faulcon1

I don't know about spare parts they'd all be gone by now but all the other surviving Garratts exist in one piece so to speak. They are all complete but that doesn't mean they can operate. They'd all need a heavy overhaul with many replacement parts having to be made from new. But to operate them like 6029 one needs a lot of cash. It's said that one bunker of coal alone cost $10,000. Unlike the South African Garratts and that includes the NGG's on the Welsh Highland where they only have a water tank over the front engine unit, the 60 class have the same plus a water/coal space over the rear or hind unit. The 60 class are far from economical runners and on longer tours an old petrol tank wagon has been converted to a new role of holding water. Coal consumption isn't economical either and the locos have an automatic stoker they aren't manually fired. In the old days a 60 class on a coal train had it's stoker fail. The crew hand fired it to the end of it's journey. They then just slid off the engine suffering from fatigue and total exhaustion.

In the UK with a fair few preserved steam locos mainline certificated I'm surprised that you "poms" haven't taken a leaf out of the Australian book and staged a Great Train Race. Although it's called a race the locos aren't going all out in an actual race. It's just parallel running but on the main line usually close to a major city. There are diesels on the rear of each of the trains taking part. You can have two trains "racing" or three or four. Ours (in Australia) happens on an annual basis usually one in Sydney and the other at Newcastle during their Annual Steam Festival. Here's is a couple of videos to show you what I mean and that even in a totally nanny state that New South Wales has become it is still possible. The "race" was from Sydney to Strathfield and the Garratt was deemed to have won. The green loco 3526 was one of 35 two cylinder locos built in 1914 although she entered service on the 29/3/1917. So she is 101 years old. She is the only survivor and for UK standards has quite small wheels for an express passenger loco of 5'9". The Garratt 6029 is a baby by comparison having been built in the UK in 1953. She is one of 42 Garratts and 4 survive in preservation, 6029, 6039, 6040 and 6042. She entered service on the 24/4/1954. Going on when she was built she is 65 years old. The "DC" on the left side of her number stands for "Dual Control" which in steam days meant that she could run in either direction with the crew facing the direction of travel. The two "crosses" on the right side of her number mean she is fitted with enlarged cylinders and that happened with her conversion to dual control on the 17/2/1959. She was withdrawn from mainline service in September 1972 and condemned on the 4/1/1973. In her steam days service she traveled 996,827km. She was never designed to haul passenger trains, she was bought to haul goods train especially coal trains. 6029 is the only Garratt of the 60 class that has been returned to operational condition. She has driving wheels of 4'71/2" and she weighs 260 tons and requires a turntable of 120' diameter. We are on board 3265 one of four 32 class locos to have survived 3203, 3214, 3237 and 3265. She is the youngest of the four being built by Beyer Peacock on the 6/1/1902 as a saturated loco. She was superheated on the 30/6/1933 and withdrawn in January 1968. She was condemned on the 21/10/1968. She has a new boiler fitted to her which was constructed in Australia at the time the biggest job the engineering company had taken on. Although the race looks fast it's certainly no faster than 100kph or 60 mph. 3265 has driving wheels diameter of just 5' and although initially bought for express passenger working the class of 171 locos worked all types of train including goods and pick up goods trains. This video shows 3642 returning from this years Maitland Annual Steam Festival climbing Cowan Bank. This is like running the full length of the Worth Valley Railway in that the bank is five miles long but steeper at 1 in 40 with steeper sections and twice as many tunnels (four instead of two). Unusually the loco tackles the climb with no diesel assistance. The tunnels are known as Boronia Tunnels one to four. Originally there were five tunnels but Boronia number five was bypassed many years ago. You can see it's portal just after the passing of the second diesel hauled coal train. It's to the left of the up mainline which the 36 is slogging away on. The lines are now bi directional to allow faster moving passenger trains to overtake diesel hauled freight trains. Yes the diesels also have to slog their way up Cowan Bank. The line climbs 616 ft from Hawkesbury River to Cowan and it snakes around many 11 and 12 chain curves. 3642 is one of 75 36class and three survive. 3609, 3616 fitted with a Giesel ejector in 1957 and 3642. She has driving wheel diameters of 5'9" for our steeply graded mainlines. She was built in Sydney in 1926 and withdrawn in 1969. She is 92 years old and has recently been retired from operational status. 3616 is the next 36 (being worked on now) for operational status. She's slightly younger at 91 years of age.

