of the negatives I'm using at the moment are none too flash and require a fair bit of work to make them half-way presentable, hence my tardiness.

All my previous postings can be found at;

http://teenagerailfan.blogspot.com

Regards,

Peter Bruce.

Monday Morning Photo. 6/09/2010.

2010-09-06T12:21:00.001+10:00

G'day all, I misread the timetable last week and had us arriving at Wallangarra from Sydney when we were actually departing for Brisbane. So for what it's worth we arrived at 7.48am and at 8.20am we departed northbound.

The grand in name if not in performance "Brisbane Express" became just "The Mail" on the Queensland Government Railways narrow gauge metals and was allowed over 10 hours for the 223 odd miles to Roma Street Station in Brisbane.

The old QGR had a few rather distinctive practices one of which was the seemingly haphazard allocation of locomotive numbers. For instance we had engine no 52 out of Wallangarra, it was a B181/4 Pacific but goodness knows what Nos. 51 and 53 were. These Pacifics were first introduced to traffic in 1926 and 52 was one of the early ones having a small tender.

Anyway we trundled along until we reached King's Creek where we paused for some time to await our opposite number, the southbound "Mail" which turned up behind 1043, one of the more modern 1950s Pacifics.

Toowoomba was reached at 1.55 pm for a 30 minute refreshment stop, shortly after we arrived 1014 arrived in the dock platform with No19, the connection from Roma.

Extra cars were added to our train here and we departed for Brisbane at 2.25 behind another BB181/4, its number long forgotten.

By 1963 the days of leisurely long distance travel were drawing to a close, car ownership was coming within the reach of more and more people and these slow long distance trains just couldn't compete for time or comfort and the mail went over to road or air transport.

That said, Queensland still has some long distance trains and I think I can feel another long train ride coming on. I might go sleeper this time.

Regards,

Peter Bruce.

Monday Morning Photo. Tuesday 31/08/2010.

2010-08-31T23:00:00.002+10:00

G'day all, I think that it was in late November 1963 that three of us, Graeme Westwood, Kevin Taig and I, set off for Queensland. I can't be sure about the exact time but maybe Kevin can set me right. We left Melbourne on the morning Albury and travelled on to Sydney on the South Mail in the leading car which was an LFX, an ancient vehicle whose classification meant that it was a compartment car with a lavatory serving each pair of compartments. A slightly up market dogbox!! But that virtually guaranteed us against a visit from any railway official who may have been interested to see our non-existent tickets. 401 miles and 48 chains of travel on the NSWGR Commissioners.

I've always been grateful.

"The Brisbane Express", train number 17, via Wallangarra, left Sydney three times a week, on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. It was an early afternoon departure at 1.55pm and arrival at Wallangarra on the NSW-Qld border was at 8.20 the next morning by which time we'd covered 492 miles, close to 800 kilometres.

We had a 46 class electric to Gosford and a 43 class diesel on to Broadmeadow but from then on it was steam all the way to Brisbane.

This week's posting will take us to the border.

Out of Broadmeadow we had 3616, unique in NSW as the only engine fitted with the Geisl exhaust ejector, hence the funny looking stack.

At Werris Creek a pair of 32s took over as far as Armidale [I think], thence a single 32 to Tenterfield and the last 11 miles to Wallangarra were handled by a 50 class 2-8-0.

Wallangarra Railway Refreshment Room provided us with a good breakfast during the 32 minutes allowed to change to the narrow gauge Queensland Government Railways train.

The only decent photo this week shows 3616 backing down onto the Express at Broadmeadow, then we have a shot at Muswellbrook which shows a not untypical NSWGR overnight train, a couple of insulated vans, a string of 1st and 2nd class sitters and a couple of sleeping cars. A pair of mail or luggage vans brought up the rear.

By the time we got to Tenterfield behind 3315 the rake was much reduced.

We would have been the only passengers travelling the whole way to Brisbane as there were two trains every night taking the much shorter North Coast line and they catered for the through loading. The route via Wallangarra was the original connection between the two capital cities though.

Next week we'll take the train to Brisbane.

Regards,

Peter Bruce.

Roger Hill's Prompt Reply to MMP 23/08/2010.

2010-08-30T10:55:00.001+10:00

Subject: Re: Monday Morning Photo, Monday Evening. 23/08/2010.

Hi Peter

Twas indeed I, I remember it well, here are some shots plus some others I took at another time. I think we decided on the spur of the moment that Friday afternoon to go on the ARHS trip that night to chase the Southern Aurora up to Wallan behind an R. We incurred the wrath of the ARHS heirachy on board for getting on the train without a ticket even though we wanted to buy a ticket on the train.

Regards

Roger

Monday Morning Photo, Monday Evening. 23/08/2010.

2010-08-23T23:10:00.002+10:00

G'day all, been a bit short of time over the last couple of weeks but more to the point I've been a bit short of inspiration.

So while I gather my thoughts I've put together a few photos taken at the long gone North Melbourne Locomotive Depot.

Many of you will have absolutely no knowledge or recollection of the great smokey edifice which once dominated the western end of North and West Melbourne. Melway 43 B6.

Just behind North Melbourne station.

These pictures are all interiors so I'd certainly welcome any contribution showing the exterior and its location.

It was a long brick shed built probably fairly late in the 19th century, maybe 1870-80? I'm sure someone can clarify the date. It contained three 70 foot turntables each radiating roads around the full 360 degrees and it provided nearly all the Victorian Railways locomotive stock in Melbourne until the early 1960s.

By that time steam was on its last legs and these shots are from that time.

I have posted these before perhaps but some of you wont have seen them.

I think they were all taken the same late afternoon with the kind forbearance of the shed foreman. I think I was there with Roger Hill. Any memories Roger? better still any pictures?

Regards,

Peter Bruce.

Monday Morning Newspaper Clippings.2/8/2010

2010-08-02T13:23:00.001+10:00

G'day all, this seems an appropriate way to finish off the story of a great weekend. The commencement of standard gauge through passenger service recieved huge coverage in the papers of the day. I think all of Melbourne's daily press is represented in this selection, in those days we had two morning papers "The Age" and "The Sun" and an evening paper "The Herald". Our family didn't have a TV at the time so I have no recollection of the television coverage, I wonder if any has survived.

I felt sure that I once had an actual print of the Tallarook picture but having read a little about other peoples unreliable memory recently I am willing to concede that I may have "misremembered".........and I don't remember where I got that word from either......maybe Mark Twain!!

There isn't much that I need to say about these little gems. The occasion was celebrated officially with a fair bit of the old Imperial pomp but the Premier of the time, Henry Bolte, let the side down at the Parliamentary Garden Party. He is wearing the required top hat and morning suit but note the hands in the pockets.....that gives him away for the cow cocky* that he really was. I'm just surprised that the top hat wasn't on the back of his head!

"The Spirit of Progress" and "The Southern Aurora" are long gone now and so are the State Railway Departments and most of the railway people that ran them.

And in many ways more's the pity.

Regards,

Peter Bruce.

http://teenagerailfan.blogspot.com

*cocky=small time farmer.

Re MMP 27/07/2010.

2010-07-27T22:43:00.002+10:00

G'day all, have done some editing of the latest post. The photo entitled Seymour Big Wheel had an obvious defect and there were some errors in the text.

The edits are in the posting to:

http://teenagerailfan.blogspot.com

More careful proof reading is called for.

Regards,

Peter Bruce.

P.S. I'm very happy to have any errors pointed out to me, errors of grammar and spelling especially.

P.P.S. For those unfamiliar with Melbourne I've attached another picture of Southern Cross Station as it is today.

Monday Morning Photo. Tuesday 27/07/2010.

