Australia - Preservation Scene

[dullsteamer]

Bevan Wall video of the light engine trial trips and load trials on the Cockie Run:

 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VmfNG2bDipY&time_continue=12

 

And the public handover and first revenue trip with 01:

 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9MFZRmn8jpY&t=206s

[DavidB-AU]

The Blue Suede Express to the Parkes Elvis Festival. 567 ear candy!

 

[faulcon1]

I went to day two of the 2019 Thirlmere festival of steam. There were five locos in steam 2705, 3016, 3265, 3526, and 3642. However only the 27, 30T, P and Nanny were working trains. 3642 was in light steam but only on static display. The Garratt 6029 is still undergoing heavy maintenance and won't be ready until May this year. Also 3237 which has undergone an overhaul and 5917 which is also out of service undergoing an overhaul. 3801? your guess is as good as mine. The old boiler is still being worked on.

 

I took some amateurish video 

 

 

Edited March 3, 2019 by faulcon1
add video

[faulcon1]

On the May the 25th my brother and I went down to Goulburn where they were having the 150th celebrations of the railway. Preserved loco 3526 worked a special train to Goulburn and was serviced in the roundhouse which is now the home of a preservation society. They have recently restored an 0-6-0 tank which sat for many years at the Thirlmere railway museum in their "condemned road". Restoration work began in 2008 and was completed in 2018. The loco 1076 was for many years the roundhouse shunter at Goulburn in the steam era. Although restored to operational condition they are forbidden to drive it at the moment. They can raise steam but they can't move it under it's own power. So a diesel 4821 is coupled to the loco and that moves it. 1076 was built by the Vulcan Foundry at Newton Le Willows in 1884 builders No. 995. Her former number was 1804 of the Z18 class of which there were six locomotives. 1076 was fitted with a "coal grab" making her like a crane tank and the coal grab was removed in 1959. 1075 and 1077 reverted to 1801 and 1803 but 1076 retained her number for the rest of her government railway life.

 

For those who don't know 3526 is a 4-6-0 express passenger loco. She was built by the New South Wales Government Railways in 1917, builders No. 118. She is the only survivor of 35 locomotives and is preserved in her "rebuilt" condition. She originally had a cut away cab (like a GWR Star) and no valance along the running plate. In this condition and painted a dark blue with a silver star on the smoke box door and she hauled the Caves Express of six specially painted blue and cream carriages over the Blue Mountains to Mt Victoria. A model of the Caves Express train in HO scale with 3535 (last of the class) in the blue colour scheme can be seen in my great train show video number 2 on the Overseas Modelling Page.    

3526 was rebuilt into her current form in 1941. He driving wheels are small for an express passenger loco by English standards of only 5'9". 6'81/2" or 6'9" can't cope unassisted with a train on 1 in 40 and steeper gradients. 3526 recently returned from an overhaul where you was given a new built tender including frame. The water tank inside the tender is now stainless steel as are all the baffles.  The continually patched up tender tank finally gave up and the rusting from the water killed the frame.

 

 

[faulcon1]

Here is a slide show of Junee Roundhouse. This roundhouse was built in 1942 and officially opened in 1947. It was the second location for a locomotive depot the first being in Junee town itself and not popular with the people of the town due to the amount of smoke it produced. In the 1990's the railways no longer had any use for the roundhouse and there was a proposal to demolish it, but a vocal campaign to save it succeeded so that today it is partly preserved and partly in use once again. The user is Graincorp for locomotive maintenance or what it was built for. It is the only surviving full roundhouse in NSW. Goulburn was also a full roundhouse but in the diesel era part of the roundhouse was demolished where coaches and old diesels now sit outside. Our biggest roundhouse depot was the old Enfield depot which had two full roundhouses. There were three turntables at Enfield two had complete roundhouses with 75' turntables and the third had a partial roundhouse with a 120' turntable for turning the 60 class Garratts. The Enfield depot was demolished in 1975 for a large railway yard which didn't eventuate for many years. The 120' turntable is now at the Thirlmere Railway Museum.

