RAIL TALES Thread, tell your rail stories here

[drivesafe]

I thought I would start a thread dedicated to any stories about rail workings and rail trips people have had.

I’ll start the thread with a trip I did in 2007 to the South Island of New Zealand and our TransAlpine train trip.

We had booked about 3 months in advance to make sure we got the trip while we were there and all was fine until 3 weeks before we were to go, we get an E-mail informing us that, owing to track work, we would be travelling by train to Arthur’s Pass and then by bus to Greymouth.

To put it in an understatement, I WAS NOT HAPPY JAN!!!!!!

I was ready to cancel the whole trip.

When we roll up to the station in Christchurch on the day, as our luggage was put in a separate carriage, I asked the corridor attendant what we were to to about our luggage when to transfer to the buses at Arthur’s Pass.

To my delight, he informs us “As the weather is so bad up at the Pass, the rail work had been cancelled and the train was going all the way to Greymouth.

Needless to say, I got heaps from my wife and daughter for all the whinging I had done.

Such is life!

Anyway her are some pictures from our trip, including the beginnings of a blizzard at Arthur’s Pass.

This is Christchurch and one spectacular rail yard backdrop!
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2014/01/157.jpg


Springfield and another great backdrop.
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2014/01/158.jpg


This is Arthur’s Pass in the beginnings of a blizzard.
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2014/01/159.jpg

[Blknight.aus]

Alex's first ride on a steam train was on the rattler,

when they had her on the turntable he was watching intently and asking questions about things and trying to name bits.

the engineer caught up and asked if we wanted to ride back on the fire plate...

he fell asleep about half way back but had a ball and tried really hard to keep awake but theres just something about the heat from a working boiler and the noise of a train on old tracks.

[Ranga]

My first day working for Qld Rail I got taught the motto, "Every day, in every way, we try to do less than yesterday" ;p

[robbotd5]

Great idea Drivesafe. Looking forward to hearing other member experiences. Your report on your NZ trip was very good. Beautiful country. Would a trip report behind a miniature train count??
Regards
Robbo

[drivesafe]

Would a trip report behind a miniature train count??

Anything to do with any form of rail enjoyment!

[sheerluck]

My only recent train journey of any note, was on the preserved narrow gauge Talyllyn Railway, in west Wales.

It's only about an hour each way, but during that time you do get thrown back to a bygone era.

Talyllyn Railway | The World's First Preserved Railway (http://www.talyllyn.co.uk/home)

[drivesafe]

I had had a great time driving trains but my greatest enjoyment was driving suburbans in Sydney.

The drivers cab was your office and you were your own boss and worked the job as your saw fit to.

For example, I was working a run back from Bondi Junction late one Sunday night and as I stopped at Kings Cross there was a knock at the platform side door.

I got up and looked through the window and saw a well dressed older gent so I opened the door.

In an American accent, he asks if I could give him directions to the QEII.

I told him to get on this train and change at Town Hall Station for a Circular Quay train.

I noticed there were just two couples, so I invited the 4 of them to ride up front. That made their day.

Anyway, I get the bell from the guard and drive off.

Kings Cross is an underground station but the line comes out on to a viaduct just after you leave the station.

As soon as we emerged from the tunnel, there was Sydney’s sky scrape all lite up.

One the visitors scrambled to get a camera.

I told him not to hurry as I brought the train to a stand and he and the others took all the photos the wanted and away we went again.

Not only made their day again, but waved the flag for Australia at the same time.

Not too many offices offer that sort of international hospitality!

[101 Ron]

About 15 years ago I was single and very much into flying gyrocopters and though of nothing of driving long distances across NSW to get to a local fly in or meet with like minded fliers.
I remember driving my 130 defender towing a trailer with my gyrocopter on the back( trailer), it was night time and late.
I had been driving many long hours .
It was tall dry grass country and I pulled off to the side of the road and drove though the grass a bit to get away from the road and any traffic noise and so I could do a poo etc.
I used to have my sleeping bag set up in the HCPU body of the defender and just crawl in and in this case it was summer and still hot, so I was nakkied.
I fell fast asleep.............until.
I don't know what time, but all hell broke loose, the ground shook badly and one hell of a noise.
I woke up and scrambled over the tailgate and onto my feet and then a mighty air horn blast.
I had the pleasure of looking back at the passengers of a local train with nothing on .
In the dark of the night I had failed to pick up the fact I had parked the Defender on the side of a railway track and the train only had a few feet of clearance to get pass.
I now check out my overnight stops a bit more carefully.
Ron

[101 Ron]

Another thing I have experienced with the flying of my little trail bike of the skies....the gyrocopter is a about 15 years ago now old steam trains from Thirlmere would from time to time do a run to Bomaderry on the south coast line.
Gyrocopters are very able and safe to fly low and slow and from the air the smoke of a steam train sticks out like a sure thumb.
All this happen on weekends and I would follow the steam trains and the rail line runs pass the local air strip I was operating from.
It was great fun following or flying along side and above the trains.
The passengers would wave to me and I would wave back.
Flying though the smoke and smelling the oily steam and coal and some times throttling off my gyrocopter and pull back my head phones for a short period of time so I could hear the loco working.
Two of the best memories is flying directly over the tender of the loco and watch the boiler doors open and shut and seeing the red glow of the fire.
The other was catching a steam loco going though the tunnels between Kiama and Gerringong and looking at it in the air out to sea with the train, tunnels cuttings , rock shelfs and cliffs as the setting.
The diesels just don't have the same look or feel about them
Ron

[drivesafe]

Good one Ron and much embarrassment or what.

I had the reverse situation happen.

Back in the 70s, I was on loan to Lithgow and on one job, I had crewed a goods train to to George's Plain, south west of Bathurst.

It was about 2 am and there was some form of stuff up and trains were delayed everywhere.

Our train was in the loop at the station and we were in the SMs office when the Indian Pacific came to a stand on the platform.

The ASM came in and told us to have a look at the train.

Just down from the office, in an unlit section of the platform, here is this solder and his girlfriend and well I will leave it to your imagination but the reason we knew he was a solder was because all he had on was his dog tags.

We withdrew quietly and left it at that, but I wonder if they ever realised they ever realised they were on a platform!

[drivesafe]

Two of the best memories is flying directly over the tender of the loco and watch the boiler doors open and shut and seeing the red glow of the fire.
The other was catching a steam loco going though the tunnels between Kiama and Gerringong and looking at it in the air out to sea with the train, tunnels cuttings , rock shelfs and cliffs as the setting.
Ron

Ron, have you ever managed to have a video camera with you while flying above the trains along the South Coast?

Something I have always wanted to see was an aerial view of trains running around either Bethungra loop and/or Boarder Loop.

[jx2mad]

Hey Ron. I was driving south and had just reached the top of the Kiama bends when this gyrocopter came screaming up almost vertically from the south and frightened the ++++ out of me as it was so low and close to the road. Could that possibly have been you scaring drivers? This was a few years back now. Jim :D:D:D

[101 Ron]

Ron, have you ever managed to have a video camera with you while flying above the trains along the South Coast?

