Steamfest 2009

Note: Steamfest happened over two weeks ago, so I’ve been lazy and have forgotten to update…

Following the transfer of 3237 and 5917 from Cowra the previous Monday, the two LVR engines teamed up with the Powerhouse Museum’s 3830 to haul twelve cars plus a water gin to Maitland, on the Sunday of the 2009 Maitland Steamfest.

3801 Limited provided 9 of the cars, the other three were LVR’s brought over from Cowra.

“Train goes to Berowra, next stop Mount Colah”

7am at Strathfield on a cold, wet Sunday. An XPT comes and goes, from Melbourne. “The next train to arrive on platform 6 goes to Hornsby”. That’ll be it. An 8 car S-set grinds in.

An uneventful run up to Hornsby. Change to platform 4, as two IRA MZ’s growl southbound, an the down Casino XPT pulls up in the new platform 5. The familiar sound of two Paxman engines roar around as it heads northbound, alot of passengers will be disgorged at Maitland.

The wide platform of Mount Colah fills the door of a Tangara as it pulls in, and the train drips down. Decide to wait under the shelter until information is recieved about NS51’s whereabouts. A contact at Meadowbank rings in to let know that it’s running late, which isn’t surprising after seeing the shunting plan at Eveligh and Sydney Terminal.

8.30 and the Meadowbank contact rings in, it has passed. The train is due to be out of Hornsby by now, so its a good 20 minutes at least away.

3237, 5917 and 3830, Mount Colah.

8.50 and the sounds of a riverboat whistle. The number of buffs around has increased. In the rain, may as well get our spots at the city end to see it. In the distance the sound of three engines gets louder, heading up the steep grade into Mount Colah. It passes, 5917 spewing out a thick cloud of black smoke.

The other buffs clear off into their cars to continue the chase. I resign myself to the fact I won’t see it again until late in the afternoon. An S-set pulls into the platform a few minutes late, which can be attributed to NS51.

Alight at Berowra while the suburban terminates and heads back to the city. An OSCAR pulls in and I’m headed all stops to Wyong. Change at Wyong to a V-set to Newcastle.

Alight at Hamilton and change to a Hunter railcar. Meet up with Vince at Waratah, and head for Metford. Dunno why, I have very little idea about photospots in the Hunter. Nothing of note at Metford, an Endeavour arrives and it’s decided to continue to Beresfield, because I’ve been there with a large group of gunzels before, and it looked good then.

“This station is … Beresfield”

The station manager at Beresfield is a very nice guy, giving us both a poster on Railcorp’s trainsets – cheers mate! It got to the point where he would announce over the station PA system when a steam train was approaching!

The amount of coal shuttled to the Ports along this line is amazing. Made my first 92 class sighting [wooh!].

Steamfest must cause enormous stress to those in the Broadmeadow signalling complex. The controller must find a path for the steam tours, coal trains, regular passenger trains, and anything else running! To give an idea:

2:05, and 3642 [NSWRTM] heads towards Newcastle on the Up Main with 5 cars, tender-first, meaning a 40km/h restriction.
2:09, an XPT heads along the Down Main, at over 100km/h.
2:10, and another XPT heads towards Newcastle, also on the Up Main, flooring and taking advantage of the 120km/h speed limit along here.
2:13, and 3526 [NSWRTM] heads towards Maitland along the Down Coal road, again tender-first at 40km/h.
2:16, and as 3526 is lost sight of through Thornton,9205, 9211 and 9031 slowly grind  up the Up Coal, towards a red signal in the distance, which clears to yellow.

11 minutes with 5 trains passing. Wow! A timetable was set out for these trains to all interlock and leave space for each other, but on most steam tours, Steamfest in particular, it doesn’t stick.

3.30 and 3642, which has run to Newcastle, run around, and come back, barks through Beresfield.

3830 races a 4-car Hunter set at Beresfield.

3.35, the Great Train Race arrives, about an hour down. 3830 on the up main racing a 4 car Hunter set on the up coal. The race probably make up the four most tedious trains of the Steamfest, it requires both main and coal roads to be free to a point, where both trains can keep up a decent pace along the entire route.

