Thread: Steam still on track.

Hi Fifth, there’s a good video of a Tassie Garret that made a trip to the UK a few years ago.

It was operated on a few different line but the one I liked, and if I ever get the chance to go to the UK, I’ll make it a point of seeing and that’s the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Line.

Originally Posted by V8Ian

Not off the top of my head, but I'll do some research and post the results here.

V8 Ian attached is how they did it.

As a kid in Newcastle we lived almost over the top of the rail tunnel under what was then the Pacific highway at Adamstown heights. The rail line went under the highway and headed out through Fernleigh Loop to a coal mine at Dudley (Burwood mine, I think).

I remember lying in bed a night listening to the steam trains. Each train had to stop at the tunnel when heading from the mine toward Broadmeadow to apply the brakes to each wagon. I remember the rattling of each wagon as they collided against each other buffers on coming to a halt, the banging that when on as the guard walked along the line winding the breaks on each wagon. Sometimes the train would blow off some steam and then the slow chugging as train pulled away again.

Had a real live train set in my back yard when I was a kid and I played in and around that tunnel and the steam trains that used that line many years.

Brings back some wonderful childhood memories.

There was a scrap yard in the Glasshouse area of south east Queensland who wrecked at least one Garret. When was there in the late eighties had one of the water tanks set up as the car port under which he parked his Range Rover. The yard was cleared out in the early Nineties so do not know if it is still there.

Romney Hythe and Dymchurch railway is a public railway, runs every day, takes the kids to and from school for a start. You can even arrange a driver training session, for a fee. Had ride in 2006, excellant, even if it was flamin cold, which made more atmospheric steam too.

Originally Posted by LandyAndy

I know Brian always says WA is a backward state.Our country level crossing signs still picture a steam engine.AND THEY ARE NEW SIGNS,not old never replaced ones!!!!
Andrew

NSW must get their new signs from the same place. Not only that have you noticed the image is of the type of engine used in the USA rather than the straight stack of UK designs, used in Australia.

Originally Posted by drivesafe

Thanks Brian and yep, over the last few years I’ve been lucky enough to get some video of steam working in QLD.

I’ve always been a fan of the NSW railways, but more I see of QLD railways, the more interesting it seems to be.

Brian, did they ever have bank engine operations any where in QLD?

They had them all over the place in NSW and still have bank engine working on the Liverpool Range.

QR used bankers just about everywhere there was a hill. Even suburban. A big part of the work at Wooloongabba yards was supplying bankers up the hill behind Boggo Rd. gaol up to Dutton Park. Also on the Norman Park and Morningside section. Wooloongabba yards had 70 sets of crew stationed there. Bankers were prominent on North Coast Line working up through Gympie. Steam locos made hard work through the hills and bends with a heavy goods train. The big electric goods locos now run up through there with 3+ times the train behind without dropping a rev.

The first Garret to go west from Rockhampton on the Central line spread the rails on a curve on the range near Bungeworgorai and derailed. The Garrets were not a howling success here.

Originally Posted by Brian Hjelm

.......

The first Garret to go west from Rockhampton on the Central line spread the rails on a curve on the range near Bungeworgorai and derailed. The Garrets were not a howling success here.

Interesting comparison - the NSW Garrets were an outstanding success, in particular their ability to operate on lightweight and substandard track despite being the heaviest locomotives on the system. If I remember correctly the Qld Garrets were the ASG locos which were a wartime emergency design, where the NSW ones were a postwar design, and much bigger.

Just goes to show that the configuration of a vehicle does not tell you very much about it (c.f. those who lump all 4x4 vehicles in one category!)

John