Something I have always wanted to see was an aerial view of trains running around either Bethungra loop and/or Boarder Loop.

I have not been actively flying for 12 years now.
It would be very easy to do now with Gro Pro type cameras on gimbles.
Most of my footage is on Video and not of trains but of spins and 90 degree banking ect which is more in line of a flying nut type person would do.
Gyro copters are not the best platform for cameras due to rotor viberations.

[101 Ron]

Hey Ron. I was driving south and had just reached the top of the Kiama bends when this gyrocopter came screaming up almost vertically from the south and frightened the ++++ out of me as it was so low and close to the road. Could that possibly have been you scaring drivers? This was a few years back now. Jim :D:D:D

I never went out of my way to scare drivers ( Only people I know) as it only takes a complaint and my rego number and the feds would be at the door.
It was in my back yard and I did have a reputation for being a wild at times but most likely not me.
Below me flying near jaspers brush getting the machine flying into a irrigation ditch with just the rotors sticking out the top....good fun until I found a bit of barbed wire cross a ditch.

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2014/02/1082.jpg (http://s131.photobucket.com/user/101Ron/media/erskinepk2001002.jpg.html)
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2014/02/1083.jpg (http://s131.photobucket.com/user/101Ron/media/erskinepk2001.jpg.html)

[101 Ron]

To keep things on track.........
A friend of the family purchased a villers powered rail inspection quad.
We had to christen it.
After a little bit of research he found out the rails were still in place on the Goulburn to Crookwell line...so a weekend end was organised.
The line was put out of use in the late 1980s.
The little Villers quad worked a treat with about six people hanging off it in different places.
The successful weekend would lead to many others and my father purchasing this villers quad below.

http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p299/101Ron/ron%203/Scan0039_zpsdfcc2c63.jpg (http://s131.photobucket.com/user/101Ron/media/ron%203/Scan0039_zpsdfcc2c63.jpg.html)

It was fun playing trains and exploring old disused rail lines.
One weekend on the Captains flat line was interesting as it was in a bad way and the farmers had a bad habit of taking the rail line to make fence posts leading to the quad going bush a few times.
Another weekend was on the disused Grenfell line not far out of town.
Farmers have a bad habit of taking over the railway right of way and fencing it in which makes for interesting travelling on a open top quad.
It was a good set up.
Camp beside the line and take the quads into town.......the cars will still stop on the level crossings if they see the quad coming,
pull up at the disused railway station platform and walk across the road to the pub for dinner.
Return home much, much later at night with the glow of the 6 volt head light........the quad just finds its way home.....no need to steer and roll into bed.
The quads are interesting to operate as only one wheel is driven and power must be put down very slowly especially on a wet rail.
They will do a very good turn of speed, but the tracks limit this very much.
The chassis is made from wood as is the wheel centres.
They can be very dangerous if you have any speed on and the thing derails due to old track or dirt over the track.
They do not have the weight to push a rock or stick off the track without derailing.
Extendable wooden handles either end allow easy placement on the track and changing direction.
I don't have any really good pics of the quad adventures, but I found a interesting site.
with better pics of what I am talking about quad wise.
http://nswgrtrikes.4t.com/villiers/index.htm
Ron

[drivesafe]

There was a Trike or similar type group in Queensland some years back.

The manager of the Railway Shop, when it was located at South Brisbane station, was a member but I have no heard anything about it recently.

Anybody know anything about this group?

[wrinklearthur]

1940's film showing mostly the harvesting of timber for the Boyer News Print Mill, has some good shots of the Styx River Railway and the locomotive.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=SW4kcuUvsJk

The train to get safely down hill from the loading area down to Karanja, had to apply brakes the full distance and the workers would ride the cars applying the brakes on the way down.
.

[Bigbjorn]

When I worked at Tutts Machinery Group, they were distributors of Fairmont railway equipment. The two stroke rail cars were assembled in the dozer workshop at Salisbury and as this shop had a steel tiled floor, the cars were started and run backwards and forwards on the shop floor.

[wrinklearthur]

I was looking for Salt Bush Bill of all things and found this picture.

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2014/02/795.jpg
.

[scanfor]

That would be the Clarence River ferry at Grafton, in the days before the bridge.

[101 Ron]

Manildra here at Nowra had many years ago a small rail wagon which was powered by a forklift.
It was used for shunting other railway wagons around.
The idea is a set of ramps are lowered and the forklift drives onto the rail wagon.
One end of the wagon has a set of wheel rollers which the drive wheels of the forklift drops into.
The forklift is chained down via chain down points on the wagon and forklift.
The forklift now becomes the power plant for the wagon which has buffers on one end for shunting.
They still could have this wagon, but they now use small locos on the Nowra site.
Anyone seen what I have described in use and how well did it work.
Ron

[101 Ron]

http://railquip.thomasnet.com/viewitems/railcar-movers/ned-for-use-of-lift-trucks-ranging-from-1-5-9-tons

[101 Ron]

Forklift Propelled Rail Car Mover Railquip - YouTube

[Rurover]

I'm certainly a rail enthusiast and have enjoyed a couple of memorable steam related "adentures".

First one was to ride on the footplate of a NZ steam loco up the spectacular scenic rail line from Cairns to Kuranda. I think the loco only ran for a year or so, then was retired due to lack of patronage. Odd really, given a steam hauled tourist train should be MUCH more popular than the boring diesel hauled version... but I think it had a lot to do with the fact that QR ran he diesel service and promoted it to the tourists, but they had no incentive to help out the private steam hauled competitor of course.

BTW, I was in Cairns late last year and the steam loco is still sitting in the shed opposite the airport,together with its rolling stock. Hopefully one day it's be back in service.


The other wonderful experience was to spend a full day learning to drive a little steam loco on the Puffing Billy Railway in the Dandenongs near Melbourne. My wife bought me this so called "Footplate experience" as a 60th birthday present. Best birthday I every had!
It's not cheap, but you can cram all your family and friends into the couple of carriages behind the loco for free, so overall, the cost is not too bad.
Highly recommended, and the proceeds go toward restoring other locos on this very busy little railway.
Here's the link if you'd like to know more: puffing billy | Drive a Steam Train (http://www.puffingbilly.com.au/news-events/drive-a-steam-train/)

[drivesafe]

Well while we wait for some Tales from others, I’ll post up another from my days on the job.

It was a stinking hot Sunday afternoon and I was to do a driver change at Parramatta station.

A Red Rattle rolled up and I changed over with the driver. As I did, he told me he didn’t think the set was running all that well.

By this time, it was not unusual for the old Red Rattlers to be down on power but because of where this set was heading, if there was a problem and a set was not working at it best, so this is the reason the driver indicated the old set was not running all that well.

The train was an all stations to Burwood then express to Redfern and then all stations to Hornsby and this meant going over the Harbour bridge.

