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Australia - Preservation Scene


DavidB-AU
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1 hour ago, DavidB-AU said:

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

 

The paint was sourced by the railways from a company, not mixed by the painters so the variation was not as much as some people like to speculate. It was colour matched to paint  samples from surviving 38 class components as well as some areas of original paintwork on 3801 found during the overhaul. The green was within a consistent range on all those parts. This would strongly suggest that the colour it is painted is accurate or at least one point in time. 

 

Some people seem to want it to be wrong so are looking at the greens applied in the 1960s and trying to find a difference (which there is)

 

Craig W

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We went through the same nonsense when we painted 3830 in 1997. After going to a lot of trouble to match the samples we had from the loco, all we seemed to hear from self-anointed experts was that the green was "wrong". And they'd back it up by showing you a colour photo photo taken in 1965 on some cheap Eastern European slide film that hadn't aged well, if the purple grass and yellow skies were any indication.
 

I got so sick of hearing this I'd tell people we'd painted it "Wrong Engine Green" when asked. 
 

Mark.

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Memory is a strange thing.  As a young lad, I remember doing a run around the Western Suburbs loop (unsure of the exact path) behind 3801 in the mid 1970's.  If you asked me, I'd say it was a lot more granny smith/lime green than the current shade.  Not that the current shade is wrong, of course, just that my first impression was probably erroneous benchmarked by what it was painted back then.

 

This photo from Jim Jarron on Flickr is Lidcombe 1975 - would have been the time and sort of trip I made...

 

3801 at Lidcombe 1975

 

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18 minutes ago, jukebox said:

Memory is a strange thing.  As a young lad, I remember doing a run around the Western Suburbs loop (unsure of the exact path) behind 3801 in the mid 1970's.  If you asked me, I'd say it was a lot more granny smith/lime green than the current shade.  Not that the current shade is wrong, of course, just that my first impression was probably erroneous benchmarked by what it was painted back then.

 

This photo from Jim Jarron on Flickr is Lidcombe 1975 - would have been the time and sort of trip I made...

 

3801 at Lidcombe 1975

 

 

 

The apple green stuff started in the 1960s as did the waratah on the nose. The current livery is going back to what it actually saw regular service in rather than the green that was applied when it became a notionally preserved loco.

 

Regards,

 

Craig W

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47 minutes ago, jukebox said:

Memory is a strange thing.  As a young lad, I remember doing a run around the Western Suburbs loop (unsure of the exact path) behind 3801 in the mid 1970's.  If you asked me, I'd say it was a lot more granny smith/lime green than the current shade.  Not that the current shade is wrong, of course, just that my first impression was probably erroneous benchmarked by what it was painted back then.

 

This photo from Jim Jarron on Flickr is Lidcombe 1975 - would have been the time and sort of trip I made...

 

3801 at Lidcombe 1975

 

Nice purple grass.:jester:

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I find colour photos taken in an era when a steam loco was in everyday operation to be a bad reference source basically because as the photo ages the colours change. If the photograph has been slightly over exposed then the loco's colour will be lighter and if under exposed it will be darker. Unlike today there wasn't all the manipulation programs available to correct over or under exposed photos although I have corrected photos taken on slides where the colours have changed in the last 50 odd years. Some have been successful and some haven't. But they're not railway photos.  

When you manipulate the colours in photos you manipulate them to what you think is correct which may not be the correct shade of colour that the subject of the photo was at the time that the photo was taken. Memory plays a huge part but memories fade with the passing of the years.  

Edited by faulcon1
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1 hour ago, faulcon1 said:

I find colour photos taken in an era when a steam loco was in everyday operation to be a bad reference source basically because as the photo ages the colours change. If the photograph has been slightly over exposed then the loco's colour will be lighter and if under exposed it will be darker. Unlike today there wasn't all the manipulation programs available to correct over or under exposed photos although I have corrected photos taken on slides where the colours have changed in the last 50 odd years. Some have been successful and some haven't. But they're not railway photos.  

When you manipulate the colours in photos you manipulate them to what you think is correct which may not be the correct shade of colour that the subject of the photo was at the time that the photo was taken. Memory plays a huge part but memories fade with the passing of the years.  

 

True. 

Bear in mind that what you see on a monitor with digital images (or scanned photos too) depends on the monitor settings as well. 

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Many types of colour film are highly susceptible to fading even in the dark, and the different dyes fade at different rates. In the personal and family collection, photos from the 1960s now seem to appear more red and from the 1980s appear more blue.

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It depends on the manufacturer of the film as well. The 'big three' in slide film were Kodachrome, Agfa and Fuji. IIRC Kodachrome was the best for retaining its colour but even they could fade if not kept in ideal conditions.

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Well whatever colour shade of green 3801 is supposed to be I doubt we'll see her running around on the mainline until next year. But here's footage of 3801 in an earlier time.

 

Edited by faulcon1
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Over the past week I've been driving round the north east, north west and far west and one such place I went to was Tenterfield basically to have a look at the railway station museum. Although an entirely static display the volunteers are all extremely keen and overflowing with enthusiasm. There was only one item of rolling stock that was in a terrible state but that won't be for long as it's being meticulously restored. The only down side was the amount of plant growth on the platform side of the main station building making Tenterfield station looking like it belongs in far north Queensland rather than dry northern NSW.

Between Walgett and Brewarrina I saw a very large dead kangaroo on the roadside with what looked like some large piece of mat black plastic flapping in the breeze. But the flapping black plastic turned to be two magnificent adult wedge tailed eagles that took off in flight as I approached. Too late to get the camera out and besides I was going at 120kph in a 110kph zone. But with roads out there are arrow straight to the horizon so cornering was of no difficulty whatsoever.    

Here's a video of Tenterfield Railway Station Museum.

 

 

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On getting to Warialda in the far north west of NSW I turned south and a short time after I drove through Warialda Rail. I wasn't marked on the map but it that as far as the railway got to and not to Warialda itself. All thats left of the station at Brewarrina is the load bank and the hand crane still mounted on it's pedestal. As you drive out of Brewarrina you can still see the railway line although it's been cut in places.  

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Here's another old one by Bevan Wall filmed in 2005 but not uploaded until Feb 2020. Four locos are shown 1210, 1709, 2705 and 3526. It might be the steam extravaganza weekend. 1709 rarely runs as it's in the main exhibition hall of the heritage transport museum.

1210 is of 1878, 1709 is of 1887, 2705 is of 1913 and 3526 is of 1917.

 

 

 

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Here's another of Bevan Walls videos this time of standard goods loco 5367 working shuttles between Junee and Collamon on the line to Narrandera way back in 1997. 5367 is of 1914 and is a 2-8-0 goods loco with driving wheels of 4'3". They're not really favoured for mainline usage as they're too slow. They were built for an era when slow plodding goods trains were normal. The loco's lining and use of red paint on the wheels was only added in preservation. Other than the buffer beams they were all over black. She has a Commonwealth tender which has a higher water and coal capacity than her standard tender. Today 5367 is cold and lifeless inside Cowra Roundhouse with the Blayney to Harden line closed although there are moves afoot to get permission to run between Cowra and Holwood possibly using 5367.

 

 

 

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On the 8th & 9th of May 3801 returned to the Blue Mountains so I took a couple of shots from my favourite location, out the back of my place on railway property. She seemed to work harder on the 9th whereas on the 8th the two diesels with her (Alco 4490 and GM 4201) were doing most of the work on the 1 in 33 grade. For the second day I stood on a pile of ballast and as I turned to follow her my feet sank into the ballast but not evenly. 

 

 

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