Trainspotting in New South Wales

[Taigatrommel]

On Thursday I went for five days in NSW with Mr45144, to get a taste of the rail scene there. It's busy and varied, with a multitude of loco types working for different companies. These are just a few illustrations chosen quickly, and taken from low quality jpeg files rather than raw. Once I have some energy I'll be trying to pull some decent results from them, but as my last big trip took 14 months between getting home and getting the bulk online, don't expect any wonders soon!

 

Also, please excuse the rather basic captions. I'm purely into pointing my camera at things rather than really knowing much about them.

 

 

44 class ALCo-Goodwin takes the rear of a container shuttle towards Port Botany.

 

Double ALCo power on yet more containers, an R&H 442 double heading with a CFCLA (Chicago Freight Car Leasing Australia) 44.

 

 

The Hunter Valley is known for intensive coal traffic. Here a four loco Pacific National lash-up brings 70-odd wagons onto Kooragang Island for export.

 

 

More coals to Kooragang, this time headed by a QR National pair.

 

 

Yet more ALCo power, and still Kooragang Island. A Coote Industrial set (with the centre loco still in Silverton colours) wait for their container train to be unloaded.

 

An idyll by the Hawkesbury river, by a tiny station called Wondabyne, which appears to serve houses across the river who access by private boat. A CFCLA pair take containers north from Sydney. No crocs in the water here. Sharks ate all the crocodiles.

 

And half a dozen seems a good number to leave it at. I'll finish with a video.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbHj4YTU9os

[trisonic]

Thanks for posting these. Very nice photos.

 

Best, Pete.

[DavidB-AU]

Wondabyne also serves a quarry behind the hill. It has some of the hardest and most durable building sandstone in the country. There is no road access and the only way in and out is by train. The quarry is now only opened as required, mainly if one of the major public buildings built with Wondabyne sandstone is in need of repairs.

 

The small jetty near the station is quite a good fishing spot too.

 

Cheers

David

[PhilH]

Very nice, thanks for posting. Always good to see stuff from other countries.

[Taigatrommel]

I can understand how Wondabyne would be good for fishing- I saw a few decent size ones leaping from the water. It really is a great spot, with the protected pedestrian crossing warning of when a train is coming at other times I could switch off completely and watch nothing very much happening at all. Lovely. Brooklyn was good too, with a cafe on the marina allowing me to sit with my breakfast looking across the water to the rail causeway to Long Island.

 

I've just edited this picture a little, so I thought I'd add it to the thread- a trio of ex-Danish MZ IIIs (like SD45s, having a 20-645 prime mover) in the container terminal by Prince's Highway. Out of 10 active members of this class, we saw at least 8, and as there were two we saw but which were too far away to ID, we could have seen them all.

 

[Ravenser]

Is that first shot really on the Port Botany branch (which runsthrough some rather tatty industrail areas near the airport) or somewhere a lot further north? It looks a lot more rural to me . Picking the difference between a 42 class and a 44 class requires keen eyes, though I think the 44 class are squarer in the nose - which your loco is

 

And - wot , no suburban electrics? Not even a V-set double deck intermodal at Wonderbyne? You can't go to NSW and not take the classic shot of a N.Shore line passenger train coming off the Bridge...

 

Nice photos

[Taigatrommel]

The composition makes that location on the Port Botany branch look a lot more scenic than it really is- it's actually taken from by the level crossing here (google maps). As for the classes, I just go from the number written on them!

 

Got a few pics of suburban electrics, but they're all just so darn ugly.

[The Stationmaster]

The composition makes that location on the Port Botany branch look a lot more scenic than it really is- it's actually taken from by the level crossing here (google maps). As for the classes, I just go from the number written on them!

 

Got a few pics of suburban electrics, but they're all just so darn ugly.

 

Yep, and I reckon Tangaras are the worst of the lot (and definitely not nice to ride in )

 

But for them as want such things (the Tangara is leaving Strathfield in the Sydney inner suburbs); Railcar 402, in the original (?) brown livery is at Central (Sydney) and was, I was told, being used for radio signal strength testing; 3801 was an unexpected early morning find at Central while I was on my way out to the Zig Zag Railway - it nearly caused a change of plans for the day! all pictures taken in September 2004.