2010-07-27T21:56:00.004+10:00

G'day all, it was "All Change" for the last time at Albury on that now distant Monday morning. The last broad gauge "Spirit of Progress", a long rake of blue and gold steel cars was in the dock platform with the usual S class 1800hp cab unit on the front. My 1960 Victorian Railways public timetable has SOP departure time as 7.50 am for an 11.30 am Melbourne arrival but I'm not sure of our actual times.

Albury to Seymour, 129.25 miles, was the standard "Spirit of Progress" experience, mostly mile after mile at 70 mph, no slackening at the stations as we exchanged the Miniature Electric Staff for each section on the automatic exchanger at line speed.

At Seymour all that changed. To mark the occasion two of the very few remaining A2 class 4-6-0s awaited our arrival, 995 leading 996 both in the able hands of Big Wheel crews, the Wodonga crew that had brought us south from Albury and fresh Seymour men.

I think most of the population of Seymour was there to see us off.

And did we go off!!

This was the Grande Finale, it was one of those times that you'd want to be in two places at once, standing precariously in the open doorway of the leading van or trackside anywhere to watch the two old flyers tear through with the very last "Spirit of Progress". I did have a newspaper print of a shot taken at Tallarook but unfortunately it's gone.

As you can see we had quite a welcoming party on our arrival at Spencer Street Station, fortunately I'm not one to worry about getting people in the shot because it was pretty near impossible both at Seymour and Spencer Street.

Mostly the photos are self explanatory, 996 is backing the train out to the Passenger Yard and 371 was obviously a Pass. Yard pilot that day.

Spencer Street Station was in the throes of it's early sixties rebuild at the time and there is evidence of that in some of the photos.

We now have a completely new station on the same site, it's called Southern Cross Station and so I've posted a photo I took just a few days ago. I stood more or less where I photographed the arrival of the train in 1962. The fella in the foreground of the old shot is Roger Hill I think. I can't remember if you travelled on the trip Roger.

Anyone who would like to respond to my posting or provide any pictures of this great trip, certainly the best I ever travelled on, feel free to use the mailing list. It seems too that a lot more people get these postings than are on the list. I will of course acknowledge the source of any contribution and am very keen to see photos and any information about the trip would be most welcome.

I've tried to attach the photos in chronological order but no matter what I do it never seems to turn out right.

Best Regards,

Peter Bruce.

All previous postings can be found at http://teenagerailfan.blogspot.com

Monday Morning Photo. 18/07/2010.

2010-07-20T00:22:00.002+10:00

G'day all, as I said.......to be continued.

We woke to an early and distinctly chilly Sunday morning as our cars were moved over to the long main platform at Albury Railway Station and shortly a pair of very clean 38 class Pacifics, each in a different shade of green, backed onto the train.

Sydney was 399 1/2 miles away and these two engines would take us all the way there topping up with coal at Demondrille as was routine with the 38s on the Long South.

Our first stop was at Table Top just 9 miles north of Albury where we crossed both No.1, the Melbourne Express and No.3, the Melbourne Limited Express, the very last of their kind and both headed by 38s in honour of the occasion. An absolutely momentous experience that I will never forget.

Photos...sorry, no....when I got my film back from processing almost every frame was damaged, mostly with massive scratches in the emulsion, the photos I've included are the only ones I could recover of the northbound trip.

We went into the loop at Harefield to cross a southbound bound freight and attached is a relatively undamaged shot of our train waiting, the through line stick* is off and visible at the right of the picture.

The other two photos were taken on the Bethungra Spiral just south of Cootamundra. One on the actual up line Spiral and the other on the double track nearer to the top of the grade, probably not far short of the Olympic Way level crossing.

[I got this far yesterday when I was interrupted by two of my sons and dragged kicking and screaming to the local pub to watch the footy on cable TV, Freo v Melbourne. For the first two quarters I did a lot more more kicking and screaming while Freo was all over Melbourne , but then we came home with a wet sail after half-time and almost overan them so I settled for just screaming. Noel, apologies for not responding your text message, I had left my phone at home.]

The Southern line was very quiet that Sunday and we took our time and had plenty of photostops 'til we got to Goulburn which we left over 20 late.

But did we make up time!! The two engine crews really got the bit between the teeth and we had some very fast running all the way into Central. I seem to remember a lot of Buffet Car crockery coming to grief on one of the curves and we beat the boom gates at a level crossing near Campbelltown....... no speed recorders on steam locos in N.S.W.

Dave MacCartney tells me we got in about four early, nearly half an hour regained over 139 miles.

And then we turned around and came home, we were back in Albury not too long after sunrise, this time behind 3823 and 3825. The cold, misty shot was taken at Albury Racecourse.

Next week we'll get back to Melbourne later on the Monday morning.

If anyone can fill in the photographic gaps I'd be very pleased, it was so disappointing to get such a damaged roll of film back and so miss some of the highlights of the trip.

Again.....to be continued.

Best regards,

Peter Bruce.

* stick=signal.

Monday Morning Photo. Tuesday 13/07/2010.

2010-07-13T14:16:00.001+10:00

G'day all, in April 1962 passenger traffic commenced on the newly built standard gauge connection between Melbourne and Albury making possible for the first time through services between Australia's two largest cities.

To mark the occasion and to position cars in Sydney for the first southbound through "Spirit of Progress" a special train ran on the weekend of the 14th and 15th of April.

The weekend began with S313 running re-gauged Victorian cars out of the old Spencer Street Station to Albury and attached are a few photos of this Saturday afternoon 190 mile journey.

For those unfamiliar with the Victorian Railways at the time the livery of both the locomotive and cars was a dark blue and gold. The locomotive livery was based on that of the Erie Railroad in the U.S.A with blue substituted for black. It made for a handsome looking train.

This part of the weekend's events was relatively uneventful with just a couple of stops for photos, the first one pictured here is at the towering steel trestle bridge over the Maribyrnong River on what was then the outskirts of Melbourne, the second photo I'm pretty sure was just to the north of Benalla station, that looks like the old roundhouse behind the rear cars of the train.

Apart from the couple of stops it was a pretty leisurely and sociable afternoon with plenty of time for catching up with friends.

After we arrived at Albury our cars were docked over in the transhipping sidings which were no longer much used as all freight traffic ran straight through to Sydney, although for many years afterward engines were still changed here.

Naturally most of us young fellas bedded down overnight in the cars.

To be continued...........

Best regards,

Peter Bruce.

Monday Morning Photo. 5/07/2010.

2010-07-05T14:48:00.001+10:00

G'day all, in my last posting we left 3813 at the buffer stop at Central Railway in Sydney, it was about to back down the loco release road and head for Eveleigh Loco. We should have hitched a ride because that's where we headed, probably after visiting the pie stall on the concourse at Central for a shepherd's pie or two, just the thing for the always famished inner teenager.

I'm not sure at this distance of the relative position of the running shed to the workshops but I do know that MacDonaldtown is the station after Redfern and was basically there for the railway establishment and my inkling is that it was virtually alongside the running shed. Can someone enlighten me....I've looked at my 1934 Gregory's replica but I'm none the wiser.

It was a Sunday in the winter of 1962, mostly a dull day, just a couple of patches of sunshine and I seem to have used the best part of a roll of film, 12 shots to a roll. I've attached all the photos I took on that visit, I hope that doesn't cause problems for anyone.

We didn't actually go to the running shed by the looks of it, I think it was still morning and there didn't seem to be anyone much around, we certainly weren't challenged. None of the engines here are in steam but I'd imagine that later in the day there would have been a bit more activity with engines being prepared for that night's mail trains etc.