The grade from Wynyard to the crest of the Harbour bridge is the steepest main line in Australia and trains have to be running properly or there can be so major disruptions to time tables all over the suburban network if a train fails on this particular section of track.

If you do fail on the grade, the only thing they can do is empty all the passengers out of the next train behind you and then get it to push you over the bridge, but this is a long and involved procedure.

anyway, I drove the to Redfern and was not impressed with it’s performance.

This is before they had radios and at Redfern, under each of the steps at the Northern end of each platform is an emergency phone.

This phone is a direct line to DEFECTS. Defects is the section that is responsible for repairing or replacing trains in service if they have some form of failure.

The reason for the emergency phones at Redfern was to allow defects to “TRANSPOSE” a faulty train with a good one at Central.

How this works, if you have a defective train bound for Hornsby, you contact Defects when you get to Redfern and they organise to run your train across into platform 17 at Central. This is the City Circle line.

They then route the next City Circle train into platform 16, the North Shore line.

When both trains are on the platform, passengers are asked to charge trains and the GOOD train now operates to Hornsby and the faulty train is worked around the City Circle and out of service.

When I get to Redfern I ring Defects but they have a problem elsewhere in the network and there is no replacement train available for some time.

They ask me whether I think the train will make the grade up to the bridge. I told them I wasn’t sure one way or the other. So they suggested I run through the Wynyard and they would have someone waiting at the end of the platform.

If the train was not up to it, they would then empty my train and I would work it a little over 8 cars ( railway carriages ) into the tunnel and just clear of an emergency crossover on the northern side of Wynyard station.

I could then change ends and work back to the opposite line over the emergency crossover and then out of service.

As mine was the first train for some time, I had picked up a good few extra passengers at Central, Town hall and all those waiting at Wynyard and there was someone waiting for me at the end of the platform at Wynyard.

I told the guy I reckoned I should be OK.

I got the right-of-way from the guard and powered out of the platform.

The tracks do an immediate rise at the end of the platform but the train kept accelerating and all seemed fine.

But not for long.

By the time I had the the whole train in the tunnel and on the grade, the train was no longer accelerating and was starting to loose speed and as I was now beyond the point of no return, all I could do was keep going.

It’s normally a 3 minute run from Wynyard to Milsons Point ( on the other side of the bridge )

It took more than 10 minutes before the train emerged from the tunnel and on to the bridge’s southern approach and the train was just getting slower.

As I posted above, it was a stinking hot afternoon, so I had the driver’s side door open to try to get some breeze through the cab.

As I approached the southern pylon, a guy on a push bike cycled passed me, going in the same direction. With a smile on his face he gave a wave and I waved back.

As the tracks pass through the pylon, the grade progressively eases as you go over the main arch of the bridge.

The Red Rattler slowly starts to accelerate and I catch up to the cyclist, and as I SLOWLY overtake him, I shouted out to him ”My turn” and the next thing I hear is passengers clapping in the carriage behind me.

Much embarrassment!

Needless to say, they blow the train out at North Sydney.

[Tote]

As an apprentice radio mechanic with the NSW Govt in the early eighties in Orange NSW I rapidly became familiar with the NSWGR. One week in three I would depart Orange at 07:30 on a 620 rail motor to Lithgow where I would catch the interurban to Sydney, change at Strathfield and catch the Flyer to Newcastle. A whole day of sitting on my bum enjoying the ambiance of NSW railways at their best.
The return trip was to catch the flyer from Newcastle at about 16:00 ( which meant that I never finished Thursday afternoon prac at tech ) get into Sydney at about 18:00 and go exploring until I caught the Western Mail home at 10:25.
Being a government Apprentice I was entitled to a sleeper berth on the way home so I would retire to the comfort of my TAM or occasionally BAM or EAM sleeper to be gently awakened at Orange at 04:30 with a cuppa and a milk arrowroot ( sometimes.......)
One night I received grateful thanks from the conductor who I woke up as we were coming in through Spring Hill, on another occasion I got to use some choice words to the Orange Station Master who chastised me for crossing the tracks. My reply was that I wouldn't be walking across the tracks to the platform if I hadn't had to jump from a moving train being shunted to East Fork to continue to Parkes!
I had a mate that was working his way up in the station staff hierarchy at the same time, he made the dizzying height of Station Master at Nashdale before he decided his career was not going anywhere. Nashdale was a shed and crossing loop 10 KM west of Orange on the line to Parkes. He was seeing a couple of trains a day and handing the staff to them in between entertaining girlfriends and shooting rats in the long drop.
All in all I had a great time discovering the delights of Sydney on Thursday evenings with excursions to Bondi Junction, Manly, walking across the Harbour Bridge, exploring George and Pitt Streets etc. All pretty adventurous stuff for a 16 - 18 year old country boy. Sydney has certainly changed in the last 20 years. It was in this time frame that they replaced the big destination board at Central with CRT displays, forever changing the atmosphere at Central, mail trains are no more, the Sydney street scape has changed beyond recognition. I feel privileged to have experienced the last hurrah of country rail.

Regards,
Tote

[drivesafe]

Well it’s too quite in Rail Tales so here is how one of my trips went, back in the mid seventies.

A bit of background info first.

As a fireman, unless you was teamed up with a driver on the Top Roster, you would be the Pencil Roster ( meaning it could be changed as required.

You would normally sign on with a deferent driver each shift, but I was rostered with a young driver a couple of times and we were assigned as a permanent crew.

As mentioned my driver was a young block, with a young family, so he was pretty money hungry and so was I as had cameras and a car to support. You will understand what I’m on about shortly!

About half the jobs on the Pencil Roaster were just that. They would be pencilled in as they were needed, but about half were regular runs, including quite a few Barracks jobs.

We signed on one afternoon for one of the regular barracks jobs and one we both disliked because it was two short shifts ( low paying jobs ). One going to barracks, in Goulburn and another short shift coming back.

After signing on, we walked up to Enfield North Box and relived a crew on a High Wheeler ( express goods train ) and the train was ready to go.

We pretty well got the road straight after changing over, and a few hours later, we were in Goulburn. Signed off and when to barracks. A little over 4 hours from sign on to sign off.

Around 12.30 AM we get the wakeup call and walk down to Goulburn Loco Depot, Sign on and prep our two locos.

The train we are working ran every night and was made up of empty fuel tankers and full milk pots. But the train also has another chore and that is to deliver one of the two locos to Moss Vale, to be used to haul the morning passenger train from Moss Vale to Central. The front loco is left at Moss Vale.

We have a 44 class and a 422 and are told to point 422 in the lead.

The 422 being the better loco to work on, the driver asked if we could have the 44 lead for the short run to Moss Vale.

No chance, the Eveleigh ( Redfern ) crew has the pick of the two, and we have the 44. But this will ultimately turn out to be a good thing.

We prep the two locos, couple to and prep the train and off we go and it’s my turn to drive.