 

   

 

[jukebox]

On 10/01/2019 at 18:46, DavidB-AU said:

The Blue Suede Express to the Parkes Elvis Festival. 567 ear candy!

 

 

 

Love the sartorial choices of the Blue Muntains trains spotters!

[faulcon1]

It's nice to hear and see stylish diesels for a change. Modern diesels are shaped like like house bricks and sound like vacuum cleaners and all very boring.

I wrote on a YT video of modern diesels ascending Arglen and how I remember the "good old days". In the Blue Mountains if there was an easterly wind blowing one could easily hear four 80 class Alcos roaring their heads off as the slowly ascended the Blue Mountains line. The sound of them fading in and out as the wind blew. They'd come past my place and the house would vibrate and the noise they made was almost deafening but glorious all the same. At other times is would be two 80 class and two 44 class with the 44's exhaust on fire and flames coming out of it's exhaust port about one foot high. All the carbon was being burnt out. Once again the noise would deafening but wonderful. If 80 class were coming down the mountains or heading east then the driver would use the dynamic braking. On modern diesels a muffled growling sound but on the 80 class they had a high pitched scream. 

Electric locos like the 85's and 86's going slowly in pouring rain and the train getting ever slower as they fought for traction on the 1 in 33 grade. Car headlights on the highway would light the locos at night and they'd be barely moving. Now all gone and most freight goes by road.    

Edited June 15, 2019 by faulcon1

[jukebox]

Nice recolection @faulcon1  I used to live in West Pennant Hills, and if the weather conditions were right, we could hear the growl in the night sky on weekend evenings as they lifted freights from Beecroft up the bank Thornligh.

[faulcon1]

In June 2018 I had to clear out of my house for the removal of asbestos wall lining and floor tiles for a brand new kitchen. The kitchen hadn't been updated since 1949. The builder found some old newspapers under the old lino floor tiles.

I headed north for a short holiday and one place I went to was Timbertown at Wauchope (pronounced war hope). There is a genuine wood fired steam loco which hauls it's train of three bogie homemade carriages around the perimeter of the site. There are other working displays some steam powered and some horse powered. There was also an "olde worlde" cinema where one sat on hard timber benches, no cushions here. A film was shown on the timber industry down through the years. Not on an "olde worlde" large cinema type screen with an "olde worlde" projector but on a modern DVD player onto a large LCD flat screen TV. It spoiled the atmosphere a bit. 

Here's my footage. No wood is cut nowadays

 

 

[DavidB-AU]

A story with some video of the funeral train for Australia's "gunzel in chief", former Deputy Prime Minister Tim Fischer. He had specifically requested a heritage train to carry his coffin. 

 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-08-29/tim-fischer-farewelled-on-train-carrying-coffin-to-funeral/11457664

[DavidB-AU]

C17 967 returned to service at Gympie on Saturday.

 

 

[aussiesteve]

Good to see the MVR Rattler again rattling.

Just a shame that it no longer ventures down to Imbil.

Did the society relocate the air operated turn table from Imbil to Amamoor ?

Or was there already a turn table at Amamoor ?

Or do they run tender first for one direction ?

I must wander up to Gympie again some time.

Been a long time since I was last up there.

Oh, I have not viewed your video clip.

My www access is very limited.

Steve.

[DavidB-AU]

For the first time in 18 years the Toowoomba Carnival of Flowers train wasn't steam-hauled, due to the extreme fire danger in the area last weekend. Don't let the little grey cloud and wet road fool you, that area is tinder dry and still has active fires. The water tank (empty) was still used as the diesel doesn't have buffers.

 

 

[dullsteamer]

On Sunday 8th December the Sydney Tramway Museum will have a special running day to commemorate the 120th anniversary of the opening of the first permanent electric tramway in Sydney, the George Street line. We have two of the original C class single-truck saloon cars that ran on the line for the opening, and they'll be in traffic on the day. We'll also be running another typical early George St car, F class No.393, which dates from 1901. As a bonus attraction I'll have the steam tram No.1A out on display as well. The Motorlife Museum of Wollongong will be bringing some veteran cars for display on Tramway Avenue. The museum will open at 1000am, and cars will run until 400pm. You can get there by public transport - the museum is next door to Loftus railway station.