In the USA George Pullman built an entire town to house his workforce dibber25. It was meant to be so he could control the lives of his workers. There was no saloons so workers couldn't get drunk and not show up for work. There were shops, school etc. When the Pullman works was receiving orders things went well and the workers lived in company housing that they paid a rent to George Pullman. However when the orders dropped off Pullman cut the wages but insisted on his workers paying the same rate in rent. So his workers went on strike. It got so bad that Pullman's utopian village fell apart and when he died Pullman was hated and despised by his workforce. He even left instructions that his grave was to be protected with railway lines welded over the grave itself lest his former workers would dig him up and desecrate him. That's how afraid he became of his former loyal workforce.

I also paid a quick visit to the Severn Valley Railway filming at Hampton Loade and Highley. I stayed at a Pub at Chelmarsh.

Welsh narrow gauge was not forgotten and I visited three railways. The Ffestiniog Railway, Talyllyn Railway and Bala Lake Railway I saw the baby Garratts on the Ffestiniog/Welsh Highland Railway and I rode the full length of the Welsh Highland from Caernarfon to Porthmadoc and back. I was staying at Llanberis. I didn't go up the Snowdon Mountain Railway as only diesels were operating but had a wonderful if slightly knackering walk to and around the former slate quarry at Dinorwic. I climbed the steep path from the power station only to find that there's a far easier entrance to the quarry via Dinorwic village. I was at a loss for accommodation in Tywyn for the Talyllyn until the station master at Tywyn came to the rescue and told me of a B&B run by Talyllyn volunteers. So I rode 1st class from Tywyn to Nant Gwernol and back. It was only an extra two pounds to ride first class but others balked at paying extra. For the Bala Lake Railway I stayed at a hotel on Talyllyn Lake. The planes at Llangower made me jump a bit. As if there wasn't enough noise from the wind. Apparently pilots have to fly along the valleys and pass a sort of test before being allowed to fly in Afghanistan.

I went to the Churnet Valley Railway and only one loco was in steam. The USTC 2-8-0 5197. I rode aboard on this one. I stayed at the new Premier Motel at Matlock.

Next I went to the Llangollen Railway and stayed at the Berwyn pub in Glyndyfrdwy. At 9:52 when the 2-6-2T 5199 departed the platform shook from the locos powerful exhaust beats. Berwyn platform would be a good place to go on a honeymoon. Parking was free "yipeeee" and the station staff were very friendly and welcoming. The station cafe food was very good too. At 8:21 it was nice to hear a low note whistle from the more usual high note whistle on an ex GW loco. The sun was shining and it was raining. It must be Wales. 6:57 is another place where I was the only person there. I was standing behind the gate of a foot crossing not on the railway's land. I was told of the location by locals in the area and there is a business car park nearby but you have to be engaged with that business in order to park there. I didn't get a line side pass as for me they're not worth the money. If the line side pass was current for ten years then yes. But they aren't so I didn't. If I film from the line side it's always outside the railways' land. I don't believe in trespassing on private land just to get a shot of a train. As I walked down country lanes I always asked if I could cross someones land and they said yes although they seemed most surprised but happy that I asked them. If they'd said no then I wouldn't have gone onto their land.The signals only returned to danger once the whole train had passed the signal. Here in Australia the signal returns to danger as soon as the loco has passed. It makes no difference if the signal is a semaphore or colour light. At 2:02 this chap seeing I was a foreigner told me that only about two rebuilt Bullieds had been preserved. I think ten have survived but I didn't enlighten him.I had two rides in the auto coach one where I filmed along with nearly every other passenger and on the second run there was this older man sitting opposite me. He had a note book and pen and would often scribble in tiny writing into this note book looking out of the coach window with a worried look, then check his watch, glare at other passengers in the coach me included and still with the worried look scribble more notes into his note book. He seemed to be fiercely concentrating on this most vital of tasks and although I was dying to ask him what he was doing I was afraid of breaking his concentration and therefore mucking up his entire task. If he was noting if the loco was running to time then I could have enlightened him that it wasn't. The Bullied started the late running when the light up crews had trouble raising steam and that threw the whole timetable out. Nobody seemed to mind though. All in all it was a great day. I think that chap in the auto coach was short of a full boiler of water.