As we leave the yard I switch the headlight on.

About 10km north of Goulburn a train approaches from the opposite direction, but I can’t turn the headlight switch off. The switch on the Control stand is stuffed.

Luckily there is a master switch in the switch panel behind us.

I try to fix the headlight switch on the control stand but give up and it’s a pain getting up every time I want to turn the headlight on and off, so we just run lights out to Moss Vale.

At Moss Vale, we detach the lead engine and run it on to the engine road.

The rules are, we shut the motor down and lock the loco. But especially in the cold of winter, which it was, crews always leave the motor running and the cab heaters on.

Not us, we were not pleased with the loco assignment, so we shut the motor down and left all the doors and windows open.

With our good deed done, off we go.

It’s normally a straight through run from there to Campbelltown, but as we approach Picton, the distance and home signals are at Caution, so I slowed the train down to a crawl and as Picton station came into view, the signalman is on the platform waving us down.

When we stop, he comes over and tells us that a crew on a Down ( south bound ) train had noticed a “Hole in the road” on the up line, about 2 kms south of Douglas Park station.

A “Hole in the road” usually means one rail has a slight dip in it.

He didn’t know the extent of the “Hole” so he was giving us a Track Warning Notice with a 20 KPH speed limit.

He told us to just judge the speed when we get to the “Hole”.

We set out and as we get close where the “Hole” is supposed to be, I reduce the train speed down to around 30 KPH and we crawl along through a light fog.

Holy crap, I just see the HOLE with enough time to reduce the train speed down to under 10 KPH.

As we go over the HOLE, we hear and feel a grinding noise. It was the traction motors ( large electric motors fixed around each axle on the loco ) scraping over the gravel ballast.

Thank goodness we ended up with the 44 and a working headlight, because we would never have seen that hole till we HIT it, and even at 20 kph, I think it might have been enough to derail the 44.

The 44 cleared the hole and I opened the throttle a couple of notches, to keep rest of the train rolling slowly over the hole.

Once we cleared the hole, we were now heading up a short climb so I progressively notch up the throttle, BUT, the train is getting slower and slower.

I opened the throttle up to 8 notch ( full throttle ) and the engine is running full bore, but we simply rolled to a stand.

The driver and I checked what we could and tried a number of times and although the engine throttled up, the indication on the load meter was no more then a small amount of current was being produced. Certainly not enough to lift the train up the hill.

About 200 “YARDS” up the hill, there was a signal on the other track ( with a telephone connected to Picton ).

No Radios on trains back then ( and no mobile phones either ).

I tell the signalman we have come to a stand because of a faulty loco and he tells me he has a high wheel sitting on the platform so he will stable the train where it is and send the two locos to push us over the hill.

It’s pretty well down hill nearly all the way to Campbelltown so once over the hill we should be OK.

I told the signalman that there was a bit of fog around so I would get some detonators from the loco and place them a good braking distance behind the back of the train.

I got the detonators and walked to the guards van and told the guard the loco had failed and they had a couple of locos coming to push us over the hill.

He tells me he doesn't think anything was going to be pushing us anywhere soon and he shines his torch on the hole.

The back of the train had just cleared the hole and as the train went over the hole, the bank had collapsed under the track and there was 5 to 10 metres of rail and sleeps sitting mid air.

I walked back about a “MILE” and put down 3 dets and waited for the locos to turn up.

When the locos arrived I told the driver about the hole and he crawled forward till he could see it and that was that. No help available.

The proverbial was well and truly about to hit the fan.

Because the signalman tried to get the problem sorted in the shortest possible time by securing the High Wheel on the main, he now had the problem that he had Picton station blocked.

The only fix was to get the next train behind the high wheel, ( which there were quite a few by now ) to come down on to the back of it and push it into the Relief Siding, which would then clear the mainline, but remember, this is in the days before radios and mobile phones, so this all took time, lots of it.

Add to this that because the the Main South Up line was blocked at the hole, “Single Line Working” had to be introduced on the Main South Down line and again, this would take a few hours to set up.

Then they also had to get a track crews out to fix the hole.

Because the driver and I were going to be on for more than 8 hours ( so much for us whinging about short shifts ) we were required, by the operation rules, to notify Control, that we were likely to be operating a train beyond the safe time limit, Control would then need to organise a relief crew for us.

The fireman off the relief locos did the same.

Anyway, we were stranded and we stuffed up the running for a hell of a lot of trains.

We ended up delaying, north bound, the Southern Aurora, the Spirit of Progress, and the Morning Moss Vale train.

And south bound, we delayed the down Canberra Monaro, the Intercapital Daylight Express, the Riverina Express and a string of goods trains in both directions.

Funny thing too, as the Morning Moss Vale train went passed, all we could see was a fist being waved at us from the driver’s window.

During the morning, the Goulburn crew on the relief locos got a changeover crew but no changeover crew for us?

The Track Maintenance gang temporarily rebuilt the bank under the tracks and then held it in place with a bulldozer, allowing the two relief locos to come up behind the train and we were pushed over the hill.

From Douglas Park to Enfield yard is an easy run so we were finally were on our way home.

As we came came into Campbelltown, the signal at the Sydney end of the platform was “All On” ( at stop ) so my drive told me to pull up along side the Station Master’s office and we could find out about out change over crew.

I went in to the office and rang Delec roster clark. Delec was the Diesel and electric depot at Enfield.

I was told they didn’t know we needed to be relived?

When I finished with the phone call, the Station Master told me the signal box wanted to talk to me so I rang the box.

The signalman told me he was going to give us the SHUNT AHEAD signal and we were to pull ahead to clear the points at the southern end of the platform and Control wanted us to back into the yard and wait for relief to come out.

As they had only just found out we needed a changeover, it would be about 2 hours before a crew could get out to Campbelltown.

My mate was going to go ballistic when I told him what they wanted. And he did!

He bolted into the Station Master’s office and got onto the signalman.

He told him that at 10 hours on, we could demand a relief crew, at 11 hours on, we could tie any train up where it was and walk off it, and as we had now been on duty for 12.5 hours, he ( the signalman ) had two options.

We could tie the train up where it was, on the Main Up, and wait on the platform for our relief to arrive.

Or he and Control could give up the road and we would go non stop to Enfield yard, and that was as long as we did not see one single signal at Caution, because if we do, thats where the train stops.

We both went back into the loco cab and waited.

Didn’t take long.

The Station Master come over to the cab and told us they we going to give us the road, BUT, they had a backlog of trains trying to get into Enfield yard so they were going to run us into the Sale Yards.

The Sale Yards were where Olympic Park now stands, but we would only be about 10 to 15 minutes from Delec by Call Truck ( the railways internal taxi service ).

We got the road and went straight through to the Sale Yards, where a crew was waiting for us.

By the time we charged over, we had been on duty, at the throttle, for a little more thirteen and a half hours. The longest time I ever spent driving.