To a Victorian the 38 class Pacifics were the New South Wales Government Railways so 3817 and 3801 can bookend this bracket of photos, 01 was just another grimey black 38 in those days but always certainly the most famous of the class. I must say though that I preferred 38s shiny black, lined out in red and unstreamlined. Preferred, that is, by a very narrow margin.

6020 seems to have just come out of the 'shops after an overhaul.

The rest of them are all veterans of the previous century.

I can't remember who coined the phrase "long-funnelled and elderly", the Rev. W. Awdry maybe? But it certainly applies to this lot. The 19 class entered service in 1877 and the last two, 1904 and and 1923, were retired in 1972. 1923's Baldwin tender can just be glimpsed in the shot of it's elderly mate 1243 which was built for passenger service at about the same time. 1912 also has the Baldwin tender which replaced the original six wheeler. The 19s with the larger Baldwin tenders ran to Batlow, Oberon and Dorrigo, all branches with tight curves, steep grades and light rail.

The 10 class seems to have been a hold-all for bits and pieces that didn't fit anywhere else, 1033 is obviously being used as a stationary boiler while 1066 has been recently retired going by the chalked sign on the cab side.

That these ancient machines led a useful life for so long gives us a bit of an insight into Australian history, the 1950s and 60s were spent catching up on the depredations to the Australian economy of two World Wars and the Great Depression. We had great demands anyway on our small tax base which had to provide for all kinds of services over vast distances . Until the Second War income tax was raised by the states. The result , to a large extent, for Australia's railways was reliance on improvising and making do.

Regards,

Peter Bruce.

See http://teenagerailfan.blogspot.com for previous postings.

See also http://picasaweb.google.com/janecooperbennett for some very interesting paintings.

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Penance.

2010-06-25T17:44:00.001+10:00

Somehow or other my Bumper Issue posting escaped from my computer...the usual operator error, so as an act of penance here a some photos I took in May of Albury's very handsome railway station.........please note NOT train station. Go forth and spread the Word.

PB.

Monday Morning Photo. Mid Winter Bumper Issue. Saturday 25/06/2010.

2010-06-25T17:39:00.001+10:00

G'day all, will be away for next weeks MMP so I decided to delay this weeks posting.

But I didn't want to conflict too much with either John Phillips's Wednesday Photos or Bob Wilson's Friday Afternoon Photos so I've held off 'til Saturday.

Most of us then youthful Victorians got our first sight of a foreign railway when we stepped onto the long platform at Albury. My own first sight was early 1962 when I changed trains in the last days of the border break of gauge. I travelled from Melbourne to Albury aboard the airconditioned steel cars of "The Spirit of Progress" and crossed the platform to ride the next 400 odd miles in the timber bodied, non-airconditioned cars of No.4. I sat in the open doorway all night.

Two trains connected with "The Spirit" back then, No.2, was the "Limited Express" and No.4 merely "The Express" which departed 20 minutes later. By the time I rode them they were usually fronted by 44 class diesels, Alco World Series units but I think that occasionally No.4 got a 38 class Pacific. Not so on my first trip to Sydney.

So I've decided to stay in Albury for this edition of Monday Morning Photo...... except for one picture.

5099 and 5188 always seemed to be the yard pilots at Albury and for many of us they were our first sight of NSW steam locomotion, our introduction to "That State with Those Engines" in the words of Mick Saunders.

S309 is in the Victorian broad gauge dock while 5099 is making ready to shift the long rake of the aforesaid timber bodied NSWGR cars. The train engine can be seen disappearing in the distance.

5188 is knocking freight wagons around Albury yard.

3607 I'm guessing is running a railmotor replacement up to Junee to connect with "The South Mail" or maybe "The Riverina Express" and 3813 is at Sydney Central Station having cut off it's cars and run forward to the buffer stop. Shortly it will back up past the train along the centre loco release road and make for Eveleigh Loco Depot.

So now we are at the heart of the New South Wales Government Railways and finding out that it was indeed a "foreign railway".

I'm hoping that the photos appear in the intended order.

I had some comments about the extended correspondence re my last posting........if you only want to look at the pictures and aren't interested in the finer points of railway enthusiasm just regard anything but my original postings as rated M.......or even R and don't open them. You know what I mean, don't you Denys Williams!! It's the opposite of "Playboy", you're only opening it for the pictures.

Back in a little while,

Best regards,

Peter Bruce.

Monday Morning Photo. 14/06/2010.

2010-06-14T22:21:00.001+10:00

G'day all, this is the last installment, maybe I should say the "at last" installment of the demise of the Camden Tram. I can't remember how many trips were done between Campbelltown and Camden, at least two, maybe three but the crowd at Camden is definitely for the last departure. The engines are a long way from the station platform which usually only saw a single passenger car for each service and Canden station probably hadn't seen a crowd like this since the opening day back in March 1882.

I couldn't swear that I took the photo at Kenny's Hill on the very last trip but I don't suppose it really matters, the scene was much the same all day, people came from all over Sydney to be part of the day's events and to farewell something was was by this time unique in any Australian metropolitan hinterland.....if that's the right term.

I travelled back to Central on regular services but must have hung around Campbelltown long enough to watch the 6.01 to 6.04pm station stop of the southbound "Southern Highlands Express" and I submit the attached somewhat blurry departure shot of 3809 [I think!!] and it's train of rather elegant wooden bodied 12 wheel cars as evidence. Despite it being mid-summer the light had been pretty dull all day and my longish exposure didn't quite stop the train as it accelerated out of Campbelltown.

Now that the Camden project is behind me I'll have to decide where to next. Maybe western New South Wales.

'Til then,

Regards to all,

Peter Bruce.

Back numbers at http://teenagerailfan.blogspot.com

Monday Morning Photo. 7/06/2010.

2010-06-07T22:07:00.001+10:00

G'day all, got distracted last night and before I knew it it was late and I was too tired to put MMP together.

We're on our way to Camden with the last day special train, 2016 and 2010 are leading with 2029 shoving on the rear car near Narellan and then at Kenny's Hill cutting, and finally coming into Camden yard past the Butter Factory. There must have been at least one other trip as some other photos show 2016 leading 2029.

I'll stretch this series out for at least another week with some photos of the return and one of the last train about to leave Camden.

There were hundreds of people along the line all day to watch the train go by one last time and much as one regretted Pansy's passing it was really a miracle that she lasted as long as she did.

The 1960s was a great time to be a teenager, you didn't need much money to travel by rail, there were plenty of trains going to all sorts of places that they don't go to anymore and you were pretty free to trespass on railway property provided you used a bit of common sense.

Australia had been held back by the two wars and the Great Depression but change was starting to gather pace and by the time the 1970s came around much of railway interest had gone forever.

Regards,

Peter Bruce.

P.S. Thanks to all who responded to my query about the appearance of the photos, most seem to think that they are about right with the odd exception. I checked the calibration of my monitor and it was fine for black and white images so any images that were too light or dark were my doing.

All my previous postings can be found at:

http://teenagerailfan.blogspot.com

Monday Morning Photo. 31/05/2010. Part 2.

2010-05-30T23:42:00.002+10:00

This is the Narellan picture I meant to attach.

Never mind.

PB.

Monday Morning Photo. 31/05/2010.

2010-05-30T23:41:00.001+10:00

G'day all, before I get back to the last day special train on the Camden branch, here are a few shots of 3140 on a very typical mixed train, a milk train really.

I'm not sure if this was the very last day, it was possibly the day before, must have been near the end though, there were never normally that many passengers.

Not much to be said about these photos.

At the end of this hectic day I was on No.49 the Forbes Mail again, travelling way west to Port Lincoln and ultimately Penong.....look it up!

I think I managed to find a full length slatted wooden luggage rack and rolled up in my old army blanket and slept most of the way to Parkes. I have absolutely no recollection of the trip so I must have been out to it.

