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My love of trains probably can be traced to my grandfather
being Stationmaster at Newport, Monmouthsire, South Wales,
which made him an employee of the esteemed Great Western
Railway Company.
I spent a few months as a kid living with my grandmother
at Upton-on-Severn
in Worcestershire, while my parents were visiting North
America. My grandmother's place was next door to the cemetery
but overlooked the railway, with the end of the line and
British Rail station just up the road.
Three times a day a train consisting of a little ex-LMS
0-6-0 tank engine grunting away with a single red carriage
and a goods van would turn up from neighbouring Pershore.
My first model locomotive was a TT-scale
Triang replica of this locomotive, although my train
had the luxury of two coaches and could go around endlessly
in circles.
With my good mate David
Atkinson, I pursued Victoria's dwindling stable of
iron horses until all that were left were a few kept alive
by enthusiasts. The trains and ships
of the 20th century were wondrous creations to behold,
feel and smell ... today they are mere soul-less computer-generated
machines that work well but have little charm or personality.
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Victorian Railways ... North Geelong rail
yards in the last days of steam, from the overpass in the days
when you could park your car there to take a photograph. A K
Class pauses beside the signal box which is still there a few
coats of paint later. On the right is scene in an engine shed
long since gone, the ancient No. 3 Crane Engine at the turntable
in North Melbourne Locomotive Depot. |
While at school in the mid 1960s
I assisted in voluntary track clearing prior to the re-opening of
the narrow-gauge railway near Melbourne known affectionately as
'Puffing Billy'. These are 2-6-2 tank locomotives 6A and 7A photographed
at Belgrave station, shortly after the re-opening of the first section
of the line. |
'Puffing Billy' has always been one
of Victoria's top tourist attractions as it winds its way through
picturesque scenery in the Dandenong Ranges, to the east of Melbourne. |
Crossing the grand wooden trestle
bridge at Selby, going and coming back. |
The West Coast Railway Company ran
the Melbourne-Warrnambool service for several years until sadly
running out of puff in 2004. They ran a regular steam service
on Saturdays, hauled by British-built Hudson (4-6-4) locomotives.
Here is R711 arriving at Colac station and having its driving
gear attended to. |
The same type of engine in Victorian Railways days in normal operating
condition and original all-black-and-rust livery. This is R
Class locomotive R707 shunting in the North Melbourne rail
yards in 1964. |
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Two shots of an A2 Class 4-6-0 locomotive,
No. 986, on a rail enthusiast special ... who knows where since
I have no record of when I took the shots with my brother's (even
then) ancient Zeiss Ikon folding 120 camera. Click on the images
for a larger view. |
Another R Class Hudson, R747, hauling a
'ratbag special' (a train full of rail enthusiasts) run by the
Association of Railway Enthusiasts on a photostop at Werribee,
Vic, late 1964. On the right is K Class 2-8-0 locomotive K171hauling
a goods train at Bowser, Vic on 4 September 1964. |
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Two steamers operated by a concrete company
at Fyansford, near Geelong, Vic. On the right is a Garratt articulated
locomotive. Click on the pictures for a larger view. |
While we were preparing the Puffing Billy
line to return to service, another narrow gauge line was closing,
the magic Mount Lyell Railway between copper-mining town Queenstown
and seaport Strahan on the west coast of Tasmania. These pictures
were taken just before the line closed in 1963. Aside from the
fact that the line traversed spectacular rainforest, it was an
engineering feat in itself, employing a Swiss-style Abt rack
and pinion system to give its little tank engines extra grip
on steep inclines. The line has recently been re-opened to capitalise
on the tourist trade.
Click on the images for a larger view. |
Two shots of Tasmanian steam
engines taken by an unknown photographer. Click on the images
for a bigger view. |
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ACT & New South Wales, Australia |
Left: New South Wales Government Railways 32 class
locomotive 3233 at Canberra, ACT, September 1964. Right:New
South Wales Government Railways 33 Class locomotive at Cooma, NSW,
September 1964. |
Keighley & Worth Valley Railway,
Yorkshire, 1974: departing Keighley station for Haworth, tank engine
in action. |
The tank engine I know insufficient about
on the left, but the handsome 2-10-0 machine on the right is
'Evening Star', the last steam locomotive built for British Railways.
Click on the pictures for a bigger view. |
What was then known as Yugoslavia |
Steam locomotives in Belgrade, Yugoslavia,
1971. |
Tank locomotive in Belgrade, left,
and passing another locomotive somewhere else in Yugoslavia, 1971. |
Another Indian steamer, 1974. |
Early diesels in Victoria |
The relic on the left is probably
the first diesel locomotive in Australia, operated from the 1930s
on a timber tramway and photographed at Alexandra station in 1964.
On the right from the early 1950s is double-ended B62, a member
of the first class of Victorian Railways' diesel-electric locomotives,
one of many GM-based designs built by Clye Engineering in New South
Wales. |
The S Class were similar to the B
Class (above) except with a single cab, built for mainline passenger
and freight, hauling such interstate trains as The Southern Aurora,
Spirit of Progress and the Intercapital Daylight, all to Albury
in NSW, and the Overland express to Adelaide, South Australia. |
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