G'day all, a couple of photos, maybe 30 seconds between them, taken on the March '63 trip to Victor Harbor.These photos were taken on the return trip.I'm in the process of setting up a blog which will be a sort of archive of all the Monday Morning Photos.Thanks to me darlin' daughter Leonie I now know how to do this.By next week I should have made some progress and will let you know how to access it.Regards,Peter Bruce.
I've taken a step back from last weeks photos, the trip to Victor Harbor was on the Sunday so there was time for a preview at the Mile End roundhouse on Saturday.The 500 certainly had presence.I've had a marathon session scanning photos from this March 1963 trip so I'll post a few over the next weeks.I know at least Weston Langford and Ted Godwin from our group were on the train. Any photos or memories?Best regards to all, Peter Bruce.
G'day all, late again, the usual lather of indecision, scan this, discard that.......So I finally made a decision.....hmmm, not sure though.Just get on with it.By the early sixties there was probably only one regular steam hauled passenger train out of Melbourne and that was the 4.23pm Bacchus Marsh. I rode out to the Marsh frequently on this train but I don't seem to have photographed it at all. But another train that was often, but not reliably, steam hauled was the 6.05pm Geelong.I have posted this photo of 986 before but I think it was in the very early days of the Monday Morning Photo, maybe when it only went to Rick Dempster and his mates at RMIT. I would not be surprised if this was the last time an A2 ran a regular passenger train out of Spencer Street, maybe towards the end of 1962 but I couldn't be sure of the date at all. Does anyone know? I rode down to Werribee, that was as far as you could go back in those days if you wanted to get a passenger train back. I don't know why I wouldn't have travelled all the way, I could have got a goods out of North Geelong Yard or hitched home. I reproach myself still. Werribee was better than nothing though.The night 706 ran the 6.05 I obviously wasn't travelling. I reckon the young bloke in the suit leaning out the door of the leading car might be none other than Dave MacCartney. If my eyes don't decieve me he's travelling 1st Class but if he has a ticket at all it would be 2nd Class, Economy in this day and age. Sounds so much nicer, don't you think!! Makes one feel better about oneself. Confession; back then I felt much better about myself if I hadn't paid at all. My conscience had not fully developed, riding for nothing was better than not riding at all. I'm not sure the Commissioners would have understood though.Best regards,Peter Bruce.
G'day all, last weeks photo of 740 at Pyramid Mick McGowan correctly picked as being on a holiday weekend. Mick is a Bendigonian from way back [Swan Hill is an outer suburb isn't it Mick?]. He pointed out that the regular daily train in those days would only be the two steel cars and a van. By way of further proof 688 is coming into Bendigo station on the up Echuca which would normally have been a railmotor at that time, 1962-3.Leaving Bendigo behind 740 we crossed 727 on the up Swan Hill service on the double track somewhere about North Bendigo. Glad I managed to get someones saggy back fence into the photo, should have reported them to the fence police!717 is at Ararat R* late in the arvo on the 1.40pm service from Spencer Street to Horsham, it was known as "The Peanut" beyond Ararat where it was reduced to two cars and a van and the Diesel loco replaced by an R class 4-6-4 for the 70 odd miles to Horsham. By the early 1960s there were very few regular steam hauled passenger trains left in Victoria so this was a bit of a must do. If I remember correctly, and there is every chance that I don't, we called in to see the late and much lamented Brian Brooke and his family at Horsham and then joined "The Overland" at 12.57am to travel on to Adelaide. I cannot remember who I travelled with though Ted Godwin comes to mind and I think the occasion might have been for a trip with the S.A.R 500 to Victor Harbor. If someone can confirm this I will post some photos next week.*For those not familiar Ararat R means that Ararat station had a Refreshment Room, Counter meals and Light Refreshments available at Reasonable Rates.Best regards to all,Peter Bruce.