Parkes. arr. 7.32am.

dep.7.52am.

Aboard the "Silver City Comet".

Best Regards,

Peter Bruce.

Monday Morning Photo. 23/05/2010.

2010-05-21T21:55:00.002+10:00

G'day all, I probably should have started here last week.....sometime during the winter of 1962 I set off to make the round trip Melbourne-Sydney-Broken Hill-Adelaide-Melbourne. This was only my second foray interstate, the first had been a bit of a toe in the water, Sydney, stay overnight and come back home so the round trip via Broken Hill was the first real adventure and I'll go into it in more detail at a later time.

So the first stop was Sydney, I was travelling with Tim Caffin and we arrived in Sydney on a Sunday morning, probably aboard "The Spirit of Progress" and we had the day to fill in before leeving that night at 9.40 pm on the Forbes Mail so after the obligatory trip around the underground loop and an exploration of Everleigh Loco we set off for Liverpool on a single decker suburban electric. At Liverpool we changed to the train hauled by 3099 and the attached photo shows it at Campbelltown station, Platform 3. Outer suburban travel behind a 30 class tank was by no means unusual in New South Wales back then but it certainly was an eye opener to a couple of young fellas from Victoria.

So over to Platform 1 via the footbridge, grab the photo of 3099 on the way, and there at the platform was 3030 trailing the usual single car. Looking at Table 10, I think we probably travelled on the 1.57pm from Central to arrive back at 6.20pm in plenty of time for some tucker before our 9.40pm departure for Parkes and Broken Hill on "The Mail".

I don't remember too much of that trip, I mostly slept, except that there were eight of us in our eight passenger compartment leaving Central and I do remember too howling out through the inner west behind a 46 class electric. It was nothing like what I was used to leaving Melbourne on a country train and usually dribbling along behind an all stations suburban. It was very impressive.

By the way if anyone has an email address for Tim, and if he wouldn't mind it being passed on to me I'd like to forward this posting to him.

Regards,

Peter Bruce.

Monday Morning Photo, 17/05/2010.

2010-05-18T14:31:00.002+10:00

G'day all, on the 1st of January 1963, almost two years after the last electric tram ran in Sydney, service on the Camden tram came to an end. For those who may be wondering why it was called a tram when it was so obviously a train, the line on which it ran was lightly constructed and ran in the road reservation for part of it's length. If I remember rightly Pansy was the local and affectionate name for the tram.

Nowadays what was then open country, albeit suburban fringe, is now pretty much wall to wall suburbia and it seems that there is very little evidence remaining of this unique little line.

As I remember I travelled on the special train between Central and Campbelltown and then spent most of the rest of the day on the move photographing the last day operations. I do remember spending some of that time riding with Weston Langford in a hired Ford Falcon at speed on the thronged roads between Campbelltown and Camden.

I'll continue on this theme for the next week or two, the three photos I have posted here are of the special train, later I'll post some of the regular workings.

The special train, definitely not a tram, was worked by three 20 class 2-6-4 inside cylinder tank engines. I'm hoping that someone can come forward with the details of the day's events as I took no notes as usual. I think 2010 ran the train solo from Central and was joined by 2016 and 2029 at Campbelltown to tackle the steep grades on the branch.

The photo at Central is interesting to me as much for it's extraneous detail, a Budd car peeping in on the left, the old school Loco Inspector supervising from the pit, recognisable by his dustcoat and felt hat, the crowd on the platform and the now extinct single deck electric suburban train at the nearby platform.

Two members of this list have recently published books of their photographs and memories; "Times past....Places Distant" by Weston Langford and "Bygone Australian Transport" by Bob Wilson. Both deserve much praise and congratulations.

Regards,

Peter Bruce.

Monday Morning Photo, 19/04/2010.

2010-05-18T14:21:00.001+10:00

G'day all, apologies for the long absence, the last year and a bit has been a bit chaotic for me but things are settling a bit now and all is well. I am actually away working for the next three weeks but I just thought I'd try to re-establish contact as I've never intended to abandon MMP completely. In the meantime I've enjoyed the more reliable contributions from Bob Wilson and John Phillips and also John Thompson's postcards and photos.

Last October I was on the NSW South Coast so I went to visit Bombo for the first time for 40+ years, I was there in January 1964. It was idyllic then but now the railway is between the glorious blue Pacific and a roaring freeway....not idyllic.

Anyway back in a few weeks, I've quit full-time work so hopefully I'll have a bit of time for my real interests.

Regards to all,

Peter Bruce.

P.S. Just email me if you want to be dropped off the list, and if you know someone who would like to be included feel free to invite them along.

Monday Morning Photo. 28/12/09.

2009-12-29T16:10:00.001+11:00

G'day all, I was away last weekend, hence no Monday Morning Photo.

So here is the last posting for 2009. Some final pictures from Fassifern, New South Wales.

Two of them are consecutive, 3674 leading a Garratt on a down goods train. Firstly waiting for the signal to clear and then minutes later rolling downhill past me and my camera.

The vertical shot makes a nice bookmark.

T'other photo shows a 40 class Alco diesel of 1951 vintage which the NSWGR actually acquired before the 60 class Garratts.

So that's it for 2009, thanks for all the nice comments along the way.

Best wishes to all of you and to your families for 2010.

See you then,

Peter Bruce.

P.S. All the previous postings can be seen at http://teenagerailfan.blogspot.com

Monday Morning Timetables. 14/12/09.

2009-12-13T21:50:00.001+11:00

G'day all, my Tools of the Trade posting last week seems to have aroused some interest, not in the camera, but in the Timetable it was resting on.

So I thought a selection of early 1960s Public Timetables might be appreciated.

They were must haves for any traveller of the day.

But if you were a serious explorer of our various railway systems and were more than happy to brace yourself in the van as the slack ran in and out on a long goods train somewhere west of Woop Woop you really needed the relevant Worker, i.e Working Timetable......For the use of Employees only!

Not only was it more or less useful as a guide to railway traffic; being able to pull one out of the bag was a pretty handy way to big note oneself.

If you had a W.T.T. you were no railway dilletante, you were a fair dinkum railfan.

Well that's what I thought anyway. Perhaps I was right!

Regards,

Peter Bruce.

http://teenagerailfan.blogspot.com

P.S. Hopefully we'll get to see some of Roger Hill's work pretty soon. He's working on it.

Tools of the Trade.

2009-12-10T22:31:00.001+11:00

G'day all, photo attached of the first two things packed before setting out for New South, I use the word packed rather loosely.

The old Zeiss and the NSWGR public timetable.

Regards to all,

Peter Bruce.

Monday Morning Photo. Tuesday 8/12/09.

2009-12-08T22:05:00.001+11:00

G'day all, this weeks photos are all taken at the down [north] end of Fassifern station, it might be helpful to take a look at Google Earth. There have been changes obviously but although it is no longer a junction station the line of the Toronto branch can be made out all the way to Toronto starting as the Greenway Pathway.

I think the Newstan Colliery junction is in the same place but now there is a connection to the north as well.

I am pretty sure that all four of the photos where taken in the company of Roger Hill who fills a bit part in one of the photos. Roger, I'd like to see some of the pictures that you took, I'd be very surprised if they weren't a bit classier than these offerings.....how about it?

I'm never sure of which order the photos will appear in but the northbound Garratt shot gives some idea of the station layout and the lie of the land to the north with the colliery line branching to our left.

Roger and I had planned to camp in the waiting room 'til first light but the signalman had other ideas so we ended up sleeping on the platform benches at Booragul, the next station north and returning on the first train next morning. I slept easy just a few feet from the roar and clatter of frequent southbound trains and woke at daybreak.

