RAIL TALES Thread, tell your rail stories here

[d2dave]

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

You might regret saying this

[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.