Model Trains and Things

There’s always something a little forlorn and sad about a locomotive that’s sitting on the scrap line and the scrap lines at Enfield were perhaps a little worse than those at other places.

Here’s 4805 on the scrap line at Enfield back on 21 February 1998.

Photo courtesty of Brad Peadon.

Of course not every locomotive that gets shunted to the scrap line stays there but once a loco becomes a source of spare parts … as 4805 has … then it rarely makes a comeback to revenue service.

When this photo was taken 4805 was around 38 years old and so it would be reasonable to expect that the whole class of 165 locomotives would be on the verge of extinction but not so. A large proportion of the class is still in daily use hauling some major trains and even some of the early members of the class are still around.

Motive Power’s 2007 Fleet List lists 4806 in the Pacific National fleet and stored at Delec while 4818 is stored at Werris Creek. 4819 and 4827 are still in regular use with Railcorp (NSW).

By the way you can find more of the photographer’s work here and you can follow this link to a 48 class forum

A couple of days ago I had a mild rant on another railway blog about modern day railway photographers who search for the perfect shot and think that it can only be found on a day when the weather is perfect too. My point was that rain and clouds add a new dimension to the railway scene and, for these photographers, the perfect shot can go begging simply because it’s raining.

In case anyone should think that I don’t practise what I preach I offer these two photographs. It’s June 1989 and I’m stationed in Orange – on the Saturday of the Queen’s Birthday long weekend the Flying Scotsman and 3801 were due in town early in the morning with a tour train to Dubbo so I headed down to Loco at Orange East Fork

Unfortunately the Scotsman was having problems with NSW coal and the train was running very late. When it did finally arrive the Scotsman was cut off and run into Loco to have the firebox grate thoroughly cleaned.

That’s where I got this photo as the Scotsman wheezed it’s way up to where the pits were located.

You’ll notice that the loco seems to be covered in steam and the background almost looks as though I’ve blotted it out. Well the truth is that it was so damn cold it was actually snowing.

While the Scotsman was being serviced I went home to have a hot shower – according to my wife my face was blue.

After the hot shower I jumped back in the car and drove down to the Dalton Street level crossing where I got this photo of a rejuvinated Scotsman and 3801 storming out of town as they took the train on to Dubbo.

You’ll notice that the background is still rather white, the roads are wet and … you guessed it, it was still snowing.

Those two shots aren’t perfect by any means but they tell a story far more graphically than if they had been taken on a fine sunny day.

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.

This is what one end of Portland (NSW) yard looked like sometime in 1977. The unusual wagons just to the right of the goods shed is a cement wagon and cement wagons were fairly common in Portland yard.

While the station was on the outskirts of town the Portland Cement Works was right in the middle of town and it was linked to the NSWGR via privately owned line that featured a very nasty grade against loaded trains. Empty wagons would be dropped off in Portland yard by government trains and, even in 1977, steam locos operated by the cement works would run up to the Portland yard and exchange loaded wagons for the empties.

In 1977 the cement works had a former NSWGR 26 class  saddle tank loco in service. It was in such poor condition that it could just manage to pull two loaded hoppers up the grade to Portland yard. Before that they had used several different tank locos including an Andrew Barclay 0-6-0T.

I’m not sure if the cement works are still in operation but by the late 1980s the works were looking to dispose of their locos. The 26 class was donated to the rail museum in Lithgow while the Andrew Barclay was given to Barry Dean – a well-known modeller in Orange – if he could remove it from the site in Portland.

Now Barry is a very resourceful fellow so there was never any doubt that the loco was going to be delivered in Orange. And so it was, on the back of an Army tank transporter. The sight of a steam locomotive travelling through town on the back of a huge Army truck was  enough to bring out the local television station and the images were broadcast right across the central west.

Sadly I wasn’t there to get any photos.

Tomorrow is Father’s Day here in Australia and these two photos are ones that I always associate with Father’s Day even though they weren’t taken at that time of year.

I was stationed in Lithgow from November 1976 to March 1978 and back then Lithgow was a very different place. There were coal mines in the centre of town, it was the place where westbound trains changed from electric to diesel power and eastbound trains shed their diesels and went east behind elegant 46 class.

Trains still ran on the Mudgee line, steam locomotives still shunted the Portland cement works, coal was conveyed in BCHs, the Oberon branch still had a regular service and the main western line was still double tracked as far as the railway bridge at Kelso.

And you could still take your kids down to stand beside the tracks on a Sunday morning and watch the shunting take place. My favourite Sunday morning spot was trackside between the old station and the Up yard and I often went there with my son who was just a toddler.

Ken was with me when I grabbed this shot early one Sunday morning and it’s stuck with me because it was one of those magic father and son moments that are often too few and far between. On this day the driver of the 49 brought his loco to a stand right in front of us while the points were changed behind him. In that short time he made a real impression on a little boy when he leaned out of his cab and said hello to my son.

It was something that stuck in Ken’s mind for a long time after that.

On another Sunday morning trip trackside I caught 4914 as it passed the old Lithgow coal stage.

Time marches on though and Lithgow has changed incredibly. The 46 class are long gone, the coal mines have closed, trains haven’t run on the Mudgee line in over a year. The track to Oberon is still there buried in the dirt and grass … or so I’m told and much of the western line has been single-tracked.

And the toddler who was so impressed by the simple act of a friendly train driver … well he’s now a strapping young man who has served in the Army for many years.

If you’ve got children then share your hobby with them – there will be times that neither you nor the kids will ever forget.