In time for the dramatic departure of the double headed coalie from the Newstan siding. I don't remember where the crossover to the up line was, perhaps between the platforms. In these two shots the train is still on the down line. Standard goods loco 5346 is giving the 60 class Garratt a bit more than a helping hand.

Later in the day, at 2.59pm to be exact, the down Midday Flyer paused very briefly at Fassifern to make a Toronto connection, a few doors slammed shut, the loco whistle popped and 3806 marched the Flyer out of Fassifern for a 3.25pm Newcastle arrival.

I took all these old time photos with a Ziess Nettar folding camera, its big advantage was its size, folded it was about 35mm thick. The disadvantage was that it only took 12 frames a roll so you had to be fairly sparing. I still have it although it's been retired since 1968 when I bought a beautiful Pentax Spotmatic from Bourke's Appliances, the ACTU store.

Explanation; ACTU= Australian Council of Trade Unions. As a member of the Australian Tramway and Motor Omnibus Employees Association I was entitled to a discount at their store.

Regards,

Peter Bruce.

Monday Morning photo. 30/11/09.

2009-11-30T18:13:00.002+11:00

G'day all, just two photos this week and they are consecutive shots and perhaps a bit too repetetive. Think I'll take a chance on that!

Just before the up morning Flyer was due a down goods train would ease around the curve and come to a stand at the stick. On this morning it was 3524 leading 6010. Most mornings the signal would clear just as the Flyer tore through Fassifern station and if you were lucky and had picked the right spot they would cross right in front of you. That is what happened on this particular lucky day.

This happened day after day, week after week.

I like the idea of strolling up the street to buy the paper of a morning and pausing to watch this daily drama before turning for home and a cuppa.

I think the first Industrial Age was intrinsically dramatic but most of the drama was out of sight behind high walls and away from the public gaze.

But the railway was public, and dramatic, and complex, and fascinating.

Not to everyone I'll grant but an awful lot of people would pause to watch the Flyer pass.

I can't imagine why you wouldn't.

Best regards,

Peter Bruce.

http://teenagerailfan@blogspot.com

P.S. Thanks for all the nice comments, they are always welcome.......and encouraging.

Monday Morning Photo. 23/11/09.

2009-11-22T22:57:00.002+11:00

G'day all, well I think I might have got myself on the straight and narrow again, narrow being 4ft81/2ins.

Pondering where to start again I decided on Fassifern, N.S.W. 88 and a half miles north of Sydney, 16 miles south of Newcastle and the one time junction station for the Toronto branch.

The line to Newcastle was always known as the Short North and for most of every 24 hours it almost hummed with traffic with perhaps just a little lull in the middle of the day.

Anyway you wanted to be there at daybreak so you caught a late train out of Sydney and dossed down in the Fassifern waiting room for a few hours.

The first train came up from Toronto not long after six and here it is pulling into the curved branchline platform on a quiet Saturday morning. After a brief halt it will join the main line and head for Newcastle.

The traffic was pretty constant so maybe a Sydney bound Mail Train and a goods train or two would disturb the neighbourhood briefly.

But the real disturbing was done when a double headed coal train came out of the Newstan colliery siding and attacked the bank south of Fassifern station. This day the racket was produced by a 59 class 2-8-2 leading a 60 class Garratt. Do you see what I mean about disturbing??

I reckon though that the highlight of the highlights was when the morning up " Newcastle Flyer" swept through the station and went past me up the grade hammer and tongs a little after 8.00 o'clock just as a 45 class Alco slid down the hill on a goods....the sun was just right and so was the timing.

Those were my highlights, next week the humdrum. Anywhere else they'd be highlights.

I read something quite encouraging in the paper on the weekend. John Szarkowski, the curator of the Museum of Modern Art, contends that "a photograph doesn't have to be a polished work of art, doesn't even have to be especially competent, to be interesting,full of meaning and visual energy". I suppose that's what I've always thought but never been able to put into words. As I said, encouraging words.

Best regards,

Peter Bruce.

Monday Morning Photo. 9/11/09.

2009-11-07T14:30:00.001+11:00

G'day all, the public face of the Victorian Railways at the mid-century was blue and gold, the four streamlined S class Pacifics and their matching steel cars.

On the other hand the everyday face was black and red, usually a dirty black A2 leading a string of dark red wooden bodied cars the pick of which were the twelve wheel "E" cars.

As soon as the VR got their first GM diesels the Pacifics were replaced at the head of the North-East name trains and not long after they were all cut up.

That is another story and a shameful one too.

The last of the A2s lasted in traffic until the early sixties and their final starring role on the big stage was running the last broad gauge "Spirit of Progress" from Seymour to Spencer Street Station on the 16th of April 1962.

I think 986 was the last to go but 995 and 996 made up for it on that 16th of April.

Attached are five photos from those last days. "The Big Wheel" is just a detail from "995&996" that I though worthwhile.

As the two North Melbourne shots show railway property wasn't off limits in those days so long as you asked first and excercised a bit of common sense while you were there.

Apologies for the long absence.

Regards,

Peter Bruce.

P.S. All my previous postings can be found at http://teenagerailfan.blogspot.com along with links to some other very interesting sites.

P.P.S. Yeah I know it's not Monday but better early than not at all.

Monday Morning Photo. 26/10/09.

2009-11-01T19:29:00.002+11:00

G'day all, limbering up for a full resumption of service on the Monday Morning Photo and just so you can see that I havn't been totally wasting my time I submit the attached as evidence.

I spent yesterday at Ballaarat with No. 27 and today, Sunday, I passed a very pleasant day on the narra' gauge from Belgrave to Gembrook in the company of engine 7A, the red one, my son Adrian and some old mates.

Time very well spent.

And now I'm tired.

Best regards to all.

Peter Bruce.

Explanation.

2009-11-01T19:28:00.001+11:00

My apologies for the prolonged absence of Monday Morning Photo. Some other matters have taken precedence and time has been a bit short. I am away for a couple of weeks now but have every intention of resuming the series soon.

I have just selected a couple to attach to sort of keep the pot simmering. Hope I havn't posted them before. I will go through my previous postings when I get back so as to avoid going back over my tracks.

Back soon,

Regards to all,

Peter Bruce.

Bob Wilson and John Phillips, your weekly contributions are much appreciated.

Monday Morning Photo. 17/5/09.

2009-05-18T20:37:00.001+10:00

G'day all, No.9 was the early morning mixed that travelled down the Illawarra line all the way to Nowra. The time I rode it it actually left Central at 2.10am, the attached T/T is a later one.

By the time I boarded I had trouble finding a seat, most compartments were occupied by sleeping shift-workers on the way home to the suburbs and a real bed.

3641 was the engine and all the way out through suburbia the train slowed at wayside stations and homebound workers dropped off .

The Pig came off at Thirroul and was replaced by 3221.

As far as I can make out from my 45 year old notes I rode as far as Bombo where we see the stationmaster about to hand the staff up to the approaching passenger train which I joined and rode back to Wollongong.

I travelled by myself on this trip and was away for about a week. I slept wherever I could find a more or less level surface, mostly in station waiting rooms but I always made sure that I had at least one good meal a day to keep the energy level up. I didn't want to miss anything.

Regards,

Peter Bruce.

Monday Morning Photo. 4/5/09.

2009-05-04T21:45:00.001+10:00

G'day all, really weary tonight, probably because I've been staring at the screen while scanning multiple photos for this series on the Illawarra.

So just three shots and not much to say.

All arrivals at Wollongong. At this time the South Coast line was just about 100% steam operated but the daily name train the "South Coast Daylight" was usually run with Budd cars.

Not this day though..... 4460 arrives on an airconditioned set.

Typically for the NSWGR the 44 is running blunt end first.

Regards,

Peter Bruce.

