Model Trains and Things

It’s the long weekend in New South Wales that every Sydney modeller lives for … the weekend of the Sydney Model Railway Exhibition.

I can remember going to it with my father in the days when it was in the Lower Town Hall and being one of the kids who drooled over Norm Read’s wonderful O scale layout and one of the teenagers who was still drooling over it years later. And then there was the Associate Professor of Engineering’s layout where the locos were so small you could hardly see them yet all them were powered by butane gas - at least that’s what I think it was.

I can remember going to the exhibiton the second year I was married and getting home to find that the contractions had started and our first child was on the way. I can remember taking said child to the next exhibition and several more after that.

Then the exhibition moved to other venues and family commitments got in the way but my love of model trains has never faded. During the late 1970s and early 1980’s I may not have made the trek to Sydney but I was still getting together with other modellers in Bathurst.

One of them was Ian Baxter who was a student at the time at Mitchell College. Later, when I was transferred to Orange Ian was there teaching at Orange High. Even as a student Ian was a very talented HO modeller and while he was at Mitchell College he built this diorama.

The loco is a NSWGR 29 class Ian kitbashed from a Roundhouse kit and the goods shed is a scratchbuilt model of the shed that once stood in the yard at Oberon.

In 1996 Ian and his family was transferred to a high school down on the Victorian border and we went even further south and unfortunately our paths haven’t crossed since.

In the late 60s there were always interesting steam locos appearing at the coaling stage and Enfield on a Saturday afternoon. Perhaps the most interesting that I captured there on film was this one:

5114 is just a common garden-variety 50 class but the tender - LO32 - was a specially designed tender for use in shunting marhalling yards. If fact it spent most of its time attached to various locos shunting at Clyde Reclamation Yard.

Catching it in the yards at Clyde was quite difficult but every Saturday afternoon it would return to Enfield and spend the weekend tucked up in one of the roundhouses.

Here is another shot of 5114 attacking the grade up to the ashing pit. You’ll see just how steep that grade really was.

And here is the last shot in the series . It will show you where the ash pit was in relation to the coal stage.

Now we’re looking at 5261 on the left and 5490 on the right sitting over the ash pits. Below 5490 you will see a string of S trucks ready to be shunted under the pits so that ash from the fireboxes could be dropped straight into them.

From here both locos will move off to the left of the picture and make their way down to which ever roundhouse they were to be stabled in over the weekend.

5261 was a member of the 50 class and 5490 was a member of the 53 class. Both classes were similar to each other although these two locos are coupled to quite different tenders.

Once a loco had coaled at the coaling stage it was ready it was ready to head for the ash pits to drop it’s fire. The pits were quite close to the coaling stage but weren’t actually set into the ground.

Instead all locos were required to tackle quite a short but steep grade that allowed them to be positioned over open wagons on a siding that was at ground level. To reach the pits locos continued on past the coaling stage and ran through a spring-loaded point into a short dead-end siding.

A quick change of direction and a lot of speed just got them to the the spot where they could drop their ash straight into the waiting trucks. Here is 5261 on February 3, 1968 making a run at the grade. It’s just moved down from the coal stage which is on my left.

You’ll notice that the tender is topped right up, the loco has backed down through those spring-loaded points I mentioned and now it’s on it’s way up the grade to where they can drop the fire.

It was only as I started to put together some photos for this series that I discovered something interesting. I spent quite a few Saturday afternoons watching the steam locos come down past the coaling stage … but I never actually photographed one while it was sitting there being coaled.

The closest I ever got to a photo of that was this one of 3801 and not only was it not taken on a  Saturday but 3801 wasn’t being coaled. Instead this beautiful locomotive was doing some shunting and was about to pull those wagons back towards the inspection pits we saw 3809 sitting over in Saturday Afternoon at Enfield 1

We’re back at Enfield on a Saturday afternoon in the late 1960s and while 3809 was sitting over the inspection pits we’ve jumped back in the car and driven down onto the dirt access road to park just across the tracks from the coaling stage. We’ve arrived there just in time to see 3809 drifting down to the slightly depressed tracks under the loading chutes.