So much for our crappy 5 hour shift!! :D

The driver put in an Engine Failure Report and the next day, when I went to sign on, there was our 44 class in the LOAD BOX.

The Load Box is a shed where they disconnect the cables going to each of the 6 traction motors from the generator and they connect up these huge cables which run, via LOAD meters, then outside the shed to what can only be call the biggest kettle you have ever seen.

They run the motor for hours, testing the current output and burning off the amps in the kettle.

We never heard a thing about the failure, which meant they didn’t think we did anything wrong, but they couldn’t find a fault.

Then about 3 months later, again. as I was signing on, here is the 44 back in the Load box. It had failed again.

I never did hear what the fault was.

[Fatso]

Working out of Enfield In the 60.s never go sick on 365 south , usualy a 36 class (pig) steam loco , was the worst job on the roster, a bloody long labour intensif shift shunting everything between enfield and Goulburn . Why ??? if you went sick on this job and when you booked back on for your next job the roster clerk had you booked on 365 South . Lol . Needles to say you gritted your teeth and did it .

[Fatso]

When I was an acting fireman at enfield loco sheds some times we got to work in the shunt yard at enfield is someone went sick , usualy they had 54 class steam loco,s in the yard , there was an older driver Bulldog Drummond permanently rostered there for light duties he would let you do the driving and fire the loco on night shift while he slept on the cab floor using the toolbox as a pillow . This old guy was as hard as nails , there was a story when on his mainline days that when the steam compressor stopped old bulldog got out on the side of the loco on the walk way that ran along side the boiler and whack the steam chest with a coal pic to get it going again , this was on a 38 class loco going full pelt on a high wheel job .

[drivesafe]

Hi Fatso, I had a sort of similar situation, but my driver was nothing like Bulldog.

It was either my third or fourth job as an Acting Fireman.

I signed on at 6 AM at Darling Harbour yard and waited for the driver to sign on.

He too was permanently rostered to Darling Harbour, but I’m not sure it was for light duties.

About 6.30 the head shunter comes in and tells me we have some work to do.

I tell him the driver hasn’t turned up yet.

He tells me the driver has been there all night, in locker room, drunk as a skunk and leg less.

The shunter tells me I’ll be doing the driving and I inform him I’m fresh out of the acting fireman’s school and have no idea how to drive a steam engine.

He just tells me not to worry, he would teach me and by the end of the shift, he had. ( if you don’t count a number of miss shunts ).

It was a 19 class and somewhere I still have a photo of it, and the “driver”, on a sober day.

It was a very different job back then!

[PhilipA]

I guess nothing like your stories but mine was a Yangon to Mandalay and return trip I did in about 1989.
I was Trade Commissioner in Bangkok and responsible for Myanmah so had to visit Mandalay to see what was happening.
My wife was Community Liaison officer in Bangkok and also responsible for Embassy staff in Yangon.


We travelled by train as Air Myanmah had lost 4 Fokker Fellowships in the previous year and one had gone down with an Embassy staff family killed.
In Myanmah they had at that time Alsthom diesels given by France but quite old rolling stock , with still lots of 4 wheel freight carriages.


They had one sleeper which they assigned to me and wife. It was a 4 berth cabin and 2 secret police took the other berths and stared at us all night.
They had no ballast machines in Myanmah at that time and all ballast was made by prisoners with sledge hammers, so they were always short , and the tracks were in terrible condition, so the train usually travelled at about 20MPH.
More on this later, but the country was so poor that people used to steal the grease from the wheel boxes of the carriages, and there were no signals outside Yangon as all the copper wire was stolen. The carriages also had old style couplings with just a big pin through double flanges on each carriage.




On our trip North a Samosa seller had died as he ran along the top of the train as he missed seeing but not hitting a low bridge. They were a sight to see as they jumped off the accelerating train down the embankment holding a Samosa tray aloft while running through all the washing on the embankment.


We got to Mandalay in the regulation 12 hours and I did my visits and we got the train back to Yangon 2 days later.


About half way there the train started to go slower and slower and we pulled into a siding. It turned out the bearing boxes of one carriage were dry and the axle seized, so the rail staff had to disengage the carriage.


They pounded away for several hours with a sledge before the coupling parted.


So away we went again. We arrived in the station near Pagan at about 4 oclock in the morning and the station was jumping with samosa sellers and tea vendors on the platform.


Over the PA was playing loudly " I feel a Bad Moon arising" from American Werewolf in London at about 105Db.


Whenever I hear that song I think of the oddest train journey I have ever had.
Regards Philip A

[JDNSW]

I made a numbr of trips to Myanmar in that time frame, although I never travelled by train.

John

[Fatso]

Hi Fatso, I had a sort of similar situation, but my driver was nothing like Bulldog.

It was either my third or fourth job as an Acting Fireman.

I signed on at 6 AM at Darling Harbour yard and waited for the driver to sign on.

He too was permanently rostered to Darling Harbour, but I’m not sure it was for light duties.

About 6.30 the head shunter comes in and tells me we have some work to do.

I tell him the driver hasn’t turned up yet.

He tells me the driver has been there all night, in locker room, drunk as a skunk and leg less.

The shunter tells me I’ll be doing the driving and I inform him I’m fresh out of the acting fireman’s school and have no idea how to drive a steam engine.

He just tells me not to worry, he would teach me and by the end of the shift, he had. ( if you don’t count a number of miss shunts ).

It was a 19 class and somewhere I still have a photo of it, and the “driver”, on a sober day.

It was a very different job back then!


I got caught out at darling harbour , when rostered there on paydays we used to take turns to jump a train and shute over to enfield to collect our pay ( In cash in those days ) , my driver went over and got his and I then jumped on a Glenlea coal train with a garret on the front , as my driver was shunting back and forwards past the garret he was waiving at me to come back to the shunt loco , I could not work out what the problem was until the third bloke on the garret said that I had better do what my driver was asking !!!, on arriving back on my loco ****ed off that I was not going to get my pay he informed me the third bloke on the garrett was an inspector doing a pass out for the fireman , Uh Oh, nothing was ever said and no bungs ever appeared . needless to say I learnt my lesson .

[drivesafe]

nothing was ever said and no bungs ever appeared.

Hi again Fatso, yep as I posted, it was a different job back then!

My best mate has just retired 6 weeks ago, after 40 years on the job as an electrician, working on electric trains in Sydney.

He was so disgusted with the way things now are, he told me he would not miss a thing about the job.

As you posted, you got away with your discretion, and back then, everybody covered everybody else’s back.

Today, if you know another employee is doing something wrong, and you don’t report it, and it’s found out that you knew, you get in just as much trouble as the person who was doing wrong gets.

What a great way to build company loyalty???

And it’s no wonder with half the big wigs being ex Quantas bosses.

I only ever had one run-in with a big wig and that was when I was a driver in Elec Train Running ( ETR ).

My home depot was Mortdale but I often did Foreign jobs at other depots.