3.45, and 3526 shows up on the up coal, again tender first, having turned on Farley Triangle at Telarah, racing a Hunter set which duly stops and picks up some passengers before heading off and catching up with the steam train again.

4.20 and I moved to High Street intending to meet up with a couple of mates who have been following Steamfest by car, on both days. Unfortuantly I didn’t meet them there, but found some good stuff anyway.

4.44. CLF1 and new AC locomotive LDP001 grind to a halt in the platform with red signals ahead, on 7MB7. 4.48 and the signal clears, 7MB7 cleared to continue through Maitland and eventually to Brisbane.

Now might be a good time to mention how many text messages were sent to one other gunzel I am good friends with.

CLF1 and LDP001 waiting line clear at High Street.

To Trent: “CLF LDP into Maitland NOW”
“92 coal on down”
“GTR on way”
“Reports here have GTR at Broadmeadow”

From Trent: “Up grain on its way…”
“Heading for *such and such station*”
As well as a few *drunk* messages from the previous night.

Another text was sent at 11pm to the Sydney Tramway Museum’s group-booking manager, to let him know I won’t be available for Monday’s charters as planned, will postpone to Wednesday. That story’s for later. As soon as ‘predicted arrival to Sydney, 1am’ was mentioned, all was good!

You get the idea – it’s a very good way to communicate if we’re a station apart – I get a heads-up if something comes up, they get one if something comes down.

A few more coal trains rolled through, before a Tiger Moth plane flew overhead, 3830 and a Hunter railcar following in parallel, at 5.25. At ISO400, the photographic results aren’t worth talking of. 3526 rolls in tender-first a while later, reportedly it couldn’t run around with the 4-car Hunter making up the Race train in Newcastle station.

An anxious wait for the next Endeavour had me into Maitland where I caught up with Trent, Maikha, those Victorians, and anyone else who gathered around.

I had managed to book on the return of the triple-header, to Sydney. Vince had booked on the up Brisbane XPT. Trent and Maikha [wisely] drove up and back.

A long wait transpired. Surprisingly, the XPT showed up on time at 7.15. Not surprisingly, the late-running Race had put the formation of the train way out of whack. 3830 had to be run around Farley Triangle and coaled, watered before she could be attached to the train, and the 32 and 59 attached ontop of that.

“NS50, you have the first right of way”

7:52 had us out of Maitland, with 3 engines up front, 10 cars back. Exiting the station, 3526 and 3642 in Maitland yard had a whistle duel with the three engines of our trains – the 59’s riverboat whistle takes that prize, primarily for volume! Parallelling a coal train led by a couple of 82 with a window open will not be forgotten!

Sunset Grain at High Street.

Running times as follows:
MAITLAND: 1952
GOSFORD Arr: 2230, water.
Dep: 2315.
HORNSBY 2354.
STRATHFIELD 0025 [refuged at West Ryde for a v-set]
SYDNEY TERMINAL 0048

After Sydney it was just the volunteers, and they must be thanked – a series of signaller directions had the train into the LES at 0250. Some crews had been up for over 24 hours, and had been very nice on the return.

The highlight would have to have been ascending Cowan Bank with 3 engines up front, lights of the fires flickering around, columns of smoke invisible until in a tunnel!

One hell of a lot more photographs here.

Enjoy, will be back soon, next update should be 3 feet 6 wide.

Lachlan Valley Easter

3237 and 5917 head downhill towards Murrumburrah.

Yes, I forgot about this blog again…

The Saturday

Leaving Sydney just before 10am, we trekked down the M5 and Hume Highway in the usual Easter weekend traffic, had lunch at Goulburn, found the turnoff for Harden and drove down into Harden, after nearly taking the road that leads straight to Cowra – wouldn’t have been much use there, the train was already on its way!

Found Harden station, then found a footbridge at Murrumburrah that had a very good view of trains coming down from Demondrille, about 20 minutes before it was due to show up.

