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aus.rail
Chief Train Controller
Joined: Jan 12, 2003
Last Visited: Jun 3, 2003
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Posted: Mon Jan 27, 2003 9:25 am
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RC <richy_ch_2000@yahoo.com> wrote:
> 3 absolute Gems
> ca. 1985 - standing on Campbelltown platform as a old-livery 48 and
> candy-coloured non-aircon carriages came in forming the return leg of
> the Cooma Mail. I think the train ceased shortly after this date.
> This was actually a train available to suburban passengers so I did
> jump on and had the wonderful priviledge in modern times of windows
> open, 48 noise and smell coming in, and extra treat of via Fairfield
> which if IIRC was rarer then.
This reminded me of a similar one when I was in Brisbane in July 1991. One
of the evening limited express Caboolture trains was to be a 3900 hauling an
SX set, with an all statons diesel-hauled SX set to Petrie soon after. My
plan was to go photograph the Caboolture train at Roma St then go to Petrie
and back before getting the Countrylink coach to Murwillumbah.
But then in came the Caboolture train with a sputtering and badly weathered
1620 up front. I claimed a seat in the first carriage to listen to the
typical English Electric burbleburbleburble as we waited for departure. The
loco seemed to protest a bit (actually a lot) when pulling away from Roma St
and Central, and by Brunswick St I was wondering if it was going to fail.
But the driver really opened it up from Bowen Hills for some spirited
running with (I think) only 2 stops between there and Petrie.
Unfortunately I had to bail out at Petrie to get back to Roma St in time to
eat and catch the coach.
Cheers
David
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aus.rail
Chief Train Controller
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Posted: Mon Jan 27, 2003 9:25 am
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I guess one of yours must be your bus tour to Gympie right?
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aus.rail
Chief Train Controller
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Posted: Mon Jan 27, 2003 9:25 am
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<snip all>
My rarest would be 3801 coming up from Newcastle to Aberdeen, a couple
of days after some big tour, in 1988. Totally unannounced at school,
until the day, we all went to the railway station to board it for a
short trip to Muswellbrook. Spent the day in the park at Muswellbrook,
with a catered lunch by the school, we all then piled back onto the
train and headed back to Aberdeen. Some of us were lucky enough to
have a look inside the front of 3801, including me...
That, and being given a crash course on how to drive a 90 class at the
front of an empty coal, at Muswellbrook.
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aus.rail
Chief Train Controller
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Posted: Mon Jan 27, 2003 9:26 am
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My rarest journey would be on a train after finishing uni on a Thursday
night and seeing a drunken brawl break out between three buffoons in the
carriage when it stopped at Granville station.
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aus.rail
Chief Train Controller
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Posted: Mon Jan 27, 2003 9:26 am
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John Coyle <john.coyle@eudoramail.com> wrote in message
news:1251c31.0301231151.20688e35@posting.google.com...
> The story below comes from my discussion board, but, I thought people at
aus.rail would have some "rare" train trip accounts to talk about.
1. Broken Hill to Burns and back in the guards van with a Silverton Tramway
pass. Then Broken Hill to Coburn (about 100 metres beyond Burns) with a
"First Class Round Trip" (i.e. Sydney to Sydney via NSWGR, STC, SAR, VR and
NSWGR) ticket on the night express. Night in the pub. Up early, used same
ticket for guards van on goods train to Pt Pirie. Stopped to shunt
everywhere. Picked up big crane on a flat car. I moved up the train at the
next stop and found the crane unlocked so I rode the rest of the way in the
high cabin of the crane. Magnificent but slow trip. Standard guage being
laid interesting special work all over the place especially between
Oodlawirra and Peterborough. Garratts at Pboro. Steam shunting at Pirie.