In September 2017 I took some excess holiday leave and came to the UK for a steam holiday for part of that leave. I took some rather amateurish video, so be warned. Even though I traveled on very few preserved railways I always bought a ticket as to me it seems wrong to film and not contribute in monetary terms. I will have to go back sometime as footage I took of the Bluebell, Foxfield and other railways didn't survive the trip. The memory card in the camera got damaged and i didn't have a separate hard drive to put the raw footage on. Anyway here are a series of videos. We start at what I thought was the Autumn Gala on the NYMR. Actually is was the Annual Gala. I stayed at the Horseshoe Inn at Levisham which coincidentally is the only commercial business in Levisham. The shot or take at 4:40 is unique as I was the only person there at that location. It was one of the earlier shots when rain threatened to ruin the day. I was able to get the approach and departure shots simply because there was no one else there to avoid getting in the way of. The ending shot at 9:10. Note that the three photographers in the foreground who stopped filming as soon as the locos went past. But they missed the glorious chorus of whistles provided by the locos. That was often hard to get. As soon as locos went past, people would start to talk to me. "So how long have you been in the UK? AAAARRRHHHHH!!!!!!

In 2017 I went to the Talyllyn and had a most enjoyable time and took some video.

In September 2017 I had a holiday in England and Wales and I visited the Severn Valley Railway here's some amateurish video I took.

The trouble with Dash Cams is that they "loop" record. Many record in segments gradually filling the memory card until it's full where upon they record over the over the first part again. Most "experts" recommend that the user of a Dash Cam puts a micro 32GB memory card into the camera. The cheaper cameras leave a slight gap at the end of each segment which would be no good in filming a model railway for a cab view as the view would have drop outs. As others have said buy a micro camera or as they're known as "Action Cams". I have a Sony AS100V (no longer available new) that is the right height for OO gauge provided you use a bogie well wagon one is available from Bachmann you just remove the load which is held by a single screw in the base. Also I found doing a test with wheel sets is advisable as metal wheels tend to roar and if you have a sound loco that roar may drown it out. So plastic wheel sets is an option. You'll still get the "clickety clack" from the wheels without the roar of the rails. Hope this all helps. Also with the Sony you have a flip function whereby you can invert the camera and the footage comes out the right way up. For OO gauge placing the camera on the permanent way fools the eye into thinking that the loco is O gauge rather than OO for your view is looking up at a loco not looking down on the loco. With the Sony I have is a WiFi LED screen controller (for want of a better word). It's handy for you can get the scene level before you start recording using pieces of Blu Tak to support the camera and you also use it to start and stop recording so you never have to touch the camera. The camera records in HD 1080p 50fps and also XVAC for an even higher frame rate if you so wish.

This old piece of footage showing a pom down under way back in 1988 when the Brits sent 4472 Flying Scotsman instead of Mallard. To my mind a better choice to have the former rather than the latter as the former is more widely known the world over. She was owned by Sir William McAlpine at the time and she's seen here ascending the steep 1 in 40 of Tumalla Bank west of Bathurst. Her fire wasn't in the best shape when she commenced the climb. Just as well she had a helper in the shape of 3801 otherwise she would have come to grief as the weather on that day didn't help either. https://youtu.be/_pxm1S5U8Mg

Blimey you lot are so lucky and yet you're whinging and moaning like an old lady at a country fair with her knickers round her ankles. How would like to live in a country where mainline steam tours are few and far between. Where there a no heritage railways in your part of the country and its a two to three days drive just to get to one not six. Well I live in that country and that state is New South Wales Australia. I had a holiday last year in England and Wales visiting preserved railways. I can't do that in Australia. None of our steam locos run in the summer months and due to the fire risk which runs from October through to April, it's diesels only for any mainline runs whether you like it or not. Puffing Billy at Belgrave in the state of Victoria runs steam on a 2'6" narrow gauge and the full run from Belgrave to Gembrook isn't cheap either. There's the Victorian Goldfields Railway at Maldon and that's broad gauge of 5'3" from Maldon to Castlemaine and back and then there's the 2'6" gauge railway at Walhalla from Walhalla to Thomson but that's diesel only. Puffing Billy's 7A a 2-6-2 tank loco did visit but it's not a permanent loco at Walhalla. That's about it. The Zig Zag railway hasn't operated for years and may still be years from resuming operations and the loop line at Thirlmere. But once you've filmed a train on that line on the small part that the trains run on there's nothing else close to home. There may come a time in the not too distant future where Network Rail having faster trains may tell mainline steam loco operators, sorry but all of your mainline ticketed locos are just too slow for today's modern railway. They can't do 100mph up hill and down dale and they're getting in the way of the TOC's. So due to their lower speed compared with the TOC's trains they're barred from the mainline. I can see you lot foaming at the mouth if that comes to pass.