3809 is passing under the track that led up to the coaling stage. I never did get to see any wagons being shunted up to be unloaded but it must have been a spectacular sight.

I got my licence and my first car in 1967 and by 1968 I was spending some Saturday afternoons out at Enfield. In those days a public road ran beside the loco depot - and a dirt track led off the road and down to a couple of small industries so that you could actually legally get quite close to the coaling stage.

We’ll get to the coaling stage later in the week but for now let’s start at the overbridge that gave loco crews access from the road to their sign-on rooms. That’s where this photo of 3809 was taken.

The large building slightly to the left of the 38 is Enfield No 1 Roundhouse. No 2 Roundhouse was behind the tender and slightly to the left of it and No 3 Roundhouse was much further back behind me and to my left.

The concrete foundations to the right of the photo once supported the oil tanks that were used to fuel the oil-fired 55 and 59 class locos.

Away off in the distance, in front of 3809 you can see the track that ran up onto the coaling stage. This track was used to fill the coal bunkers in the stage and nothing heavier than a 19 or 30 class ever went up there.

Locos coming in from a day’s work ran down where 3809 is and then down to the coal stage to fill their tenders. From there they ran up to an elevated ash pit behind the coaling stage where they dropped what remained of their fires and then drifted down to whichever roundhouse they were to be stabled in.

Last weekend Trent from RaiChase - a railway photography blog that is definitely worth seeing - suggested that the photos that appear on this blog were stunning. Obviously that’s Trent’s way of stating that he is totally delusional but just in case you need any further convincing I present these two photos.

The first will show that since coming to Queensland I’ve developed a love affair for chain-link fences

This photo was taken at Bundaberg in May 2006.

I still hadn’t lost my love for chain-link fences when I was in Rockhampton in August this year and took this photo.

You will also notice that I’ve developed some new ones like a passion for poor lighting and poles as well. So I guess that just goes to show I’m really about as average as everyone else

Next week I’ll take you down to Sydney to spend a Saturday afternoon at Enfield back in the late 1960s. Those are black and white photos and are among the earliest photos I took.

Earlier in the week I talked about some Queensland locomotives that were sent down to Tasmania after the Commonwealth took over and I showed you a photo of the QR1300/Tasrail ZC class.

Another group of Queensland locos to head south were 16 members of the 2350 class. Like the 1300 class the 2350s were built by English Electric but didn’t enter service till 1973. They have a power rating of 2350hp.1750kW.

Once they reached Tasmania they were reclassified as the ZB class. The loco seen here in Hobart Yard on December 28 1997 originally entered service as 2371 in May 1975 and was renumbered to 2128 after Pacific National bought the Tasmanian rail system from the Commonwealth.

Tucked away behind the loco is an old Hobart Tram that was awaiting restoration.

I should also note - in this day and age when some railway photographers seem to think that they have the right to trespass on railway property to get that special shot - I was not trespassing even though I’m obviously on railway property. Back in 1997 I worked for the local government-owned bus company and the Hobart meal room was in the old Hobart loco depot.

It was an interesting place to spend long layovers

Over my years as a railfan I’ve been on some interesting tours but this one would have to have been the worst that I have ever experienced. On Australia Day 2000 the rail museum out at New Norfolk in Tasmania ran a tour up the mainline to the Midlands and Toni decided that we should go - it was her first rail tour and it’s probably going to be her last.

I just forget where the ultimate destination was but wherever it was we didn’t get there. Not long out of Hobart X18 began to sound sick and the further we went the sicker it became. It seemed to stall several times but each time the driver got it going again until it finally expired at Colebrook and that’s where this photo was taken.

There are a few bleak places on the line from Hobart to the north and on a winter’s day Colebrook is one of them. Even though this was January it was cold and miserable and just as bleak as if it had been a winter’s day.

And this is where we sat for hours … and hours. The train crew who had been everywhere on the train while it was in motion suddenly disappeared when it came to a stop. There was no communication with the passengers, the toilets couldn’t be used and no one knew what was happening.

It wasn’t till late in the afternoon that the museum’s Y class arrived to tow us back into Hobart and magically the train crew reappeared. We were not happy campers that day and even though we were offered tickets on a subsequent tour we never took them up on the offer.