Cooma Railway Station.

[faulcon1]

Cooma Station lies on the Bombala railway line in southern new South Wales. It was constructed in 1888 and opened in 1889. In the center of the station is a large general waiting room. The scale and size of the building is a reflection of the town's status and prosperity at the time. Cooma Railway Station building is distinguished by rendered mouldings round the windows and doors, cast iron columns with ornate capitals, iron lace work and gables with fretwork and tall finials. In 1928 the south end of the building was modified to become a large refreshment room. This happened because of increased patronage and the completion of the line through to Bombala, the southern terminus. In the 1950's the Snowy Mountains Hydroelectric Power Scheme resulted in a huge increase in passengers and parcel traffic and the station was again modified to cater for this increased traffic. The station closed to all traffic on the 29th May 1989 due to a much improved road between Cooma and Queanbeyan. 90 minutes by car vs 3-4 hours by rail. 

The building nearest the camera with the windows in the front and side walls is the station mounted signal box, built in 1912. It houses the interlocking lever frame when the yard was upgraded to allow operation from this central location. The lever frame is not the original but is thought to have been installed only five years later in 1917.

You can see a dark patch at the base platform front where the point rodding and signal wires connected to the lever frame inside the box.   

The small building behind the Cooma Station sign is known as an "out of" shed because various items were stored there until required. It's history is not known but it could have been recycled from another station. Recycling of buildings from other stations was common practice on NSW Railways. It was also used as a Lamp Room where Kerosene Lamps, use for lighting signals at night were stored.

Edited December 4, 2019 by faulcon1

[faulcon1]

Here's a photo taken through a window of the signal box of the lever frame and two photos of signals in the yard. All the original signals of 1888 were replaced in 1912 when the signal box was built with some signals built installed as late as 1963. The signals installed at Cooma is a representative of the mechanical era of signalling and is considered the most complete installation of it's type in NSW. It is also probably the last fully interlocking mechanically-signalled railway yard in Australia.    

[faulcon1]

The water tank seen here was originally from Yannergee in north western NSW and was erected here in 2001 by the railways to add to the historic Cooma railway precinct. The original tank was taken out when steam loco servicing gave way to diesels. The water column seen in the previous photo would have been supplied from a tank such as this.

Edited December 4, 2019 by faulcon1

[faulcon1]

The locomotive shed is a two road straight through shed and the building originally had vented gables and a ventilation ridge with timber louvres to allow steam to escape. The little building at the side was for a short time in the 1930's the DLE's office. Originally a part of the shed jutted out where the little building now stands but it was demolished following serious damage by a windstorm in the 1960's.

[faulcon1]

The District Locomotive Engineer's (DLE) building was built in 1950 to provide office accommodation for the DLE and toilet facilities for staff servicing locomotives in the loco shed. It was relatively unusual to house the "boss" and his staff in the same building. The building was built as a result of increased business brought about by the Snowy Mountains Hydroelectric Scheme. These days the building is rented out hence the Hill's hoist washing line (an Australian invention) 

[faulcon1]

The goods shed with the small timber building being the first shed completed with the opening of the line in 1889 but the other building was added later with the expanding business of the line.

[faulcon1]

The turntable is a manually operated table of 60ft in length built by Sellars and replaced an earlier 50ft turntable on the same site.

[faulcon1]

The former loco men's barracks was built in 1941 to replace the original which was located near the loco shed. It housed 12 men and provided bedrooms, kitchen, dining and bathroom facilities for train crews to sleep between shifts. In 1955 a four bedroom extension was added though this wasn't enough and another two barrack blocks were added during the Snowy Hydro Scheme building years. they were demolished about twenty years later.

[faulcon1]

With the end of steam operations the need to refuel diesel multiple unit trains was required. The Canberra-Monaro Express was a 8 car (two four car sets coupled together) and was worked by the then state of the art air conditioned DEB sets or 900 class railcars. The fueling facilities were upgraded in 1955 so that 48 class co-co diesel electric branch line type could be refueled here at Cooma.. The photo is looking south towards Bombala.

 

Although this series of photos is taken at what is a preserved railway it's not operational at the present time. When the locals took over they got a bit over enthusiastic and demolished somethings they weren't allowed to demolish. The railway provided tennis courts were demolished. That coupled with questionable operating practices for they were operating on the line north to a place called Charkola has seen their operating license withdrawn. They were using CPH railmotors. 

The line on either side of Cooma is in a bad state of total disrepair. South towards Bombala railway lines have been removed and timber sleepers have been taken by farmers to use as fence posts. North towards Michelago the situation is the same with trestle bridges which have collapsed so the line such as it is, is well and truly disused which makes finding  a thread on the forum to put it in rather difficult. Weeds growing on the permanent way in Cooma make it disused to me only because the society is forbidden to kill or remove the weeds. There are two items of rolling stock in Cooma yard equally disused and now suffering at the hands of mother nature and vandals. They are shown with their history below.

[faulcon1]

FP11 is a former railway pay bus. It was used in the days when railway employees were paid in cash before electronic deposits as is done today.

This railway pay bus is one of seven of a later improved type. They were ordered from Commonwealth Engineering (Comeng) in 1967 and all seven entered service between April and July 1968. The square body is mounted on a 4 wheel chassis and is powered by an underfloor six cylinder Leyland 0.400 horizontal diesel engine driving one axle via a Voith Diwabus model 501 fully automatic hydraulic/mechanical transmission and reversing gearbox. This was then coupled to the Voith final drive to one of the axles. 

FP11 has inwards opening doors on both sides and a driving position at each end.

The wheelbase is 18' (5.49m) and the body is 30' (9.14m). FP11 is also fitted with air conditioning from new. The ends or fronts were taken from Comeng's standard bus model.

All railway pay buses ceased operation in 1986 with this rail pay bus FP11 being the last in service on the run from Clyde to Lithgow loco depot, where I worked at the time. Yes FP11 used to bring me my measly wages that the railway paid.

As you can see vandals have smashed windows, head and marker lights and sprayed graffiti tags on the body. It's even worse on the other side. The L 7 emblem on the front was the railways emblem in the diesel era for many years. We railway employees said it stood for Late 7 days a week. 

[faulcon1]

These two heavily graffiti-ed DMU's are former 620/720 sets. I think the front set is 631/731 and it was converted by the railways into a Mechanical Track Patrol Vehicle and numbered ML 070. The set behind is retained as a source of spares. The Cooma Monaro Railway secured ownership of both in 2015.

An odd way to number vehicles though with a pair usually being 631/731 and never 631/632. 

[MEGair]

Have been there several times on way to Merimbula on the coast.  I have family in nearby Wolulma, where Sir Henry Parkes promised a railway, which was never built.

The town had a Railway Hotel for some time.  Does the Model Railway still exist in the Station building?

 

Mark

[faulcon1]

16 hours ago, MEGair said:

Have been there several times on way to Merimbula on the coast.  I have family in nearby Wolulma, where Sir Henry Parkes promised a railway, which was never built.

The town had a Railway Hotel for some time.  Does the Model Railway still exist in the Station building?

 

Mark

I had a look in the station building Mark but it appears to be completely empty. The general waiting room the biggest single room there has nothing but ladders and scaffolding in it. I didn't know there was a model railway in the station building. If that's where the model railway was it doesn't look to promising does it. There's a sign as you drive towards the station building that reads, "Danger Rail Corridor". How can there be any danger when there are no trains running. Still in this age of selfies people will try to take a photo of themselves in front of a piece of infrastructure whilst walking backwards and they'll go ace over apex as they trip on the rails, point rodding, signal wires etc.

Edited December 5, 2019 by faulcon1