Five minutes later… a familiar 32 class whistle echo’s around, and in the distance is two gleaming black engines and a set of tuscan cars. Down they roll, with a wave from the [familiar] guard, and the smell of burnt coal, atomised oil and hot brake blocks fill the air.

After she’s passed, down to Harden station to meet the guard [a friend], a passenger attendant [also a friend] and several other people from Railpage.

The Sydney-bound XPT departs, continuing its long journey northbound.

The trains arrival at Harden is shortly before that of the XPT, so the train is quickly shunted into the yard, and as was noticed, a yard that seems to be seldom looked after by ARTC. As if on cue, the signal clears for the Up main, and the Sydney Daylight XPT has arrived, taken on a few passengers, and departed, as quickly as it came.

During, and after the XPT has departed, the two steam locomotives have shunted to the headshunt, and gone, one by one, onto the turntable, and have been spun back, facing South. A council truck has arrived and filled the gin with water, meanwhile a massive storm has come in and dumped rain, leaving the rest of the day with showers.

The down signal has cleared, after both engines have been turned. However, the train is now running late, and a move was made back to Murrumburrah to see the train on its way. It didn’t turn up until after 5.30, around 45 minutes late, wrong road due to the track layout at Demondrille Junction, following a double-81 grain on the down line.  It, by that stage, was too dark for my photographic camera, however the video is more than spectacular in the cold and still air. After the passing, it was then decided to head straight to the motel at Cowra to check in and have dinner.

The Sunday

The sun has barely risen, and if your a train photographer, the place to visit is the loco depot, the only one in NSW I can think of that is publically accessable. Arrival finds 3237 on the departure road, and 5917 asleep in the shed to have some maintance done. A blast of the whistle, departure time nearing, and the engine moves out onto the main, before reversing onto the carriage set. A move was then made to the station, to ride the first shuttle.

The bridge over the Lachlan River, from last years Easter.

Shunting and watering is carried out until the train is ready to depart, and the chorus of a puffing loco up the front, as well as the continous clattering over jointed rail. The highlight of the trip is the run over the Lachlan River bridge, a combination girder, lattice and formerly trestle bridge, up until 1984. The bridge holds the distinction of being the only lattice girder bridge in NSW not fabricated in England, it was fabricated in Belgium.

The run to Koorawatha is very undulating, passing Noonbinna and Wattamondara en-route. Arrival into Koorawatha is marked by a stop on the outside of town, for one of the crew members to hop down and start hit the pushbutton for the level crossing of Young Road. After the crossing is started, the train restarts for the last few hundred metres to Koorawatha loop. Here the guard heads for the staff box and relays the information regarding arrival times to Control at Junee, meanwhile the engine crew run the 32 around.

Now, engine-first, it is a very fast, spirited run back to Cowra, before slowing for the 10kp/h restriction on the bridge, and arrival into Cowra. The passengers disembark, with many words of thanks to the volunteers aboard, while the crew set about filling the engine up with water before running it around ready for the 2pm departure.

This time we set about chasing it, and caught it at Cowra Bulkhead, Wattamondara, Koorawatha and Noonbinna.

Approaching a level crossing, with Koorawatha up the hill behind the train.

It was then back to the motel, to load all of todays shots onto the laptop and charge everything, then we made an early-evening visit to the depot. 3237 was back in its stall while 5917 was beginning the long process of being lit up. Photographs were taken, but none really turned out to a good standard. Dinner at a chinese place in town.

The Monday – “The Cowra Mail”

Now would be a good time to point out the threat facing the Cowra – Demondrille line. The State Government plans to close the line, along with 3 other seasonal grain lines, from the end of financial year in June. The closure would leave the Lachlan Valley depot without a link to the outside world, an extremely sad thought.

3237 and 5917 were both transferred to the 3801 Limited depot, the Large Erecting Shop in Eveligh, Sydney. From here, 3237 and 5917, along with 3830, will triple-head a train to the Maitland Steamfest this coming weekend, and 5917 will head up to Grafton in June.

The transfer was to take place with 3 FS, a water gin, and a brake van. The chance was taken to return to Sydney on the transfer, as it could well be the last chance anyone has to ride a steam train along the Cowra line.

