Model Trains and Things

It’s been a while since I actually posted a photo of a locomotive or train here so I thought I’d do something about that today and this is the photo that literally fell out of the photo album that I picked up.

The loco is 7344 and it’s shunting at Pippita but I’m afraid I have no idea of date the photo was taken. I’m not even sure how it came into my collection but I seem to recall that someone I met in Lithgow in the late 1970s gave it to me.

7344 was one of 50 diesel hydraulic shunters built by Walkers in Queensland for the New South Wales Government Railways between October 1970 and March 1973. 7344 entered service in November 1972 and undoubtedly saw service at major yards throughout the state. When this photo was taken 7344 was working on the Abbatoirs line near Homebush.

While some of the locos from this class have been scrapped and others converted for use on various cane lines in Queensland a number of these sturdy little shunters continue in service and this particular loco is now in the hands of 3801 Limited.

Oh and if you’re looking for Pippita on a modern map I don’t think you’re likely to find it because most of that area was redeveloped as part of the Sydney Olympic venue … a far cry from the brickworks, abbatoirs and other industries that used to be serviced by the 73 Class.

It’s hard to believe that it’s 10 days since I had a chance to post here but business has been absolutely crazy … plus one of our daughters came up for a week and we did the family thing … and had a great time doing it.

Now she’s gone back to Goulburn and we’re getting back into the working groove. While I’m finding my stride I’ll leave you with this link to a photo of an unusual shunting loco from Chile.

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.