Monday Morning Photo. Tuesday 28/4/09.

2009-04-28T22:12:00.001+10:00

G'day all, some work-a-day photos from the Illawarra.

3320 got a guernsey last week arriving at Thirroul; the fireman taking a spell. This week he is bending his back as the same train starts away from the station stop. That looks very much like a handkerchief, knotted at the four corners, keeping the cinders out of the Brylcreem. I'm confidently tipping that he is what used to be called a "New Australian". A term which has fallen from favour, it's ideological soundness questioned. I think it is perfectly OK and is not at all disrespectful. I predict a revival. Australia's transport and industry would have struggled for survival in the '50s and 60s without New Australians.

The other three shots are all at Wollongong station, 5414 coming and going on a rake of Australian Iron and Steel hoppers for the steelworks at Port Kembla.

3093 is arriving from Port Kembla on a local. This is suburban travel before it was sanitised.

Looking at the station buildings you wouldn't reckon that they served New South Wales' third largest city. They reminded me of my local Melbourne suburban station at Canterbury when it was at ground level.

Best regards,

Peter Bruce.

Previous postings can be found at,

http://teenagerailfan.blogspot.com

Monday Morning Photo. 20/4/09.

2009-04-22T17:52:00.002+10:00

G'day all, going away for a few days so I'm a day early.....this is certainly an improvement on three weeks late or not at all.

I havn't got a clue which order these photos are going to appear in but lets assume that the shot of the Central Arrivals board pops up first.

A quiet spell at Sydney's Central Railway Station, after the a.m rush and during the week between Christmas 1962 and New Year 1963. Summer dresses for the ladies and not a pair of jeans to be seen. No backpacks, only ports.

Central was the hub of the State of New South Wales back then and you could stretch the point and call it the hub of the nation.

This almost somnolent scene really doesn't do it justice, typically I would have had trouble getting a clear shot like this, typically it was thronged.... bustling and rowdy and raucous with the shuffle of hundreds of feet, locomotive din and amplified announcements.

3390 is arriving at Wollongong mid-morningish. I had been up the street for a small mountain of bacon and eggs, bought the paper and spent a little time in the bar on the other platform with a pint of Old and The Sydney Morning Herald. I'd never had a pint before let alone heard of Old.......Resch's, Toohey's or Tooth's, I can't remember.

Thirroul, an up train. The fireman is taking a spell, the Station Master has wandered out of the office to close the barrier gate and collect tickets and the bloke in shorts on the down platform is taking a mild interest in something that is utterly commonplace.

Best regards and more on the Illawarra next week,

Peter Bruce

Monday Morning Photo. 6/4/09. Part 3.

2009-04-11T15:11:00.002+10:00

This is about it for the Peterborough Division, hope I havn't overdone it. I was 18 going on 19 and in the words of Cliff Olds "I wouldn't have missed it for quids". In case anyone is mystified by the old Australian argot we might say today that "I wouldn't have missed it for bucks". Doesn't work though, does it?

A quid was a pound in the old pre 1966 money and the new dollar unit was equal to half-a-quid or ten bob. Ten bob as slang for a dollar hung on tenuously for a while but eventually succumbed to the mighty buck. Bob Menzies was our Prime Minister and our dollar would have been the "Royal" if he'd had his way. We must have been incipient republicans even back then because that little bit of forelock tugging got laughed into oblivion. Deservedly.

I've tried to pass on a bit of the feel and atmosphere of Peterborough in the early '60s.

I look back and I realise how lucky I was. Dinosaurs still walked the Earth and I saw them.

The Illawarra next.

Best regards to all,

Peter Bruce.

Monday Morning Photo. 6/4/09. Part 2.

2009-04-11T15:09:00.002+10:00

G'day all, three more offerings from long ago in a real railway town.

The Rat was No. 97, the loco pilot/shunter, I always wondered why it's steam dome was nearly as big as it's boiler, it did look a bit deformed. Especially with a funnel that looked like a couple of jam tins soldered together!

Regards,

Peter Bruce.

Monday Morning Photo. 6/04/09.

2009-04-11T15:07:00.001+10:00

G'day all, desuetude* describes my state since last I posted. Never let it be said that I'm lost for words. Come to think of it though I did say that in my last Monday Morning Photo post.

To make up for my neglect I've scanned a few extra photos from the Peterborough Division. Some of these I've sent before but those of you that have seen them can look away now if you like.

So here is the first installment. More during the week.

The level crossing is the one at Hurlstone Street, I think.

220 is running through the platform road having come into town from the east. Note the S.A.R issue verandah waterbag hanging off the cab.

The roundhouse shot is pretty self-explanatory, I was trying to emulate the the photos that I had seen in "Trains" magazine and the S.A.R was the only railway in Australia that followed U.S. practice and always stabled their engines funnel first.

Best regards,

Peter Bruce.

*the word has been bouncing around in my scone for days, I just had to use it. I'm sure no-one will need to look it up!!

Monday Morning photo. 9/03/09. More from Cliff.

2009-03-18T20:05:00.006+11:00

Hi All,

Herewith some photos of Peterborough loco and its contents, to add to Peter's evocative photos taken from the coal gantry. Three were taken on Easter Sunday in 1965 when we drove to the Peterborough hospital to see my sister and brother who had been involved in a head on road collision near Yunta. They suffered facial cuts but were, and still are O.K. I also visited the loco depot. The roundhouse was in decay as can be seen.

401 was stabled outside the roundhouse on what looks like the departure road run around.

404 and its mate are on one of the storage sidings with the steam grab used for removal of ashes from the pond is stabled behind it. The pond may have been filled in by then. Behind is the boiler house with its tall chimney (locos had funnels according to my loco instructor Bill Girdler, buildings had chimneys).

The next photo shows T 251, Garratt 407 and other stored T class locos. These were stored on the roads between the oil store and Yongala Road. Also evident are X type trucks which came in a variety of options. The one with the white diagonal stripe has no doors and was used for ore transport exclusively. Others had one door per side, others two. They were known colloquially to railwaymen as "large". The reason proffered to me was that they were larger than their predecessors, the C type, and a C can be seen between the X's. C's still existed in the 60's but were only for departmental use (ash transport etc.). Between T 251 and the X's seems to be a small steel sided 4 wheeler, can't remember their classification and they also were not in regular service.

The fourth photo was taken with a very cheap 35 mm camera that I used when I had B & W film in the Pentax. I think that the camera was free if you bought 6 rolls of slide film, and that was well before "made in China" was heard of! It was 1969, the W was in exchange for T 181 and had come down from Broken Hill on the "Farewell to Narrow Gauge" ARHS trip and I think was cut up at Terowie. The T is 257 and its tender is fitted with an auto coupler which was not common. No T class loco front ends were fitted with auto couplers, only about 4 tenders were, which of course could be swapped from loco to loco. The reason was that all bogie ore trucks and many others had been fitted with auto couplers by 1969 and there was a 600 ton limit behind a hook/auto adaptor coupler which robbed the T's of their full potential if fitted with a hook coupler. Also evident in the photo is the coal gantry and the Port Pirie lower quadrant home signal and note that the ash pond that should have been in the foreground, has been filled in.

Back to Peter's photos, in addition to my previously forwarded comments, I was lying in bed a couple of nights later and recalled the row of old toilets at the loco depot. I checked the western photo and sure enough, there they are between the ablution/locker/crib room building and the accident train crane, just this side of the time office. At a guess they would have been built in the 1920's when the roundhouse was built and were certainly operational in my days there. They were demolished many years ago now.

