Model Trains and Things

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.

Today Enfield is still a hub of rail activity in Sydney but back in 1967 and 1968 Enfield was much bigger than it is today and the western side was a mecca for steam enthusiasts. One the western side of the yard - quite close to a public road - was Enfield No 1, Enfield No 2 and Enfield No 3.

These were the three roundhouses that made up Enfield Loco - the biggest steam depot in New South Wales. Even though steam was on its way out by 1967 there was still plenty of activity on just about every day of the week. Even if nothing was moving there was always plenty of interesting things to see.

In 1967 this was a weekday looking down on Enfield No 3

There’s plenty of interesting things to see here. There’s a short transfer goods running across the turntable; it’s hauled by a 30 Class tank loco and consists of a three empty coal hoppers, an unusual little tank wagon that you’ll see more of in other photos that I’ll post and a GHG guards van.

To the right of the guards van there’s a 60 class, to the left of the train there are several standard goods locos and behind them that could be a 59 class. And in the foreground there are several strings of coal hoppers.

Back then they were coded BCH and were used wherever coal was mined in New South Wales. They were introduced in the early 1950s so by 1967 they were rather well-used but that didn’t mean that they were stored here pending an appointment with the scrappers torch.

These hoppers stayed in service for many years. Some were reclassified as HCH with the addition of higher capacity bogies and others were put to different uses.

Suprisingly some of these hoppers are still in service and you can find a particularly good photo of one taken last week by Raichase here