Holiday pics

[manna]

G'Day Gents

 

I've recently returned from a Holiday in Queensland and Northern NSW, I had a bit of a wander around and managed to find a few interesting things to photograph. Most of the pics are or railway infrastructure, track, buildings and preserved stock, you'll get the jist as we go along.

 

First up is a couple of pics taken in Cobar, in the central west on NSW, Cobar is a fair sized mining town.

 

This is what I found.

 

manna

[manna]

G'Day Gents

 

Moving on from Cobar, we headed of to Bourke, then Walgett, Walgett has a large wheat handling terminal a couple of miles north of the town and is still rail served, finally staying at Lightning Ridge for two days, not many railways about, after our two day stay it was off again, this time heading to Queensland, the first town we encountered was Hebel, only a Hotel a shop and a couple of houses, and a sharp bend in the road, Dirrenbandi is the next (big !) town on the map, and they did have a railway , until 2010, when it was all shut down, the rails are still down, but it's all been abandoned, the next stop on the line was Noodoo, which consist's of a level crossing a station building and a couple of wheat silos, we kept driving, through St George and then onto Roma, where we stayed for two days, I did find a interesting old warehouse, not 100% sure it was railway owned, but it backs onto the railway.

Then the weather decided to warm up, from the low 20c's to the high 30c's. Time to move on, we drove on to Yeppoon (about 600k's) even with air-con it was a long hot day, checking out Yeppoon, I found on old railway station, the line had been closed in 2005, and the tracks lifted in 2007, but the station has a heritage listing on it.  We had o week in a small town just outside Yeppoon, time for a rest, the temp was a nice 26c.

 

manna 

Edited October 18, 2017 by manna

[manna]

G'Day Gents

 

We stayed on a caravan park at Kinka Beach, (near Yeppoon) a walk across the road and there was the beach, but that wasn't the only thing that caught my interest, half way into Rockhampton, there are the remains of a timber bridge that spans a small creek, it looks like it's been damaged in a bush fire but going further along the same road, there are the remains of the old line to Yeppoon, about 10k's from Rockhampton, the track is still down, getting closer to Rockhampton, and more built up the line runs along side the road, revealing all sorts of interesting 'stuff' with all of this interesting railway paraphernalia, I found it hard to concentrate on driving, so I had to stop and take a few pics. This railway runs past the stock yards, and is still connected, but unused, at one point, there is a large ballast yard, which may get used. 

 

manna

[manna]

G'Day All

 

On the same day, I took a slight detour into the back streets of Rockhampton, as I'd found out there was a steam-age Roundhouse still standing, I'd see in on Google satellite. Yes it was still there, one of only two left in Australia (think the other is in South Australia) .

 

As you will see the shed is still in used, although the railway yard/works are due to close next year (2018) although the roundhouse has a preservation order on it and can't be demolished.

 

manna

[manna]

G'Day All

 

Moving down the East coast a 1,000k's, is Coffs Harbour, where we stayed last year, we stayed on the same caravan park, even on the same site !

 

But I wanted to check out a small town about 70 k's away called Dorrigo, it's way up in the hills, and in some places it's a single track 'Road', although tarmac all the way, it's takes over an hour to get there because of the twisty nature of the road, but is worth the drive, besides being very picturesque

, it has the hidden bonus that at the now closed railway station, there is a private collection of railway vehicles, coaches, wagons, and loco's, some are in a shocking condition, but others looked well maintained, I'm told there are steam loco's there but I didn't see any, one is supposed to be a Robinson ROD 2-8-0, maybe next year. 

 

manna

[manna]

G'Day All

 

Last part of our holiday, a three day trip home, just over 1,800 k's, so long days driving, I did spy some abandoned tracks, west of Singleton, near Merriwa, reckon, it's been abandoned for a while the trees growing through the track are about 8" thick.

 

No more railway photography until we got to Mannahill in South Australia, we stopped for a change of drivers and a coffee, luckily there is a crossing point for trains, and two trains were present. As you can see, Mannahill, still has a railway station, although it's been unused for many years, it's still in good condition, there's also a Hotel, but not much else

 

manna 

[dullsteamer]

I'm told there are steam loco's there but I didn't see any, one is supposed to be a Robinson ROD 2-8-0, maybe next year.

There's two Robinson 2-8-0s at Dorrigo, they're on the opposite side of the yard on the former potato siding. See the J&A Brown listing here - illustrated with my photos:

 

http://www.australiansteam.com/nswindframe.htm

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.