 

On the same day Sydney Trains will be hosting a small event at Cronulla station to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the opening of the Sutherland to Cronulla branch, which replaced the steam tramway between the two suburbs. We'll have our AEC double deck bus there to transport guests to the museum at the conclusion of the event.

 

It should be a good day, so if you're in Sydney come along to Loftus and say g'day!

 

All the best,

 

Mark.

[69843]

A little known NSW locomotive snuck out of the works for some mainline trials today, 77 years and one day since her original trials:

[DavidB-AU]

After an absence of way too many years and a bungled replacement boiler...

 

 

[dullsteamer]

12 hours ago, DavidB-AU said:

...a bungled replacement boiler...

If the job isn't properly specified, and the person sent to Meiningen lacks the experience or professional qualifications to oversee the job, you shouldn't be surprised by the result.

 

Mark.

[DavidB-AU]

C17 971 at Southern Downs Steam Railway had a main line load test over the weekend. The boiler repairs were completed many months ago but almost continuous fire danger since August has prevented steaming.

 

 

[Craigw]

Some footage of the load trials carried out today with 3801. Not mine, from youtube.

 

She really does look and sound magnificent. Painting will commence shortly.

 

 

 

[DavidB-AU]

Another one of the old girl.

 

 

[sir douglas]

she sounds lovely a speed but i dont like the whistle

[faulcon1]

Unfortunately Thirlmere has cancelled this years steam festival due to the bushfires which is an odd thing to cancel it for. I'd have thought that local businesses would welcome some extra money from the people at the festival. Apparently not.

Anymore progress on the funding to extend loop line operation beyond Buxton?, or is this another dead duck promise. Lots of media reports but no actual action. Is there to be a feasibility study along with consultants and then community consultation with the first two soaking up the majority of the budget. No doubt Green activist and indigenous concerns will have to be addressed and then the whole idea can be put on the back burner until the next election.

[Craigw]

1 hour ago, faulcon1 said:

Unfortunately Thirlmere has cancelled this years steam festival due to the bushfires which is an odd thing to cancel it for. I'd have thought that local businesses would welcome some extra money from the people at the festival. Apparently not.

Anymore progress on the funding to extend loop line operation beyond Buxton?, or is this another dead duck promise. Lots of media reports but no actual action. Is there to be a feasibility study along with consultants and then community consultation with the first two soaking up the majority of the budget. No doubt Green activist and indigenous concerns will have to be addressed and then the whole idea can be put on the back burner until the next election.

 

The festival of steam is organised in a large part by community volunteers and it was they who made the decision not to hold it this year as they are busy doing trivial things like rebuilding the area.

 

Have not heard anything further about the loop line work, but with so much that needs to be done in the area it would not surprise me if there is no progress on it for a while.

 

Regards,

 

Craig W

[Craigw]

The whole codiv-19 saga has turned the whole world on its head. One of the consequences locally was that the official launch of 3801 after repainting had to be cancelled. As nobody knows how long the current situation with travel and movement restrictions will last, THNSW have released a video of 3801. The loco has been repainted into an early 1950s livery and is wearing NSWGR "Special engine Green". To say she looks stunning is an understatement and from what I have been told, her performance is every bit as impressive.

 

The teams at Chullora and Thirlmere have done a marvellous job and deserve the thanks of all.

 

https://www.thnsw.com.au/3801?pgid=k8gw4lvj-bd4c5bc8-4a62-42f0-a1db-02589821da0a&fbclid=IwAR14PwVFa-dTNaO1gc0ozVNZ6BwlBqgGVzTh7Z7-Mah6XU1VsOAGx03alVU

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[DavidB-AU]

No doubt there will be an endless debate about whether it's the "correct" shade of green. I once got an authoritative answer on this from a (sadly now passed) retired NSWGR worker who did his apprenticeship at Eveleigh in the 1950s. He said the correct shade of green for any loco was "whatever we mixed at the time" and the exact shade could vary considerably from day to day.

 

Cheers

David