faulcon1

Here's part 2 of Redford during a public open day

On the Redlford layout they have trains that run as mobile advertisements which shows all the companies that sponsor the layout and it gives them a bit of free advertising as a return thanks. Redford is a large layout with quite a few young guys operating trains which is good to see. I don't like it when I see a club layout that tends to be an old farts only zone.

Oh thanks for that. No doubt it has narrow streets with old buildings whereas Hay NSW has wide streets as it's a country town with large houses on large sized blocks and the roads are wide in the residential areas where you have a four lane road but only the two inner lanes are use by through traffic. The outer two lanes people park cars and boats and caravans and HGV's.

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.

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.

Auld New South Wales sorry I don't know what you mean.

Staying in a motel nearby I saw this trestle bridge which according to the motel owner hasn't seen a train since 1974. The locals want to turn the line into a cycle way and footpath. Manilla is on the now disused Barraba Branch line. The line branched off at Tamworth and headed north west to Manilla and Barraba. There is a third town of Bingara but the further north they went the hard construction became and so Bingara was never served by rail. This trestle bridge has recently had a structural engineer inspect it and his report is of a bridge in remarkably good condition despite having little to no maintenance done to it.

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.

Links as asked for

Many of the huge permanently fixed layouts in the US sometimes do a cab ride. But it's often welcome to the railroad of no action other then the cab ride loco. A huge layout but only on loco operating. There are often other people there running nothing but just standing around watching this cab ride loco proceed on it's own round the railroad. Often they're single track so you run down the side of a building that houses the railroad and then you go into a tunnel to do a 180 degree turn and run back down the side of the building the other way. Many are multi level and they use the helix system to go from one level to another which always makes me smile for these US layouts are massive in size and gradients between the levels would not be out of the question and in my opinion would look far better. Others do the cab ride when it's an operating session so you get all manner of things happening like derailments, signals passed at red, head on collisions, trains becoming uncoupled and members being short tempered with each other. Many of the clubs rent basements in large buildings which sometimes the landlord wants to put to another use and the railroad which was never designed from the outset to come apart ends up in a number of skips of ignited on the huge railroad bonfire. Others are long established clubs like Blissfield in Michigan who own the premises the railroad is housed in. Here's a cab ride on Blissfield during an open to the public day when strict railway protocol is not adhered too.

A slide show of Hay Railway Station.

Finley railway station is on the now closed Narrandera to Tocumwal line. It's one of the earliest examples of a cheap railway station with light rails with dirt used for ballasting. The platform is nearly at ground level.

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.

In Australia that Vauxhall was an early Holden Torana

Beautifully restored but it would be terrifying driving that car down those narrow country lanes risking the paintwork on the hedges.

Found this lovely old film made in 1963 of a car drive to Bath. There's no car sound but there is commentary. Drivers haven't changed. Unfortunately it's only at 240p

There's a story about old 78 when on the plinth at the old Enfield loco depot that some wag put it's number on the board for engines to be lit up. Apparently old 78 was lit up but only very briefly. Numerous birds flew out of the chimney most annoyed they'd been smoked out whilst someone got a fire hose and dowsed the fire.

Here's another two we haven't seen for a while either.

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.

Here's an old DVD with footage taken in the "old" days well the late 1990's actually with some motive power now long gone.

This is video is one of three and it was released in 1987 on VHS. It and the other two titles never made it into the DVD era. I've searched high and low and made inquiries in various forums and nobody has even heard of the man who made the three videos. I even went back the shop where I bought it and asked them and they have no contact details for the man who made them. All three are in colour and include live sound. They're not high definition but at 720p. Being VHS they won't last much longer and of course a replacement is now out of the question. I don't like uploading other peoples videos and I haven't monetised these videos so I'm not making any money from them, but they're too fascinating to allow them to fade away. The years he seemed to film were 1965 - 66 and many of the secondary lines and branch lines have now closed. So please enjoy this man's work. Here's the second video of the trio Here's the third video and last video he released

Here's another modern video of a cab ride in a SSR or Southern Short Haul Railroad. The man who took the video is lucky for the driver of this train is his son. There is a good explanation given as to what all the computer screens tell. The run is a coal run from Airly Colliery down through the Blue Mountains. I wonder if the dad likes his son's choice in music. Possibly not.

Many modern era videos in Australia tend to be in or near to major population areas which is to be expected with Australia being such a vast country. But there are some who are prepared to go out to the outback to capture modern trains in action. The Trans Australian Railway is a vital and busy rail corridor and one place where trains have it over trucks and even road trains. The trains in this video blow their air horns but I assume it's done as a greeting to the man taking the video simply because it's rare to find a lone person quite literally in the middle of nowhere. Most freight trains have a passenger coach in the consist for the crews, yes crews as there are more than one crew per train. Some have fuel as well enabling the locos to "drink" on the move. Other than the odd railway settlement there is nothing out there and very few people.

I've uploaded a video that isn't mine to my YouTube channel. This video of steam in the 1960's on the NSWGR was only released on VHS tape and it never made it to the DVD era. I've searched high and low to try and find out what happened to the bloke who recorded all the footage. I bought the video originally from the ARHS bookshop in Sydney but I phoned them they didn't know what I was talking about. I've made inquiries on the RailPage site but all to no avail. Naturally if someone comes out of the woodwork and asks me to remove the video I will of course comply. But in the mean time here it is. The video was originally in SD but is now in widescreen. I had to upload it in four separate parts and I then downloaded it to my iMac and put the four parts through iMovie and then uploaded it as one. The footage seems to have been filmed in 1965-66 in a wide variety of locations. The film starts on Central West: Tumulla Bank, then Lithgow, Richmond locals in the Sydney area, Old Enfield loco depot, Northern line: Gosford and Broadmedow, Murrurundi Bank, Murrurundi loco depot, South Coast: cabride on 3313 on the Illawarra Line and line side views of 3232 on the same train, Southern Line: Moss Vale Squirt, Moss Vale, Picton, Maldon, Spaniards Hill Bank, Campbelltown, 3265 Narrandera to Leeton line, Harden Loco depot, 3267 near Galong, Cootamundra with coal grab 1062, Cowra Line: 5595 Wattamondara, Noonbinna, Far West: Nyngan 3050 on a train to Brewarrina, 3289 on the Cobar branch, 3313 Nyngan to Dubbo, 3290 Bourke, Byrock, Coolabah, 3004 Dubbo, 3648 Dubbo, 3268 Coonamble Branch, 6028 Wellington. Mudgee area: 3011 Craboon, 3387, Munna, 5369 Mudgee Loco Depot, 3294 shunting Mudgee, 5167 Redbank Creek, 3227 heading for Binnaway, 3224 heading for Mudgee, 3306 on a long trestle. Enjoy.