I was doing an early morning Campbelltown job and the last section of the shift was to prep and work an early morning peak period express run from Campbelltown to Central.

After leaving Lidcome, my next stop was Strathfield, but as I approached Flemington Car sheds, I could see two drivers waiting at the “Rose Garden”.

This is a regular set down and pickup point for staff at Flemington car sheds.

I pulled up and picked up the two drivers and then proceeded to Strathfield.

One of the drivers asked me was the Run Such n such, which it was.

He asks “Aren't you a Campbelltown driver”, and when I told him I wasn’t, he tells me “Oh stuff it, you never stop at the Rose Gardens on this run, because the Deputy Commissioner catches this train to work, and he hates drivers stopping at the Rose Gardens. You can expect to get a wrap over the knuckles for stopping”

The two drivers go off at Stathfield and I drove on to Central.

This run terminates at Central on the Country and Interstate platforms.

As I pulled up at the end of the platform, there are two Loco Inspectors waiting for me.

One I knew, but not the other and this guy howls into me.

“You have been a driver long enough to know how dangerous it is to stop at places like the Rose Gardens.”

He gave me heaps and this was REALLY unusual for Loco inspector on the ETR to talk to drivers like that.

He went on like this for a few minutes when the other inspector interrupts.

“He just went down the escalators”

With that the first inspector tells me to forget what he had being saying and that I would not hear another thing about it, but he had to put on an act for the “Bars##d, just remember not to stop there if you do this run again.

What got me was, this was before mobile phones, so I have no idea how the creep managed to have the inspectors waiting for me, when the train got to Central?

[d2dave]

A great experience I had back in 2010. We went to Tassie for our 25th anniversary. We booked a trip from Straun in a six wheel drive six door Defender that had a glass roof and was fitted with railway wheels.

One week before we were due to leave we got a phone call telling us that the vehicle had broken down and that they had to cancel our trip.

For compensation they offered us the train trip in first class and upped our level of accommodation at Straun.

We were not disappointed as the train trip was fantastic, as was our accommodation.

Parts of this rail line was in such steep terrain the only way they could get a train up was to put ratchet system in the middle of the tracks as shown below.

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2014/11/879.jpg

The next pic shows the track at the top of the climb. In the back ground you can see the track just disappear.

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2014/11/880.jpg



https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2014/11/881.jpg

This was a train trip that was very enjoyable and would love to do it again.

[Fatso]

Drive safe , The reason bulldog was called bulldog was that he fell off a moving loco near seven hills I believe into a creek , on the way down he got his face mangled which left him with a bulldog sort of a look bit like John Gorton . He was a bit of a legend in the 60,s , nice old bloke .


Where were the coal trains trains dumped ?? White Bay or Darling Harbour I think I get them mixed up . Al

[drivesafe]

Hi Fatso, and Coal trains went to White Bay.

What I meant was Bulldog was a driver you didn’t mind working with, whereas my driver at Daring Harbour was a driver I could happily never worked with.

But then again, back then, drunks on the job were still commonplace.

[d2dave]

Seeing a few enjoyed my pics I have done some more.

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2014/11/674.jpg

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2014/11/675.jpg

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2014/11/676.jpg

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2014/11/677.jpg

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2014/11/678.jpg

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2014/11/679.jpg

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2014/11/680.jpg

[d2dave]

This thread prompted me to have a look at the trains history. It saddens me to find out that it has only recently closed, with parts recently reopened and work trying to do the rest.

It was only reopened in 2002 after federal funds of over 20 mil were kicked in.
(sounds a bit like Holden and Ford)

It was 2010 when we did it. I really hope this reopens as I do want to do it again.

Have a read.
West Coast Wilderness Railway - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Coast_Wilderness_Railway)

[drivesafe]

Hi Dave and thanks and if you have more pictures, don't stop now.

This is why I started this thread, for railway stories of ANY kind.

[d2dave]

Hi Dave and thanks and if you have more pictures, don't stop now.


You might regret saying this:D

[JDNSW]

In March 1963 I was working on a field crew south of Torrens Ck in Qld. We had been trying to work through the wet, more or less successfully, so far. And it started raining, actually while we were moving camp, thankfully into some shearer's quarters that were up off the ground. And rained, and rained, and rained. The water came up, until we were surrounded by water, and all the heavy vehicles gradually sank into the ground until the axles rested on the ground.

Eventually the water went down and I drove into Torrens Ck in the Series 1 to get out to the world. However, at Torrens Ck, the brand new road bridge's approaches had been washed out, so the road was going to be closed for a long time. I tried to use the old low level crossing, but it had been washed out as well.

So I arranged to put the Landrover on a train, and we (my boss and myself) travelled in the same mixed train. The next place towards Charters Towers we could unload the Landrover was Balfe's Ck, eighty miles (130km) away. Just a quick trip, right? It took twelve hours! I think on a couple of occasions we may have got up to 50kph, but the main reason for the time taken was the amount of time spent stopped, usually in the middle of nowhere, for no apparent reason.

John

[Bigbjorn]

In March 1963 I was working on a field crew south of Torrens Ck in Qld. We had been trying to work through the wet, more or less successfully, so far. And it started raining, actually while we were moving camp, thankfully into some shearer's quarters that were up off the ground. And rained, and rained, and rained. The water came up, until we were surrounded by water, and all the heavy vehicles gradually sank into the ground until the axles rested on the ground.

Eventually the water went down and I drove into Torrens Ck in the Series 1 to get out to the world. However, at Torrens Ck, the brand new road bridge's approaches had been washed out, so the road was going to be closed for a long time. I tried to use the old low level crossing, but it had been washed out as well.

So I arranged to put the Landrover on a train, and we (my boss and myself) travelled in the same mixed train. The next place towards Charters Towers we could unload the Landrover was Balfe's Ck, eighty miles (130km) away. Just a quick trip, right? It took twelve hours! I think on a couple of occasions we may have got up to 50kph, but the main reason for the time taken was the amount of time spent stopped, usually in the middle of nowhere, for no apparent reason.

John

JD, about then I did a couple of seasonal stints for a firm that recorded the performance of sugar mills for the Qld. government who owned the sugar crop. I was the fitter and my leader was an instrumentation engineer, "old" Nick (He must have been at least 50 so was "old" to a 21-22 year old). We used to travel north from Roma Street on the Northern Mail and change trains at Rockhampton. This leg of the trip took 20 hours to go approx. 400 miles all being well. Old Nick used to arrive at the train full to the gills and swigged rum until he passed out and slept the night away.

Around that time a mate was an engine cleaner and fireman on the Miles-Wandoan branch line. He told me the track was in such poor shape that much of it had a speed limit of 20 mph. Old worn out locos and rolling stock were used on these backblocks branches and he reckoned 20 mph was a pipe dream.