Another trip was taken to Cowra Loco to see the engines come out of the depot, with 4701 having shunted the train together the night before.

A panorama of 3237 on the turntable, at Cowra.

The set was propelled into the yard, the gin and both tenders filled with water, and passengers loaded before departing an hour and 15  late at 10:15.

Koorawatha was reached at 10:50, where the entire crew seemed to focus around a point on 5917’s tender, a bit worrying to us aboard.

The double header climbing through the hills of Monteagle.

A steady climb was made through Monteagle, before flying down into Young, arriving at 12.05, with a half-hour stop for water and lunch. The half hour didn’t seem very long to those looking for food, but some was found anyway, and before long the sound of double-headed steam again filled the air, climbing out of Young.

The train ground to a halt at Demondrille Junction at 1.25, while the crew called Control to request permission to enter the mainline. The familiar ‘clickity-clack’ we had heard the whole way from Cowra would now be traded for flatspots and wheel-squeal,  along the continuous welded rail, and what seemed to be all concrete sleepers. We also traded staff-and-ticket safeworking for Centralised Traffic Control, or Rail Vehicle Detection, controlled from Junee until we reached the metropolitan area late that night.

In 10 minutes we had reached Harden, now only 35 minutes down. Unfortunately, the timetable didn’t allow time for water in Harden, and as we took the relief road, and a council tanker drew up alongside, times were radioed by Control of the next trains in both directions, most important to us the time of the Sydney Daylight XPT.

Water taken, we now left an hour later at 2.25, one and a half hours down.

Rain was now falling, and the temperature had dropped enough for a steady steam of white steam to come out up front, much to the delight of those chasing trackside. During this part of the trip, to Yass Junction, we ran under single-light signals, upper-quadrant automatic semaphores, and at Binalong, double colour light signals like is seen so frequently in the metrop.

Yass Junction appeared in the open windows at 3:30, now only half-an-hour down. We departed after oiling of the engines was done, but at 3.45 we ground to a halt at a red signal, the guard walking towards the rear car letting us know that the XPT is due to overtake using the bi-directional signalling installed here. The XPT showed up at 4.09, and we took off 5 minutes later, after a green light on the LED’s ahead. More upper quadrant signals were passed, these will probably have been replaced by single-light LED’s by the next time a steam train passes this area.

We arrived into Gunning just before 5.00, where more oiling and an inspection of the kero lamps adorning the rear car took place, as the next station would be arrived at in the dark.

5917 in the dark at Goulburn.

A radio call informed us that a container train was on our tail, and to get moving. We flew ahead, and arrived into Goulburn at 6.05. The superfreighter overtook, behind double NRs, and ground past at 6.15.

Meanwhile, the timetable could be well and truly thrown into the locomotive firebox now – the fire brigade had been contacted to fill us up, and, using the local hydrant in the nearby street, shuttled a fire engine between the street and the gin countless times. We waited for 3 hours.

Eventually the few passengers onboard were allowed off with the addition of safety vests, and under the supervision of the loco and passenger crews those who wanted photographs could take them.

It wasn’t until 9pm that we left, around 3 hours were spent watering and sitting at Goulburn, while one of the great LVR volunteers had gone to the local KFC and brought back a bucket for a feed, as it was originally planned that Goulburn would be a dinner stop, in one of the platforms.

The next part of the trip wasn’t spent out the window, but in the great company of fellow ‘buffs’ Fred, Maikha and Paul, in a compartment, discussing all things from runaways at Broadmeadow in Victoria to high school to state-based racism and alot of things inbetween.

3237 and a catchpoint indicator at Goulburn.

