DavidB-AU

Not only that, they were still wearing their factory livery. The last of the 80s was built in 1983 and very few of them were painted candy. Most went straight from Indian Red to FreightCorp blue in the 1990s. The reason the last remaining Indian Red 80s still look in such good condition after nearly 30 years without a repaint is the body panels are fibreglass in that colour, not painted steel. You can see the red under the flaking blue paint on 8045. Cheers David

Ardglen is the only place in Australia with resident bankers. The gradient is 1 in 40 against loaded trains. Cheers David

Ekka shuttles from last weekend. Cheers David

Steamrail removed the Lempor and other Wardale-like improvements because they didn't know how to maintain them, despite the 40% increase in power they provided. Silly really since Puffing Billy made similar improvements to one of its (much older) locos and seems to be able to maintain them. Compare the sound of the standard NA with 6A which has a single Lempor. It is quite obvious how much more power 6A has, compared with 8A struggling with a lighter load. Cheers David

Interesting comparison of the same loco 10 years apart. R711 last year being relaunched by Steamrail. And 10 years earlier with WCR when it had the dual Lempor ejector. Note how much sharper the bark is. Cheers David

1089 is running the Ekka shuttles. It is common practice to give the SX set a run the day before a public trip to make sure the batteries are charged. This is usually done with 1620. Cheers David

One for the English Electric fans, 1620 hauled the SX set to Caboolture and back to charge the batteries before tomorrow's Ekka shuttles. Cheers David

Some video of AusSteam'88, the likes of which we will never see again. Cheers David

ARGH! NSWRTM has desecrated 1803! http://www.flickr.com/photos/32678796@N05/9500536838/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/32678796@N05/9500547878/ Actually 1803 has been specially painted like this for National Rail Safety Week to teach kids about rail safety. Cheers David

NREC 3GS24C-DE-AU demonstrator on a test run. Cheers David

An unusual camera-strapped-to-the-side-of-Black-Caviar's eye view from Hawkesbury River to Gosford. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRa7zwjD7Y4 Note the great metropolis of Wondabyne at 9:10. Cheers David

Boyd Munro's private train on a tour of the Hunter Valley today. Cheers David

Triple DLs with a load of containerised rice. Cheers David

CFs including Black Caviar are now working the Freighliner cotton trains. These were worked by XRNs until a few days ago. Cheers David

The first week of Qube taking over the Maryvale paper train. Cheers David

Some video of the Southern Highlander. Cheers David

Even 32 cars is nothing special. A standard double length Indian Pacific is 36 cars during the wildflower season. The Ghan has been up to 45 cars. Cheers David

Something different from all the "little" coal trains, a "little" passenger train. The Indian Pacific running via Melbourne combined with the Overland. I believe this was recorded in April but only posted a few days ago. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZ4ckCVe7Qs And no that's not an optical illusion. Our main lines really are that steep! 1 in 50 is not unusual. Cheers David

August appeal for Zig Zag reopening Lithgow's Zig Zag Railway will next month make an appeal to be allowed to operate again, after being shut down because of safety concerns. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-07-19/zig-zag-date/4830030

13,560hp on Cowan Bank with Black Caviar in the lead. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixOMN1a6Jx0 Cheers David

This doesn't really fit into Modern Scene, but since all three locos shown are now preserved this seemed the better place to put it. The delivery run of one standard gauge Spirit of Progress set from Melbourne to Sydney in April 1962. It was run as a fan trip with steam north of the Murray. There was a considerable amount of low flying on this run with reports of crockery sliding off the buffet from rounding the Bethungra spiral at high speed. It also shows so many things you just can't do today, including set back photo runs and standing on the railway reservation to get photos. And not a safety vest in sight! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4QXm6PH_lQ Cheers David

Got another idea for you. From the prologue to Fellowship of the Ring, "On the ordering of the Shire". Some sort of mail van might be in order. Cheers David

8000hp on the Veolia rubbish train from Sydney to Tarago. Cheers David

And smoke a little pipe-weed, whatever Professor T intended that to mean. Cheers David

Pacific National orders genset locomotives National Railway Equipment Company (NREC), United States, has won a contract to supply seven multi-engine N-ViroMotive locomotives to Pacific National, Australia, for shunting operations operation at the BlueScope steelworks at Port Kembla in New South Wales. http://www.railjournal.com/index.php/locomotives/pacific-national-orders-genset-locomotives.html