I made a rash promise last week, well not quite a promise, but I did hint that I might start on some S.A.R. broad gauge photos.Maybe next week. I took a look at a few shots and decided they could do with re-scanning,.... or maybe travelling back in time and taking them again! I wish.So we're back at what was probably my favourite railway town, Peterborough, South Australia.404's train is rumbling into town from the mines of Broken Hill, this would have to be after the Christmas 62-63 shutdown, auto couplers have been fitted. The Terowie line is slewing off to our right and to our left we have a magnificent example of the classic corrugated iron backyard dunny, blowfly heaven.The station itself had something, it was no architectural masterpiece, the original building was a typical South Australian country station and it had colonised 1 road, the platform road from the railmotor shed at the far end to the Yardmaster's Office nearest the camera.I've got to say, too, that I always preferred a railway station at ground level. That is, after I discovered that there were such things in Australia. Me being a Victorian used to high level platforms with enamelled signs at each end saying...NO ROAD.That almost makes me homesick but perhaps I'll stick with Peterborough for a week or two.Regards to all,Peter BrucePS. http://comrails.railpage.org.au/Well worth a look, thanks Mike Venn.
G;day all, well I said I was feeling a bit homesick so maybe it's time to come back to Victoria and the old Victorian Railways; back where I caught the bug. Early memories, Platform One Centre at Flinders Street, a gloomy morning and a rake of dark red wooden corridor cars waiting for an engine to come around the viaduct from North Melbourne. It eventually passed us and seemed to me to almost disappear in the distance before it finally eased back down onto our train and coupled up.Going to the country by train back then was a big thing for a family, your mum and dad were in a semi panic for a couple of days beforehand so you'd always be at the station and have the luggage stowed way before the loco appeared. As the engine backed down towards its train a knot of onlookers, mostly dads and kids, would always gather to watch it couple up. It was a ritual that for me meant the start of our holiday and as exciting for me was the train trip there and back.Attached are a couple of shots from the VR of old, nothing much to do with the above and about 20 years later.R740 on the Swan Hill train at Pyramid and a Sunday morning get together at Heywood down in the South West. I think 539 and 546 were on our train, an Australian Railway Exploration Association weekend trip to Mount Gambier and Millicent and I have a feeling that there was another goods in the offing somewhere, backed out along the branch perhaps. Maybe someone can fill in some of the lamentable gaps in my memory.Until next week,Peter Bruce.
G'day all, been staring at this shot on my desktop all week, meant to post it on Sunday night but was suffering from an excess of elation after attending Melbourne's fantastic come-from-behind win against Fremantle. I know most of you don't have the same devotion to football that I have so I'll shut up now.So.... this is Hawker, South Australia. January 1963. I've pretty much come to the end of my photos of the friendly South Australian narrow gauge railways and this Commonwealth Railways line to Hawker from Quorn was the last regularly operating remnant of the old Central Australian Railway south of Maree. And I reckon that this photo was probably the last frame of the last film that I exposed on this long narrow gauge ramble.When we got back to Quorn we camped overnight in this brakevan and I have a very painful memory from that stay. I was wandering around the yard in the dark looking for a place to have a leak when my right knee came into violent contact with a point lever. The top of it was exactly at knee level, I can still feel the pain and I nursed it back to Melbourne and then some. The worst bit was overnight on "The Overland", the second class seat was comfortable enough but there wasn't enough leg room so I had to hang my leg out into the aisle for every restless bugger to trip over........bloody agony.Bob Wilson posted me some great shots of this part of the world which I forwarded to Thingswithwheels@yahoogroups.com *, if anyone has missed out and would like to see them, let me know. Would you mind if I posted them to the group Bob?I've got some S.A.R broad gauge photos too, I might start on them next week.Best regards 'til next week,Peter Bruce.*P.S. yahoogroups do not archive attachments but I've kept most if not all of them from Thingswithwheels and will eventually get around to some sort of photo archive. I also intend to organise these MMP postings so that they can easily be referred back to by anyone interested.