Moss Vale was reached around 11pm, where more water was taken. After Goulburn, only one extremely intrepid gunzel followed, and he ends up creating DVD sold at all manner of railway shops. A conversation was had from the compartment, in the relief road at Moss Vale, to him on the platform, Maikha and Fred remarking [loudly] how much of a good deal it could be if they could be sold at a discount to those with not much money, examples being those in university and those in higher-grade education…

By this stage I stopped taking times, but midnight passed as we climbed the grades of the Southern Highlands. A stop at Picton was made to drop off a passenger, a stop at Campbelltown to oil up the engines, a stop at Minto to drop off a crew member, and finally a spirited run through to Sydenham to drop of the rest of us weary passengers and crew, at 1.55am Tuesday.

A massive thanks must go to the Lachlan Valley Railway volunteers, who pulled off a great weekend, despite the late running. Special thanks to Maikha Ly for organising the weekend deal for those coming up from Sydney.

Tramway Festival 2009 [Part 1]

February the 22nd was a long time ago – and even longer was the last time I posted here…

I’ve quite simply, forgotten.

But I’m back and will endeavour to keep this up to date, starting with…

J675

The J class of tram entered service on the King Street – Watsons Bay [signal station] in 1905, and ran over 25 years before they were replaced by the R class bogey-corridor cars.

J675 escaped the cutters torch, instead ending up as a backyard shed, and fibro-clad by its owner to protect himself from the growls of the neighbours and the council. It also did the tram a lot of good. It must be remembered that no form of tramway museum came about until the 1950s, of which the Sydney museum was the first.

After the death of the owner, who directed it pass to the Museum, it lingered at Loftus for several years before restoration work at Loftus before being outsourced to Bendigo, who have completed a fine restoration! It returned on the back of a truck on the 11th of February, had its first trials to Sutherland on the 14th and officially entered service at the Museum on the 22nd, the Tramway Festival.

Starting the Tramway Festival

The job of starter is quite simple, but is incredibly essential. Normally, a starter would write down the tram details [drivers, passenger numbers, etc] and the safeworking would be left to the drivers. On a large day like this, with a 30-minute shedule to the National Park and a round-a-bout 20 minute schedule to Waratah Loop [Sutherland], the safeworking falls into the Starters hands. And did I mention convoys needing staff and tickets to be handed out?

8.00 I arrived, booked on, looked over the rostered jobs [who's got which tram] and the brief schedule. A chat with the OIC [Officer-in-charge] and I am given N728’s keys [control handles, punches] and the ‘daily test’ paper, which must be filled out before a tram can take passengers. Tests like handbrakes, air brakes, controllers, lifeguards, the like.

8.30 traffic briefing, and the important notices are told to the drivers, most importantly notices regarding the power supply, usually stretched when 4 trams are trying to suck juice in. At the conclusion, a steady stream of trams come out of the depot.

J675 comes out of the Hall.

9.00 we open, and the public begin flooding in as W2 249 goes on its first run, 9.15 National Park. Passenger numbers build throughout the morning till 11am, where, after a minutes silence for the victims of the recent Victorian Bushfires, J675 is welcomed back. After speeches from Howard Clarke and the family of the trams former owner, Darrin Hutchesson, the Traffic Superintendant at Bendigo, cuts the gold braid, allowing 675 and N728, another toastrack car of the era, to form the 11.15 National Park.

Part two coming soon, with an explanation of tramway safeworking.

3526, 3642 and 3830 to Wallerawang

A triple-header. I’ve never seen one. Alot of gunzels/foamers would have never.  So when the NSWRTM announced it, the gunzel following all got excited and waited eagerly for the 20th of September.

Andrew, our driver for the day, got us to our first spot on the Nepean River bridge between Penrith and Emu Plains early. After exploring and locating the best spot on the river bank, we took up our positions.

On time at 9:45, the duo of 3642 and 3830 steamed out of Penrith after watering. After the approaching whistles were heard, the hum of a diesel locomotive also filled the air. Could a coalie be coming to ruin our shots? However, to our joy, the steamer roared across as the Indian Pacific lead by NR28/DL38 slowly started moving from a red stick and crossed the steamers on the bridge, creating a nice photo opportunity.

Back into the car and after some deliberation and a quick pass through Springwood so Fred could use the ATM. The steamer arrived on time at Valley Heights where 3526 was shunted on, realising the idea of a triple-header. The train departed late; meanwhile our deliberation was finished and Wentworth Falls was chosen.