Another point of clarification, the S.A.R. did have coal stages and that is exactly what they were - elevated horizontal platforms on which coal was stored, then shoveled into loco tenders by some unfortunate soul. They were situated at stations with minor loco facilities or were anachronisms of the pre gantry days (Minnipa and Cummins still had them after the gantries were erected, but they were not used) and were for emergency use only. The regular coaling locations had gantries of one sort or another, the concrete version held 200 tons I think and were at the major depots whereas smaller steel (e.g. Naracoorte, Bordertown, Mt. Gambier, Cockburn) or timber gantries (e.g. Cummins, Minnipa) sufficed for smaller depots.

Regards,
Cliff Olds

Lionel Noble has also forwarded comment on the photos:-

Been looking at those two shots that you sent. Like going home to see them, beautiful. Just a couple of things that maybe of interest. The Carp's shunting engine is facing the correct way. It was easy for both the shunter and the Engineman for hand signals. I think safety had something to do with it. Many years ago Gordon Stewart was under a truck there servicing a triple valve when a shunt movement caused his leg to be damaged. I know that from that day he had an unusual walk and used a stick. I knew the family.. I don't know the year it happened, before my time. He was the air brake fitter at the Carp's. From memory the switches to that road had a lock, Not sure if that was before, or after it happened. You have heard about the horse that got away haven't you?

The engine standing on the far right on it's own is the pilot engine. That was known as the pilot road. The 'Rat' (V class) was left on the pilot road too at times. The one on the right of that adjacent to the shed was the run -around road and used when there were other engines standing on the out-going road preparing to enter traffic..The Pilot crew were responsible to look after both engines. Often the Running shift Foreman, Jimmy Crawford, would poke his head in the door of the Pilot room and ask "How's the Rat"? He was assured that the Rat was ok. After he left then one of the pilot firemen would dash off and have a look!
You can see the slabs of cement for the toilet soakage pit adjacent to the bike shed.

Finally, I was led to believe that the two incoming and out going pits, in line with the oil store, were in the old sheds before the round house. I think if you look at the old pictures of those sheds you can get the idea. The old oil store on the far right of the picture was part of the original sheds prior to the round house being built. You may know that anyway. It was in the same position as in the early days.

This is pretty rough Cliff, but I think you will understand it having been in that Depot.
They were wonderful days for me. I married the love of my life there 62 years ago in May. Not at the loco depot, but in the Methodist church!

Monday Morning Photo. Tuesday 17/03/09.

2009-03-18T19:56:00.001+11:00

G'day all, I've been encouraged by Cliff Old's contributions to scan more photos from Peterborough and three are included here. I'm tardy as usual.

Tardy for a reason though. Often before I go to sleep at night I try to re-visit and re-create those distant days, always hoping that my memories are approximately accurate.

Whilst the details might not be spot on I do remember what it was like. I remember vividly the presence of 404 just before departure for Broken Hill.The racket was incredible but Peterborough slept through it. It was the town's bread and butter and every night was the same.

The other two photos were taken down at the Roundhouse. There are more and I'll post some next week, not necessarily on Monday.

Best regards,

Peter Bruce.

From Cliff Olds re Monday Morning Photo 9/03/09.

2009-03-15T18:33:00.002+11:00

I left Peterborough loco in the spring of 1961 and transferred to Gladstone loco however, little had changed when you took these evocative photos.

From left in the photo looking west:- The Port Pirie main line is just out of shot; then there are the repair roads leading to the workshops. Beyond the workshops were the livestock van washout roads. I note two Ogn bogie grain gondolas "top on" (the Obn's came later) with an assortment of trucks beyond. Ogn's had yellow/orange painted doors and the tare did not include the weight of the tarps or ridge poles whereas the later Obn's had red doors and the tarps and ridging were included in the tare. The Ogn's will require welding if they were in for bodie repairs, they were all steel. The roads nearer the water tower serviced the carpenters shop and were always the scene of much activity on day shift because all ore wagons (bogie On's and four wheel X types) were timber sided and suffered regular substantial damage at the hands of the unloading grabs in Port Pirie, for which B.H.A.S. would not accept any responsibility. Lew Roberts mentions this in his book "Rails to Wealth" about the Silverton Tramway. The lead and zinc ore quickly deteriorated steel bodied wagons, so that was not an economic option. The carpenters shop warranted its own shunter on day shift, rostered as the "carps shunter" and was always referred to as that, although to my memory, the T class is facing the wrong way. My memory might be defective there, after all it was 48 years and many megalitres of beer and port ago.

Behind the water tower is the employees amenities building which housed ablutions, lockers and a crib room. That building still stands to my knowledge, I certainly used it within the last ten years when volunteering at Steamtown Peterborough. Beyond that is the time office where we booked on and off by having our timesheets stamped with the time and date in the appropriate place (a Bundy clock still existed in Gladstone). The time office was razed years ago. Beyond the time office is the roundhouse.

The accident train consist is on the dead end spur leading to the time office, with the steam crane as the last vehicle. Adjacent is a rake of water tanks, necessary for the N-E of S.A. where water can be a scarce commodity. The two opens at the end possibly contain loco ashes (although the contents appear too light in colour), waiting to be used as ballast on the Quorn or Wilmington lines. Real ballast for the main line was usually in hopper trucks.

Then we have the "inward" road, then the "outward" road, both of which passed over the pond where ashes were dropped when cleaning or dropping the fire in coal burning locos and went either side of the coal gantry (NEVER a coal stage in S.A. - sore point with certain publishers). Fuel oil was also dispensed adjacent to the gantry, as all Garratts and many T class used that fuel. The steam powered grab used for emptying the ash pond is on the adjacent short dead enw, complete with an ash truck. I can't remember the name of the road next to the right where the T class is, but the next road is the oil store road where the Y class "rat" shunter often stood when not immediately required. The oil store is the building adjacent where we cleaners went to receive out allocation of cotton waste, solve-F (like kerosene) and tallow if cleaning a hot boiler. Mel Rouse worked in there and it was he who "measured up" newly qualified firemen for their shovel!!!!

Behind the oil store are a number of storage roads where locos and rollingstock out of service (temporarily usually) were stored. Adjacent is the road to Yongala and Port Pirie and across the road was the railway hostel where I lived in 1961.

The boiler house with its tall chimney is obscured by the pall of smoke.

Not a lot to say about the photo looking east, from left is the Quorn main line, loco roads (I note what looks like the Y class "rat" and two trucks of ashes) then the Port Pirie main line with the "home" signal adjacent. Beyond the level crossing (Hurlstone Avenue I think) is the Peterborough station yard and immediately on the right is the old Superintendents house where I used to be instructed by Bill Girdler in the intricisies of steam locos, preparatory to passing my "Cleaners Preliminary Mechanical" examination. Beyond the yard and out over the level crossing (Silver Street?) were the stock yards, Dowds Hill tunnel and the arid pastoral country.

Now, I'm sure that I have probably not got everything correct and have probably missed a couple of points, so I will forward this to Lionel Noble for comment. He was a loco inspector at Peterborough in this era and is the real expert.

Regards,
Cliff Olds.

Monday Morning photo. 9/03/09.

2009-03-09T10:33:00.005+11:00

G'day all, I've been a bit lost for words over the last few weeks, don't know why, I'm not short of photos, maybe I've just not tried hard enough for the words.

All along though I've had these two pictures in mind, they follow more or less directly from my last posting and were taken on my first visit to Peterborough in the winter of 1962.

Be assured that we had paid a visit to the loco foreman's office before scaling the coal tower and that no objections were raised. It was just the usual " Go for your life boys, just be a bit careful".

Can you imagine that happening in 2009??

Cliff Olds, were you working at Peterborough roundhouse in mid '62? Maybe you can fill us in.

I wish I'd had a better camera and a bit more photographic nous when I took these photos, I had neither but I cherish these shots and these memories.