[Fatso]

When I was a cleaner/trainee engineman at the steam loco sheds at Enfield NSW we had a head cleaner called Kell , he was a true gentleman who was always looking for his glasses which were securely pushed up on top of his head .
Kell was always with the jokes and creating funny situations so we decided the get back at him , we filled a boiler suit up with waste and rags and hung it by the neck in the rafters in 3 shed where the Garrets were serviced and ran down to his office and told him that someone had hanged themselves in 3 shed , well didn't this create a **** storm and nearly put old Kell in hospital , after a session in the charge mans office and a severe shellacking we decided to cool it for a while .
Needless to say not much real work ever got done in those days .

[drivesafe]

Good one Fatso.

It can remember a few stunts over the years.

One was a stunt another driver pulled on a Central suburban platform.

There use to be and probably still is a Braille School for the Blind over on Broadway.

The students would often come up on to the platforms at the western end of Central.

One afternoon, a driver was waiting to do a change-over, when he saw a mate coming from the school.

He and his blind mate were chatting away when the driver's train came in.

The driver asked his mate could he borrow his dark glasses and cane to play a stunt on the other driver.

When the train stopped, he tapped his way over to the driver's compartment.

Well the other driver had a good laugh but one hell of a lot of passengers did not "see" the funny side of his stunt and he got into a truck load of trouble.

[p38arover]

After I took redundancy from Telstra in 2002, I joined NSW railways as a trainee signaller, then after qualifying, a fully fledged signaller. As a signaller one comes across some odd situations.

Running trains would be great if it weren't for bloody passengers!

I remember a bogan westie getting off a city-bound train (limited stops) at Penrith to have a cigarette. When the train departed with her on the platform, she screamed blue murder because she'd left her child in a pram on the train.


Passengers defecating in carriages and smearing it on the seats and walls was a good way to get the train taken out of service and inconveniencing others.

One night, I had a call from Operations asking me to hold a train until the police arrived. A passenger had reported another passenger had a gun. I duly called the driver and told him why he wasn't getting a green.

The police arrived and sought out the armed passenger. It was a train guard (conductor), in uniform, who had a Leatherman in a pouch. Gaahhh!

Another night, a passenger alighted swearing and abusing the staff and the guard because he hadn't heard the station arrival announcement. I didn't wonder, he had earbuds in and was listening to music so loudly I could hear it .

[drivesafe]

One night, I had a call from Operations asking me to hold a train until the police arrived. A passenger had reported another passenger had a gun.

Hi Ron and I had a situation like this.

One Sunday afternoon, I had just driven my train into Bondi Junction and was securing the train so I could change ends and run back to the city.

A passenger came to me in the cab and told me there was a youth with a pistol in a shoulder holster, and he had just got on the train at the other end.

I went up the escalators at my end of the station and told one of the station staff what the passenger had told me.

He rang the police and they would have been there in less than two minutes.

The officer in charge asked where the guy was and told him he was in the carriage directly opposite the escalators at the other end of the train.

So the police went down the escalators at my end of the station and walked down to where they could see inside the carriage.

Next thing the officer in charge walked straight into the carriage and the other two officers then followed him.

A minute or so later, the two officers walked an 18 to 20 year old youth off the train in hand cuffs.

The youth had a short sleeved tee shirt on and a shoulder holster over the tee shirt.

The officer in charge walked back to me with the pistol in his hand.

He told me it was a water pistol and I apologies for calling them in.

The officer told me I did the right thing because the idiot could quite easily have got himself shot.

I don't know know what happened to the idiot but we were about 15 minutes late thanks to this half-wit.

[Fatso]

Remember working steam on the old Carlo line and some little smart arses used to try and drop bottles down the funnel when going under the Rd bridge , Bit of green coal under the door , screw forward and a tweek on the regulator would spin the drivers and blow a **** load of cinders up their shorts leg , come out the other side to see these little darlings jumping up and down . Makes your day , probably get charged with assault or something to-day .

[Debacle]

After I took redundancy from Telstra in 2002, I joined NSW railways as a trainee signaller, then after qualifying, a fully fledged signaller. As a signaller one comes across some odd situations.

Running trains would be great if it weren't for bloody passengers!

I remember a bogan westie getting off a city-bound train (limited stops) at Penrith to have a cigarette. When the train departed with her on the platform, she screamed blue murder because she'd left her child in a pram on the train.


Passengers defecating in carriages and smearing it on the seats and walls was a good way to get the train taken out of service and inconveniencing others.

One night, I had a call from Operations asking me to hold a train until the police arrived. A passenger had reported another passenger had a gun. I duly called the driver and told him why he wasn't getting a green.

The police arrived and sought out the armed passenger. It was a train guard (conductor), in uniform, who had a Leatherman in a pouch. Gaahhh!

Another night, a passenger alighted swearing and abusing the staff and the guard because he hadn't heard the station arrival announcement. I didn't wonder, he had earbuds in and was listening to music so loudly I could hear it .

Ron, that sort of stuff happens up here a fair bit too.

My favourite is when you have to do a fresh turnout for a train or terminate for some reason, you go through the train to check everyone is off. I always make lots of announcements to make sure everyone knows the deal.

There is always someone sitting there in the empty train and when you explain it to them they go off their nut and say why didn't anyone tell us.

Look around at the empty train and look back to them and say "how do you think the other 200 people figured it out, mental telepathy maybe".

It's hard not to be sarcastic sometimes.

[Old Firey]

Based at Goulburn on the Main South Line, my driver and I signed on for a wheat special bound for Sydney.These trains normally were made up of 50 tonne wagons, up to 40 carriages long, 2000ton capacity, maximum speed 80klms (50mph). After going into a loop at Moss Vale to allow the Sydney bound Riverina Express through, we're back on the main line again free wheeling down a slight grade from Bowral on approach to Mittagong station.Going through Mittagong platform the 'air' suddenly went which meant a emergency brake application.

When we finally ground to a stop we leaned out the drivers side door and could see that one of the wheat hoppers had derailed,but could not see any further due to a massive cloud of dust enveloping the station platform.Sensing a major derailment I grabbed a can of detonators and headed up the line to protect the 'down' line in case there was a train coming in the opposite direction.By the time I reached The outer down home signal I noticed it was at stop.Got on the phone to Mittagong signal box and was told by the signalman that both lines were blocked. At least ten or more wheat wagons were spread across both tracks and over both platforms.

When I got back, my driver suggested I go down and have a look.It was an utter shambles, wagons overturned, tonnes of wheat everywhere, people running around like headless chooks.Speaking to the signalman, he said was the most terrifying moment of his life, seeing it all unfold before him, bits of rail ballast coming down onto the signal box roof,the noise of the wagons going over like a massive explosion.

Back at the lead loco we just sat there taking it all in when about an hour later a 'grey dust coat' climbed aboard, took out a set of keys and removed the recorder tape from behind the speedo.Didn't say boo or anything just went back to the second loco and did the same thing and disappeared.

