Model Trains and Things

Follow this link to find another interesting Australian railway blog. There are some great photos and it’s interesting to read of what goes on behind the camera

Brisbane’s rail network could be connected by a massive underground tunnel and major new stations under proposals being looked at in a new State Government study.

Minister for Transport and Main Roads Paul Lucas said the study would help determine how the city could manage the massive growth in public transport demand.

“Queensland’s population is increasing by 1500 people a week and close to 70 per cent of that growth is in the south east,” Mr Lucas said.

“But popularity comes with a price. And we need to plan now to ensure public transport will continue to be affordable and convenient in Brisbane into the future.”

Mr Lucas said the State Government had appointed consultants Maunsell Parsons Brinkerhoff to look at options for boosting rail capacity in the city centre, including potential for an underground tunnel. The $5 million Inner City Rail Capacity Study is expected to be completed in the second half of next year. The public will have a chance to have input into the study next year.

“We already know that by around 2016 we’ll face congestion on the Merivale Bridge because of the massive number of new services we’re putting on. But rather than simply deciding to put up another rail bridge right next to it, I want to look at options that will provide smart solutions for the next 50 years and beyond.”
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Ok, I admit that it’s got nothing to do with trains but it really is a stunning scale model and everything that has gone into this model has been scratchbuilt.

And check out his workshop - most of us would love to have a workshop like this one.

Even if you’ve never scratchbuilt a thing in your life you will still appreciate the work that has gone into this model 

Every Thursday morning a very unusual scene unfolds at a busy road  intersection in Maryborough Queensland. At first a man with a broom appears and sweeps the place where the Wharf Branch crosses the road.

At the same time the local shunter appears to flag the crossing - it seems that a man weilding a broom isn’t enough to trip the flashing lights.

And then the train appears

And finally … just when every motorist but me has had enough of waiting the loco appears pushing it’s train into the adjacent park.

Meet Maryborough’s very own operating steam locomotive, the Mary Anne. This is an operating replica of the first loco built by what became Walkers Engineering. Throughout the day on every Thursday and the last Sunday in each month it operates short trips on part of the Wharf Branch.

Early members of the 44 class were built at A E Goodwin’s factory at St Mary’s and were issued to traffic in a stylish tuscan red and yellow with a thin red separation line as seen here in this photo of a restored 4401 taken by Brad Peadon at Delec in 1996.

This was just the start of a wide variety of colour schemes that that class carried over the years. The first change involved the dropping of the red separation line and the class carried that modified scheme for many years.

Here’s one of the class wearing the modified scheme on a down empty wheat train at Wallerawang in the first half of the 1980s.

There was a time when Wallerawang boasted quite an extensive set of sidings but by the time this photo was taken most of those sidings had been lifted - including the one that had run along the gray area just in front of the camera.

You’ll find the first section of Alco Diesels - the 44 Class by following the link.

Yesterday in The Streets of Rockhampton I mentioned that we’d had to travel to Rockhampton on Tuesday. That trip took us through a lot of sugar cane country and it was interesting to see that the cutting season was well under way and that means that the cane trains are out and about.

So far my cane train photography has been rather limited but I hope to improve on that situation this season. Until then here’s a photo of Queensland Railways DH29 in a rather sad and sorry state as it sits outside the Bundaberg Foundry.

DH29 was part of an order for 73 diesel hydraulic shunting locos built for Queensland Railways by Walkers of Maryborough. The were fitted with a Caterpillar D355E engine that produced 347kW/465HP. The first of the class entered service in December 1966 and DH29 entered service in April 1969.

All of the class are now out of service; some were sold to Malaysia and Vietnam, some have been scrapped and some were sold to various sugar mills where they were re-gauged, rebodied and put into service hauling cane trains.

DH29 was sold to the Kalamia/Inkerman mill and this photo by Brad Peadon shows it sitting outside Bundaberg Foundry waiting its turn to be rebuilt.

We had to take a trip up to Rockhampton yesterday and had a little time to spare up there so we went train spotting and we didn’t have to go far to see them either.

Now if you’re wondering what you should be seeing here just look above the car that’s parked in front of the camera - that’s a railway signal right there in a busy Rockhampton street - and it’s really an operating signal.

The signs below the signal say “Railway Signal Only” and “Trains must not proceed until authorised by signalman”. And why do we need a signal like that in a busy street in Rockhampton?

Because the main northern line runs right down the middle of the road.

That’s PN006 bringing a rather lengthy container train into Rockhampton from the north. And just so you understand that this line really does run down the middle of the street here’s another shot of the same train.

Finding a train wandering down the middle of the street isn’t difficult either. In less than an hour we saw one up and two down trains traversing the railway line in the middle of the street.

This is the story of a diesel that just refuses to go away. They were originally built as part of a batch of 20 by Malcolm Moore for a dam construction project in Victoria to a gauge of 3′. By the time the project was finished many of them looked like this:

Photo courtesy of the National Archives

The Tasmanian Government Railways bought eight of them when the dam project was completed and rebuilt six of them to 3′ 6″ gauge and two to metre gauge. The metre gauge locos went to Thailand as aid under the Colombo Plan and the other six were put into service in various small yards around Tasmania.

By 1981 all but one of the six U class had been written off. U3 remained in service as the shunter at Launceston loco depot but by 1990 it had been taken off the books and in August of that year it was placed on display in a Launceston Park.

Of the six rebuilt locos two have now been scrapped and four have been preserved. Two have been preserved in operating condition and U6 is one of those. Here you see it sitting on the turntable at the Don River Railway in 1996.

It’s around 50 years old and it’s hard to believe that this loco once looked like the the worn out pile of junk in the top photo but these little locos just don’t want to go away.

You’ll find a plan of the TGR U Class by following the link.

The ABC is reporting that the southbound Ghan hit a truck on a private level crossing late this morning. The truck driver was injured but the crew and passengers on the train were unharmed.

You can read the full story here

I wonder what it will take to wake drivers up to the fact that train lines should be crossed with extreme caution?

It’s hard to believe that the 44 class is 50 years old this month but they are. That means that they were at least 11 years old when I began photographing them around Sydney just after I got my first car.

Here are two of my oldest black and white photos taken at a time when I didn’t think it was important to record dates or loco numbers.

The first shows two 44s running light engine from on the goods only line that passed Rookwood cemetery. These two are possibly heading for Flemington; the junction that will take them either around and onto the main western line or behind the Flemington car sidings is about half a kilometre ahead of them.

The second photo was taken at Enfield as a 44 class prepared to head south with a general goods train. You might also be able to spot the Hammersley Iron locos - another Alco product I think - sitting on a siding across the yard.

100 of these locomotives were built for the New South Wales Government Railways and the class were finally taken off the books in 1994. Today there are around 18 of these locomotives still in service with a several of the private rail operators.