Model Trains and Things

Here’s a very short video of an O scale model of a Tasmanian K Class Garratt climbing a 1 in 28 grade.

You can find the full story here on the O14 Group’s website.

Working on a railway is a very dangerous affair and there are always safety procedures in place to ensure that railway workers are protected as much as possible from those dangers. What you’re about to see here would never be allowed in most countries but in some poorer countries workers are prepared to take risks just to keep their jobs.

On this electrified mine railway the loco’s pantograph is hand-held

As I’ve said before, I’m fascinated by unusual shunting locomotives, small steam engines and anything that’s just a little bit quirky. So is it any wonder that this caught my eye.

If you like to see interesting branchline trains and odd little roadside tramways then you’ll definitely like this.

If you love the sound of an EMD diesel working hard and you’ve got a soft spot for the old Victorian B class - those locos that Americans think of as double-ended F class then here’s another treat for you. B65 and B61 are working a special passenger train north towards Sydney to position it for a tour on New Year’s Eve.

On a more personal note, for those of you who have been wondering what had happened to me and why I’ve been missing from here for the last month let me give you the short answer … nothing happened to me except for a huge amount of work.

Sadly that huge amount of work is going to continue well into the future … when you’re as good at what you do as Toni and I are you’re always going to be in demand … even in a recession. However, I do promise to try and get in here a bit more frequently than I have been lately.

It’s hard to believe but there are mainline locos that are over 50 years old and still putting in some heavy haulage on Australian mainlines. The survivors of the old Victorian Railways B class are examples of those locos with the first of the class being introduced in 1952.

Originally built for broad gauge work within Australia these EMD locos were built in Australia by Clyde and were based on EMD’s famous F diesel design. The Bs differed from the standard F body by having cabs at either end of the loco.

Today the Bs are running on the standard gauge and have travelled well beyond the Victorian border. Here we see three of the class teamed up with an S class loco moving a spoil train through Hawkesbury River.

Turn up the volume and listen to these old locos roar!

The Australian Railroad Group … aka ARG … has ceased operations in NSW. At time, if you lived any of the eastern states of Australia the ARG played a major role in your diet despite the fact that you may have never even seen one of their locos.

ARG’s impact on your diet was due to their involvement with the Manildra Group … the biggest provider of flour in Australia. Wherever the Manildra Group had a factory in New South Wales the ARG would be there bringing in the raw materials and hauling out the finished products.

But now ARG has lost the Manildra Group’s contract and the last ARG train ran on November 22. With nothing to haul on this side of the continent ARG are returning their 31/L class and a number of their 22 class diesels to Western Australia. Other members of the 22 class will be used by QRNational but sadly the L class have left the east coast.

Fortunately for us east coasters they’re still around on YouTube and here’s one clip that really highlights the beautiful sound of an L/31 class diesel hard at work.

Here’s an interesting training video from British Railways back around 1990 - it takes you on a short cab ride on one of the suburban networks.

Brian Millar from the On30 Conspiracy group on Yahoo! drives a cane loco in north Queensland during the cane cutting season.

Here is some video he shot from the cab of his 40 tonne Eimco diesel. The track gauge is 2 feet or 610mm.

As the Savannahlander says, it’s “a remarkable and unique rail journey into Far North Queensland’s savannah country”

You will find their website here and it’s quite interesting to read of a tourist railway’s struggle to provide a decent service in the face of official bumbling.

The video below shows part of the trip through the Delaney Gorge.

Toni and I spent most of Saturday visiting a new client - a local historical museum - out west and on the way back we stopped for a break at Biggenden where I took some photos of the railway station there.

Those photos are still sitting in the camera so I though I’d start the week with this video taken at the Toowoomba Carnival of Flowers which was on last weekend too. My thanks to Graham R for putting it up on YouTube.

The steam loco is 1079 and there’s some great stack-talk as she gets stuck into the task of hauling the train. Fortunately 1620 - Queensland’s first Heritage Diesel is there too and if you’ve never heard and English Electric diesel in action then you’ll find this video interesting too.