A couple were already on the end of the platform, and as a V-set pulled in Vince got off and joined us. As the steamer approached the hoards of car gunzels arrived and rushed over.

During this weekend the chance was taken to do some trackwork on one of the tracks between Meadlow Bath and Mt Victoria, which resulted in an interesting working between the two locations – the special  ended up running wrong road under pilot-staff working.

A spot just south of Mt Victoria was again found, and we waited. The scheduled time of 12.30 came and went, and shortly after that the hoards of chasing gunzels arrived. One guy was nice enough to park his gold car in my shot, and then walk back out of his spot as the train passed – thanks mate… Eventually at 12.44 the train slowly coasted through.

The next spot was easy – straight through on the Great Western Highway to Lithgow/Bowenfels and scout a spot there. About halfway to Lithgow the police had the highway closed for some reason, and diverted us onto a backroad through to Lithgow.

A spot was eventually found overlooking the Cox’s River viaduct, and the waiting began as slowly more and more photographers arrived. A stream of black smoke appeared down near Bowenfels and we knew it was time. All three locomotives powered by with lots of whistles and hurled their train up out of Lithgow, towards Wallerawang.

After this we had a look around Bowenfels station and then to Zig Zag to see their special.

Zig Zag part coming soon.

In the meantime, here’s the video;

3642 to Cronulla

Most gunzels think little of the Cronulla line – it may be single-line for most of its length*, however  there are no freights and rarely visited by a tourist train. So, it was an interesting idea of the NSWRTM to run a train there – 3642 and 6 cars. It was also the first steam train in a little while to not use diesel assistance, which was a massive gamble on a line which is single track with one crossing loop.

She arrived into Sutherland on time at 10:44, and ventured where no steam train has gone for a long time – left through a set of points and over Rawson Avenue, Old Princess Highway.

Off to Cronulla.

Arrival in Cronulla was on time. It was planned for a 30 minute stop-over and run-around, however that was not to be – issues were encountered running around, and the train departed around 10 minutes late, delaying a Cityrail service by about 5 minutes.

With a few blasts of the whistle she clanked her way through Miranda, tender-first, and started climbing the grade up to Sutherland, where she was held to allow Cityrail passengers to overtake.

With a toot of the whistle, 3642 makes her way back towards Sydney Terminal.

Startled passengers take pictures with their phones and little kids get excited as 3642 begins the climb uphill to Sutherland.

And the video:

Thanks must go to Fred and Vince for coming along, and Andrew for the driving.

Part 2, South Coast is coming soon..

Main South; Southern Highlands

The line from Sydney to Moss Vale was built progressively; from the beginning of the railways in 1855; until the railway at Moss Vale opened on the 2nd of December 1867. From Picton to Mittagong North the line originally diverted via Thirlmere and Buxton; part of which is now opened for tourist trains, and the location of the NSWRTM. A deviation was constructed and opened in July 1919.

In later years the line was extended south to Albury where the line met with the VR broad gauge from Melbourne. In the 1960s the line finally pushed south to Melbourne, paralleling the VR lines.

In the current world, the line is a major interstate link between Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth and even Darwin.

Sightings for 16 July, Southern Highlands:

Sighting links to photograph.

8:07am, Menangle Park – Up – 3MB7

G511, stabled Moss Vale yard.

10:36am, Moss Vale – Down – D*** (Light engine Berrima Cement to Moss Vale Yard)

10:39am, Moss Vale – Up – 3XW4

12:12pm, Yerrinbool – Up – PS6

12:39pm, Yerrinbool – Up – 2134

1.21pm, Mittagong – Down – 4SM9

3.23pm, Bowral – Down – 3BM4

Enjoy.

Metro Goods – Video

Further to the last post, the video is now online:

Enjoy, comments and pointers are appreciated.

Metro Goods Line – 11 July

Bound for Port Botany
Originally uploaded by Sydney Gunzel

The metro goods is an interesting line. It was constructed between 1916 and 1922, as a way of getting the freight trains out of the way of the higher-priority passenger trains. It parallels the Bankstown passenger line from Marrickville to Campsie, involves four triangular junctions en-route, and three large yards at Rozelle, Enfield and Chullora.