Getting back to the vandalism on the K&ESR, it saddens one to see this sort of unwanted activity. Preserved railways I think need to be more vigilant about the security of their prized possessions. They need to invest in CCTV cameras but also many lines have stock stored in the open which is almost an open invitation for these low lives to come and wreck the stock. Infra red beams that set off very loud alarms aren't too expensive and when coupled with floodlights that light the area up with their intense light may frighten away vandals before they can do their damaging "work" maybe a good thing. So what if a few grumpy locals complain about the noise of a security system doing it's job at 3am. Much better than to have thousands of hours of work flushed down the drain. I was at the the K&ESR last year and I saw their heritage train of four and six wheeled coaches standing in the open. I asked why weren't they under cover out of the weather and out of harms way. I was told that big sheds are very expensive to buy an erect. I replied that the service life of those coaches is shortened by storing them outside where they're at the mercy of mother nature and vandals. Those sheds could be fitted with sensors and a mains pressure sprinkler system so if anyone got in and tried to set fire to them their efforts would be doused before they really had a chance to do any damage. I don't think I was too popular when I said that I'd give real money for a shed rather than give money to restore the 16xx pannier tank!.

Here's a video I took of the Garratt 6029 which was running to Mount Victoria. I had hoped that I'd get a great shot of the loco steaming hard on the 1 in 29 at the back of my place. But as she rounded the curve to the east of where I'm standing she shut off steam and came to a halt. The reason for this? I have not the faintest idea unless it was to give the loco a standing start test on one of the steeper sections of the mainline. The safety valves lifted but the noise they made was well beyond the peak for the microphone. So here they're rather quiet. In reality it nearly blew my ears off. I didn't have any ear protection as I hadn't expected her to stop. She restarted without fanfare and just ambled away. The ruling gradient for twenty miles from Valley Heights to Katoomba is 1 in 33 with easier lengths of track like through Faulconbridge Station where it's 1 in 66. There are no other photographers near me because I'm standing on railway property. Yes trespassing for want of a better word. My rear boundary of my property borders the railway land separated by a hedge so I only have to duck through that hedge an I'm on the railway land. If I was reported, by the time any officials arrived I will have ducked back again and would be in front of my computer editing the footage I'd just taken. This video has had over 28,000 views and growing on YouTube not that I'm complaining but I'm truly gob smacked as I'm only a mediocre cameraman at the best of times.

Here's 3642 climbing the 1 in 40 of Cowan Bank in April 2018 on it's return from the Maitland Steam Festival. Unusually she has no diesel assistance so here's a good and last chance to hear 3642 working very hard. This grade is five miles in length and it climbs all the way from Hawkesbury River Station to Cowan Station. Oddly enough for English people that's the rail length in miles of the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway as it too climbs for it's entire length. Unlike the K&WVR where locos shut off for the run into Oxenhope Station, 3642 increases speed through Cowan Station for there are many more miles to go before Sydney is reached.

I try to avoid watching MSM TV of railways as it's aimed at people with the IQ of a carrot. To them it's just a choo choo train chuffing through nice scenery. have a DVD Yorkshire Steam where BNT spent a full year on the NYMR. But it comes across as the NYMR is the best forget the rest. I suppose it was a promotional film. I have another BNT production that rides with a crew from Bishop's Lydeard to Minehead on the WSR. They tell a very different story like farm gates left open that are supposed to be closed to bad coal. It sounds a little whinging at times but gives a better insight to life on a preserved railway. People don't think about the extra hour at the end of a day to put a steam engine away for the night or the fact that you come out black from head to toe. The fireman said if you want a dirty weekend come and work on the railway. The crew also remarked that people see the driver and fireman and think that's all people do on a preserved railway. All the other jobs that aren't as glamorous in public's eye are forgotten about. BNT also did the K&WVR but I got the feeling that it was all staged. The weather was gorgeous and every train that arrives at Oxenhope a brass band plays on the platform....no!.

Yes it must be. I know they're speaking English but sometime subtitles would be very handy especially for those down in Devon or Cornwall. On my first visit to the UK in 2000 I was near to Staverton in Devon and this farmer was waiting whilst his herd of cows ambled across a road. He came up and spoke to me and I swear I never understood a word he said. I so much wanted to say, 'yes I had one of those once but the wheels fell off'. If he'd had a another person with him I may have asked, 'what did Horace say Whinny?".

The video that was on YouTube as "public" for the last twelve months has now been changed to "private".