And I am forever grateful for those easier days and those hospitable and tolerant South Australian railwaymen.

Take these as you see them. They're not too flash and if anyone else has similar photos I'd love to see them.

Weston Langford, I have your book and I certainly recommend it to all who might be interested in revisiting Australasia in the 1960s...... Or visiting those days for the first time. Great title too.

Best regards,

Peter Bruce.

Monday Morning Photo. Wednesday 10/2/09.

2009-02-11T17:02:00.001+11:00

G'day all, went back to work last week, after nearly six weeks, and I was that excited I forgot to post the Monday Morning Photo.

I've decided to return to what was probably my favourite part of Australia at the time, the Mid North of South Australia and the Peterborough Division of the South Australian Railways.

At the time I took the two photos attached I was just finding out that it might very well be the aforesaid favourite place.

This was my first big trip interstate, winter 1962, Melbourne-Sydney-Broken Hill-Peterborough-Port Pirie-Adelaide-Melbourne, I was 18 and a bit and the 2nd class fare was about $15 for a student concession. It was actually in Pounds,Shillings and Pence but my keyboard doesn't know about the old money.

$15 today might get you from Southern Cross Station to Flinders Street Station in my cab in heavy traffic.

I'm referring back now to a February 2007 posting that went only to Rick Dempster and some of his workmates.

Earlier on this morning, at 3.59am, I had arrived at Peterborough on the Express from Broken Hill and it was a bit too early and too dark and I was a bit too tired to do any exploring so after I had seen the Brill railcar off to Port Pirie I retreated to the Waiting Room for a bit of a kip before the sun rose.

In the manner of railway towns everywhere Peterborough never slept so my sleep was pleasantly disturbed by the sounds of a busy yard, the clanking rods of a little T class engine or the heavy rumble and shuffle of the 400 class garratts.

Come daylight it was off to the Refreshment Room for a cuppa and a piece of fruitcake and then a walk down to the Roundhouse.

As I got close 244 and 209 on a stock train clattered into town from the west.

The wind was blowing strongly from the south and the clouds were raggedy and it was chilly.

The sounds come back to me almost as strongly as the sights.... boots crunching on ballast and gravel and the roar of that distant 400 down by the coal tower coming and going on the wind.

It was all intensely interesting to me then and it would be today if I could do it again.

I count myself very lucky to have seen Australia as the steam age faded and progress and prosperity gathered pace.

Best regards,

Peter Bruce.

Fw: Monday Morning Photo. 26/01/09.

2009-01-25T22:48:00.001+11:00

Sent: Sunday, January 25, 2009 9:48 PM

Subject: Monday Morning Photo. 26/01/09.

G'day all, I've had the attached photo of Ballarat C Box for ages and I've no recollection of how I came by it except that it was in the family.

I didn't attach any particular importance to it other than as a record of the early 20th century on the Victorian Railways.

But.....not so long ago I found out that my paternal Grandma's younger brother, Bill Howard, met eternity right here, at Ballarat C Box on or about May 9th, 1915.

He was hit and run down by a locomotive and died shortly afterward in hospital. His brother-in-law quoted him as saying,

" I was a fool to go for the staff, I completely forgot about the other train".

Presumably he was the signalman on duty.

So maybe he is the sportin' looking chap posing on the steps of C Box.

Maybe....

Best regards,

Peter Bruce.

P.S. I just realised that I'm assuming a level of knowledge. The staff is a token which entitles a train to occupy a section of the line, only one can be issued at a time so only one train can be in that section at that time. It is issued by the signalman at the beginning of the section and retrieved by the signalman at the other end. Bill Howard was retrieving a staff when he was hit.

P.P.S.It is obviously a professional photo, it is mounted on card and is quite badly damaged. I've had a bit of a go at tidying it up but my skills are very limited.

Monday Morning Photo. 12/1/09.

2009-01-13T14:05:00.003+11:00

G'day all, after I posted the Belgrave etc. photos recently Ted Godwin reminded me that the re- opening of the line to Menzies Creek just preceded the closure of the other surviving narrow gauge line from Colac to Weeaproinah.

So here a some pictures taken during the last days of the latter.

The passenger train wasn't the last, I missed that, probably through lack of funds. I recall that there was a trip with 14A.... after this one I think. Maybe someone can confirm that and maybe even post a photo or two!

I rode the weekly goods only once and the photo was taken at Gellibrand on the return. This train left Colac very early on the trip out to Beech Forest so one needed to catch the previous evening's Port Fairy train from Melbourne. Naturally I missed it.

Fortunately I was able to board a later Geelong train and take a chance on a goods train to get me to Colac.

Being 18 by this time I could personally indemnify the Victorian Railways Commissioners against any injury I might sustain while being bounced around the old Z van as the coupler slack ran in and out of a long string of four wheel wagons.

I got to Colac in plenty of time to have a bit of a snooze and a shunter woke me up for an in the dark departure to Beech Forest. Melway 627 A8&9.

The guard wasn't the friendliest but I had the company of Peter Barry..... though he spent most of the time communing with the Grades Book. See Mark Bau's invaluable Victorian Railways site.

It was one of those days I wouldn't have missed for quids.**

Best regards,

Peter Bruce.

** Australian idiom...quids, large amounts of money. A quid was a pound in pre decimal currency

Back numbers of Monday Morning Photo at http://teenagerailfan.blogspot.com

Monday Morning Photo. 6/1/09.

2009-01-07T18:22:00.001+11:00

G'day all, no real excuse for this late posting unless utter indolence can be considered an excuse.

I met very many of my contemporaries working as volunteers on this little railway. It may have been a little railway but it was an enormous task for volunteers to take on.

The details are a little dim at this distance but I know I was working there for some time before the line opened to the public in 1962 and I was a relative latecomer.

The two panoramic shots are taken from up above the landslide which caused the closure of the line in the first place and I think the other may have been taken before the public opening. It is at Menzies Creek which was the original railhead of the re-opened line. These days it goes well beyond there to the original terminus at Gembrook.

Up until this time I hadn't been out of Victoria but the tales of fellow workers here of what lay beyond our borders whetted my appetite and during 1962 I made my first interstate trips.

For this encouragement I owe thanks to many of the members of this group and others too, Chris Rodakis, Westy and T.A.Murray to name just a few.

Best regards,

Peter Bruce.

P.S. Back numbers of the Monday Morning Photo can be found at http://teenagerailfan.blogspot.com

Monday Morning Photo. 30/12/08.

2009-01-06T13:38:00.003+11:00

Yeah I know it's Tuesday but I've been out of action on account of I
got a new computer and I forgot to import my mailing lists and I was
very busy with work etc.etc.....

So the last posting was early December and I speculated about my
memory and it's reliability and what might have drawn me to trains and
railways at such an early age.

Seeing as I think my first recollection is of the narrow gauge line in
the Dandenongs which has always been known as the Puffing Billy line I
thought a few photos taken around the time of re-opening in 1962 might
be apt.

I may have posted the early morning shot before, I think that it was
the first time that an engine was steamed at Belgrave, maybe the
night/day that 6A was delivered but perhaps one of you out there with
a more reliable brain can confirm or correct. I know I met a lot of
our present list members up on the "Narra" in those days 40+ years ago
so some of you would have been right on the spot.

The other shot is obviously in the very early days of regular service,
I particularly like the detail, it does show why the railway was
revived and why it has been such a success story, big kids playing
trains and little'uns and their mums and dads loving the ride through
the hills.

These days it is a very professional undertaking and still a labour of
love for many people. For those of you unfamiliar with it Google and
Google Earth are your friends.

In the next few days I'll post some more photos as I attempt to
restore my ragged credibility.

Best wishes to all for the coming year,

Peter Bruce.