86 years after it opened, the line is still an important part of the everyday rail network.

These are the sightings for the 11th of July 2008; where known train numbers are included:

Marrickville:
9:42 – T250 - 4458 + 1443 Down (top and tailed)

9:50 – T182 - 4471, 44208 Up
10:00 – CB77 - 8253, 8258, G538, 82** Down

Canterbury
10.56 – T236 - 442s3 Up
11.02 – D*** - 2203, 3102 (Light Engines) Down
11.05 – CA69 - 8224, 82**, 82**, 8218
11:10 – 1541 - C507, Cs5 Down
11:28 – CB96 - 8236, GL**, GL** Up
11:47 – 9132 - 8148, 8109 Down
12:03 – BB87 - 8207, 8222, 82**, 8203 Down
12:09 – T171/T173 -EL63, EL62 Down
12:19 – 1933 - 8101, 8123 Down
1:35 – 9102 - 8127 (Ballast) Down
1:58 – 1933 - 8123, 8101 Up
2:18 – T251 - 1443 + 4458 (Top and tail) Up
3.10 – 4142 - C504, 48** (Austrak), 442s6, C50* Up

A decent day of gunzelling I suppose. Some trains ran to time, others hours out of their paths. Some didn’t even have paths, and some were just random movements.

Photographs have been uploaded here, video is in production.

Edit: The train numbers have been edited on information received from Raichase – cheers.

Trams after Dark

‘Shooting through like a Bondi tram’
Originally uploaded by Sydney Gunzel

It came and went – 12 hours at the tramway museum…

The Illawarra line has trackwork – thats good; the buses seem to have a quicker run than an all stops train. Arrive at Loftus on time.

Before long there’s work to be done. The various trams coming out tonight have to be prepared and certified for traffic. Trams have to be shunted out of the shed to access the trams stabled behind. Track greasing has to be done, and all by 2:00 – a charter group of tram ‘gunzels’ are coming.

During the afternoon and evening I was the starter – an interesting job. Keeping a logbook of infomation about the nights running – driver, conductor, tram number, number of passengers, etc. On special events this job also means you are the ‘tram controller’, in charge of the safeworking – staff and ticket.

From 4:00 onwards, a half-hourly tram service is introduced. Various photoshoots are set up to keep the photographers happy. Despite being starter, there’s still time to photograph. There is 20 minutes between tram departures for you to get your shots.

Spending 12 hours ‘on the job’ means your very tired in the end, but it is worth it – there is something about the museum that keeps me coming back. The day was also very successful for the museum – 140 people had travelled by tram in the afternoon, with a large amount of money being made in both the kiosk and bookshop.

Signed off at 9:15pm, on time for my lift home.

Sydney Tramway Museum

1979
Originally uploaded by Sydney Gunzel

The Sydney Tramway Museum, Loftus. Most people don’t give a second thought about it. The main thing a member of the public will see is the level crossing. Hardly ever in use, except on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays.

Saturday is the main work day. A team of men will gather in the workshop and get to work. Sometimes some shunting is completed in the running shed, a trip run down to the National Park to grease up the rails to prevent them wearing down the wheels, and various other jobs – cutting trees, tinkering with the overhead, so on.

Sundays and Wednesdays are the operation days. Trams run dependant on passenger numbers, to a rough schedule. One tram an hour to the National Park along the former railway branchline, and two trams to Sutherland South. Occasionally the museum is open for special events. There are 3 main ones during the course of the year: The Sydney Tramway Festival, February; Trams after Dark, June 21st; and a theme day (Back to the 40s) in October.

None of these days can take place without volunteers. There are many people who give up lots of their time to work on keeping a piece of Sydney’s heritage going. From the workshop men working to put the D car back in service, to the drivers and conductors. There’s people who work every weekend, and there’s those who come down when needed for special events.

www.sydneytramwaymuseum.com.au