Being from the other side of this rock we live on, Pendon is not some place I can visit very often. If I won the lottery or had Richard Branson's money I would but I haven't so I can't. But I did buy a DVD from Pendon showing the Vale, Dartmoor, John Ahearn and John and Jerry models. Although a 2005 production it's better than nothing. There was a former resident of Briggsham? Farm interviewed and she told of the new outhouse that was built and how this was going to be fantastic. The builders came and erected a whole new outhouse building but the new concrete floor sloped from the sides to the middle so there was a rumour that when ever anyone wanted to use this facility that they had put their "Wellies" on just to go to the loo. This former resident said that the Pendon team have modelled a little old ducks standing outside the outhouse with her "Wellies" on. On that DVD the Vale Scene although set in the 1920's- 30's, the day is a Monday for all the washing is on the washing lines. Monday was always wash day. The month is August due to what's growing in the vegetable plots and what plants are in flower in the gardens of the houses at Pendon Parva. The DVD also shows how they make the houses and the plants and what materials have been used in the past and what they use now. So although an older DVD it's a very enjoyable experience to watch time and again, as I have. It's aimed at the modeller/enthusiast and is not like a mainstream TV production which all to often thinks the viewer has the IQ of a carrot.

Looking through You Tube I found a rare trike ride between Carlwood and Hazelgrove. It was done way back in 2005 with a homemade trike using car wheels (without the tyres) for railway wheels. The footage must have been taken either on a phone or an old analog video camera. The footage is in 360p. It starts at the trestle bridge (in the above photo) and goes onto Hazelgrove round very sharp curves and up steep 1 in 25 gradients. Farm animals now rule where once trains ran. But by doing so they've kept the undergrowth down. On reaching Hazelgrove there is footage of the return run back to Carlwood.

I had a workmate Allan who used to have a Holden Torana XU1 and he had the initials NR NRH on the dashboard in front of the passenger. He showed me a photo. NR NRH stood for No Root No Ride Home. He used to work for the local council and in one council car he suggested to his wife that the go out to the garage and "christen" the car (have sex in it). I asked if he did in the car and he said yes and no. It wasn't like being a young bloke. He said it took them ages to get into the right position and then his knees gave out.

From the former Canberra museum I've heard that 3102T is to go to Bombala and 1210 is to be once again stuffed and mounted. 1210 at the time that the administrators took control was near ready for a steam test after it's overhaul. Stuffing and mounting to make the loco a static exhibit would be a great shame. Pity it wasn't moved to Thirlmere too as they have no 12 class in the museum. 1243 is permanently walled up in the Powerhouse Museum and 1219 is at Broadmeadow Roundhouse. 1210 would have made an ideal engine for the loop line. Yes I know it has connections with Canberra but it could have worked until it's next overhaul and then it could have been taken back to Canberra to be stuffed and mounted when it was well and truly stuffed.

On a recent visit to the UK I took two cameras and a cheap lightweight tripod. The cameras were both Sony. A video camcorder a HDR-PJ820E with 64GB built in memory but it also has a card slot so I used the card slot for video footage and the built in memory for photos. The other camera I took was an action cam a AS100VR. Both cameras record in 1080P (HD) at 50FPS. With the cameras being on board luggage I decided not to take my still camera. You can only have two pieces of on board luggage. The tripod went into the main baggage hold. Filming on UK preserved railways was difficult as being an overseas tourist without the financial resources of Richard Branson I don't get to the UK that often, as it's an 18,000km trip which means that I don't know the best areas to film. I like to be away from people as others can be very annoying. Filming on stations you have other people walking or standing in front of you. On gradients you find still photographers rapidly clicking away and then as soon as they've finished filming they start chatting among themselves or packing up and chatting whilst you're still filming. They now doubt would get very upset if I was to say to them "will you lot bl##dy well shut up!!". So I tried filming from public foot crossings but not knowing where they are, it takes time to find them. I only did it once and that was on the Llangollen Railway. Filming in the inevitable English rain was ok with one hand operating the camera and the other holding a big golfing umbrella for many photographers/videographers just stayed in their cars so a full panning shot was possible. I'm not entirely negative towards others who film for one man on the NYMR gave me some great locations to film so I'm very thankful to him. I will say though I bought an all day "rover ticket" or a full return ticket on the preserved railways that I went to, even though I had no intentions of riding the trains. Those trains are run for the intention of people to ride on them and not just for people to stand at the line side and photograph them. I couldn't bring the golfing umbrella back to Australia as it was just too long to fit into the my suitcase. So I gave it away to someone at Pendon Museum where I spent my last day.

I was chatting to a former NRM employee and one of his jobs was to clean the Chinese loco in the NRM. He said he liked cleaning it as the loco has a huge deep tender and that enabled him to have a few hours "kip"