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[V8Ian]

Sentinels Of Safety -1938 London Midland & Scottish Railway Documentary - WDTVLIVE42 - YouTube

[V8Ian]

Hmmmm, I don't know how that happened; try this one. :confused:

Extreme Railways : Australias Outback Railway - YouTube

[Ausfree]

Itchy finger there, Ian!!!!:wasntme::p

[robbotd5]

Yes I just watched that one, quite interesting.
Regards
Robbo

[drivesafe]

Great video V8Ian and that’s one of the two best rail trip I ever had.

I went to the Alice on the old Ghan in 1972 and rode a mixed goods train to from Townsville to Mt Isa in 1975 and have not come across an equal for either train since.

[V8Ian]

As a child, after the family car broke down west of Chinchilla, we returned to Brisbane by train. There was no passenger service scheduled for a few days so the guard van of a K train was substituted with a drovers' car, for us. My memory of the trip is hot, long, boring and odourously assalting. :(

[drivesafe]

Hi V8Ian and my trip in the mix to Mt Isa was something similar.

A mate and I were travelling around QLD on our annual holiday rail passes and had just come down from Cairns and were to spend a couple of days in Townsville before taking the air condition train to Mt Isa.

Trouble was that while were were in Townsville, QR went on strike so no trains were going anywhere.

When the strike ended, the first passenger train out Townsville, in any direction, was the mixed to Mt Isa.

Never enjoyed a train trip so much.

It was as hot as hell, the wet season had just started so it was as humid as it could possibly get, BUT there were about ten of us in the mixed guards van ( not a drover’s van thank heavens ) and we left Townsville about midday.

By the time we got over the range it was getting dark and as we pulled into one crossing loop in a small town, the SM called out to see if we had had a dinner break.

The guard called back telling the SM we had not. We were then directed to the local pub and told we had 15 minutes, and everybody shot off to the pub.

This happened that the next three crossing loops in towns. We had one REALLY GOOD guard.

We ran ahead of the rain on the way out to Mt Isa and ran into the rain on the way back to the coast.

This first photo ( sorry for the quality ) is at a crossing loop called Nondo and this is a west bound train put on to carry road vehicles towards Mt Isa because the roads were nothing but mud holes ( no tar at that time ).

As the train went through the crossing loop, there were flat wagons full of cars, trucks and buses and everybody was riding in their cars, truck and buses.

The second photo is why everybody else was on the train.

This is a cement mixer pulling a bulldozer, trying to pull a bogged semi out of the mud.

http://www.traxide.com.au/railpics/Nondo-Crossing-1972 copy.jpg

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2013/11/1239.jpg

[V8Ian]

Hi Drivesafe, that truck might still be stuck out there. :D It's terrible country in the wet season.
The semi looks like my old truck, but if the photo was taken in '75 mine hadn't been built.

[drivesafe]

Hi V8Ian and it was a road train and there is a second trailer just out of the shot.

The must have pulled the trailer off from the back and then were trying to retrieve the rest from the front.