The 10 hour 59 mins maximum work period (1971) was rapidly drawing to expiry, before the decision was made for us to continue.Finally relieved by another crew at Campbelltown. we continued onto Delec to sign off.In doing so we were advised that the District Loco Engineer wanted to see us the following morning.After a patchy rest period we fronted up and were invited to view the results of the speed tape examination of our two locos.The speed tape on the lead loco had run out prior to our departure from Goulburn.Lucky for us the second loco tape indicated a speed of 77.2 klms per hr.(48mph) at the time of derailment.Back then exceeding departmental speed limits were just about hanging offences.

The end result was the main south line was closed for four days whilst they removed all the damaged wagons and repaired the track.All passenger services had detour via the Illawarra line and up through Robertson to Moss Vale.Interstate freight had to run over the Blue Mountains through Bathurst and down to Cootamundra to connect further south.And the cause of the derailment. A bad patch of per way on the edge of Mittagong Station caused one of the wagons to derail, spearing it into the edge of the platform, then jackknifing across both tracks causing the pileup of wagons behind it. The end amount was close on Two Million dollars which was a big amount back in the early seventies.

[drivesafe]

What a small world!

In 1971, I was working in the shed at ACDEPT Eveleigh ( Redfern ) when a mate told me of a major derailment at Mittagong, that had closed the Main Southern line and all passenger trains were being diverted via Unanderra and Moss Vale.

So that evening, I stayed back at the depot till the Southern Aurora crew signed on.

I asked if I could get a cab ride to Goulburn as the train was going via Wollongong.

So I rode the Aurora to Goulburn and then got a cab ride back, on the Sydney bound mail.

The mail was originally going via Unanderra, but we were held at Moss Vale for a while and then rerouted via Mittagong, and would be the first train over the single line section put in place at Mittagong.

It was just breaking dawn as we passed through Mittagong and there was wheat everywhere.

I managed to get some photos of the mess and while not to clear, it was still too dark, but if I can find them, I’ll post them up.

[Tote]

When I was doing my electronics apprenticeship at Orange in 1982 at the then NSW Government Stores Department we were educated at Newcastle TAFE, this being the only TAFE that ran electronics trades as block release program. My TAFE weeks would start at 07:30 on Monday morning with a departure from Orange Station usually on a 620/720 railcar to Lithgow, although there was at least one occasion when it was replaced by a tin hare. Change at Lithgow for an interurban, then change at Strathfield to catch the early flyer unless I was running late in which case it was into Central to await the next one. I'd usually get into Newcastle around 16:00 and take a bus out to the Sunset Motel in Mayfield where we government apprentices would subsidise the private guys accommodation and they would pay us back in beer, there was a room in the back corner of the Motel that had six beds that we consistently booked for 3 years.

The return trip was another exercise in adventure for a 16 year old lad with the Flyer departing at about 15:50 which we convinced the TAFE teacher that we needed to depart at afternoon tea time on Thursday to catch. There was usually an apprentice from Wagga and myself on the way back to Sydney where he would catch the Southern Aurora back to Wagga at about 19:00 and I would catch the Western Mail at 22:20, usually after a few hours exploring Sydney on the rail network to kill time. Some favorite destinations were Bondi Junction shopping Centre, Circular Quay, Burwood Shopping Centre or just wandering around the shops in Pitt and George sreett in the city. Once on board the Western Mail it was a "luxurious" sleeping berth, mostly often in a TAM but occasionally we would get a BAM or an EAM. In winter the trip over the mountains was pretty cold and on one occasion I remember it being too cold to have my head outside the sheets. A bit of a bump and a thud in Lithgow as they took the electric locos off and put a 44 class on the front with an arrival in Orange at 04:00, picking up my ute which my parents had dropped off at the station the previous afternoon (they only came and picked me up at that unsociable hour once if I recall) and a drive home to Molong with a couple of hours sleep before going back to work in the morning. The privilege of a sleeper meant I was expected to show up on Friday for work.

All these adventures were organised by visiting the railway station with a travel warrant (in triplicate if I recall correctly) signed by the officer in charge at Government Stores where I was then issued with the appropriate tickets to allow my travel. There were a couple of times where I had to jump from a moving train being shunted towards East Fork and on to Parkes when the conductor forgot to wake me up. Towards the end there was no cup of tea and ration of plain Arnotts biscuits when I was woken up either due to budget cuts.

I reckon I had a front row seat to see the final gasp of old style NSW Govt railways travel, when I was traveling the XPT fleet were only just being introduced, and while services were starting to be cut the mail trains still ran to most corners of the state every night.

Regards,
Tote

[drivesafe]

Its late 1976 and the driver and I had been driven by Railway Call truck, from Moree to Boggabilla, up on the Queensland border.

There we had relieved a crew who had just finished loading 26 RU 4 wheel wheat trucks.

We left Boogga at about midnight and worked the train back down the line to Crooble, where we shunted 20 Aluminium bogie wheat wagons to the front of the train.

At Crooble, I swapped over with the driver, who took up the rest position in the fireman’s seat.

The guard walked back to the van and gave me a Continuity Test and once I had the air back, I started out for Moree.

The line from Boggabilla to Moree was rated as a Pioneer Line and as such, had a maximum track speed of just 40KPH.

The standard practice when leaving Crooble with a full load, and we had two 48s, 20 wheat wagons and 25 RUs, so we had a full load.

Southbound from Crooble, the track drops down a long gentle slop to a creek crossing, which is nothing more than a small pipe under the track, then there is a short but sleep climb after the creek.

So you get up power as quick as you can, to try to get the maximum speed possible by the time you reach the creek. You have no chance of reaching the speed limit so you just leave it in 8 notch all the way up over the next climb.

At the creek, the 48 rocked violently to the fireman side, throwing the driver out of his seat and on to the flood.

He yells out “Keep the throttle open”, which I did.

We seamed to be going OK and then about 30 seconds later, the air goes and we come to a stand.

The driver reckoned the BUs had uncoupled and “As I uncoupled them, it was my job to go back and couple them up again”.

There was a service track of sorts, on the fireman’s side of the train, so I took the hand lamp, which you would have had a hard time reading a news paper with, and set off down the back of the train.

It was a bitch black night, I got to the last of the bogie wheat wagons and shut the Brake Line cock and continued towards the rest of the train.

A short while later, I hear the guard’s voice “They are stacked up” and he shines his touch on the pile of RUs.

We would find out the next day that the first 14 RUs has stacked up all over the place.

The guard already had his bag with him, so we strolled back to the engine and gave the driver the bad news.

We worked the remainder of the train back to Moree and let Werris Creek know of the mishap.

The driver and I had the rest of the day off, but the next two days, we were roasted on the day shift on the work train at the derailment ( as penance for the derailment ).

After the Speed Tapes were read, it was clear the train was well under the speed limit and the derailment was put down to the Up Rail sinking in the mud and was at least 2 inches ( 50CM ) below the level of the Down Rail.


The photos show the result and cleanup.
17936017936117937017936217936317936417936517936617 9367179368179369