2. Bauang (sp?) to Manila in the Philippines, cab ride in return for a
couple of bottles of CocaCola. Deteriorating 3' 6". Car brakes secured by
fencing wire. From the cab we could see the locals using the line for
transport. As we passed them we could see the "skates" they make to carry
produce. Old ball bearings on a wooden frame carry the weight, smaller ball
bearings on vertical pegs set to gauge keep the skate on the rails. It's all
light enough to tip off the line when a real train comes once or twice a
day. Never got round to trying that idea here 
3. In North Wales, running from Dduallt to Minfforth (sp?) in an open wagon
with no engine. Down hill all the way for miles. This was a 25 year reunion
for those of us from around the world silly enough to have built a deviation
around the new dam that had cut the Ffestiniog Railway in two parts. In the
old days, after a day or two working we used to come down from our mess near
the new spiral to the first road accessible station by gravity well after
the last train. The reunion run was special in that we went down most of the
whole route in daylight between public trains on what is now a working
railway. They even had the level crossing gates closed for road traffic to
allow us to have a non-stop run.
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Gazza
Chief Train Controller
Joined: Jan 13, 2003
Last Visited: Jan 3, 2009
Location: Gold Coast
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Posted: Fri Feb 07, 2003 5:40 pm
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I didn't get to ride it, but in 1999 I was waiting to get the the XPT from Murwillumbah to Sydney, when we were all bussed to Lismore to meet the train due to a late arrival. Apparently when it left Sydney Terminal, a signaller stuffed up & sent it on a loop of the Bankstown line before heading north.
No such luck on my trip to Sydney & back.
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nazarail
Chief Commissioner
Joined: Feb 08, 2003
Last Visited: Jan 8, 2009
Location: meeks road deport
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Posted: Mon Feb 10, 2003 1:46 pm
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one of mine was only a few months ago. comeing back from eum plains after a brithday me and my mates got of at blacktown to change for a express to central. after a few mins a xpt pulled in. and being a smeghead as i am i walked up to the carrige guy and asked if this went to cetral. he said yes and i asked if me and my mates could catch this one ( the xpt). and he said yes. so me and mates climed aboard and sat down in the frist class car. on the way to central we found out how to swing the seats around. some where along the line me and my mates where faceing each other sitting aross the aisle. the train hit the brakes hard. makeing the seats fly back faceing the front of the train. by the end of the trip we had the seats faceing the worng way and pointing across the aisle. the guy comes out and says " doing some rearageing there boys" we said yeah. he luaghs and walks out.
what a way to travel.
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DavidB
Site Admin
Joined: Jan 11, 2003
Last Visited: Jan 25, 2007
Location: Canberra
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Posted: Mon Feb 10, 2003 2:51 pm
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| aus.rail wrote: | I once rode the "Southern Aurora" from Melbourne to Sydney via the Moss Vale to W'gong line, and the Spirit of Progress via the
Picton-Mittagong "loop", line, due to a derailment on the main line. |
I once rode a Canberra - Sydney Xplorer via Wollongong due to a derailment at Picton. Passengers were given the option of bailing out at Moss Vale and catching buses, or spending the extra hours to go the long way. The down side was the buffet was closed at Moss Vale. There was an announced 3 minute stop at Wollongong (presumably a crew change) which allowed me just enough time to run to the vending machines and take a photo, and for the few remaining die hards on board to have a smoko.
Cheers
David
Last edited by DavidB on Mon Feb 10, 2003 6:32 pm; edited 1 time in total
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mjja
Sir Nigel Gresley
Joined: Jan 13, 2003
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Location: Mount Waverley, Melbourne
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Posted: Mon Feb 10, 2003 4:31 pm
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| DavidB wrote: | Most enjoyable "unusual" car was catching the 15.15 Sunbury one afternoon in 1992. This was rostered for the MTH set, which was supposed to be two MTH railcar trailers and a CP van but was often a scratch set. This afternoon it was 263AZ, which has just come off standard gauge and not yet converted to an ACZ, 262ACZ and a PH van. So I rode to Sunbury and back in V/Line's last full first class carriage on a suburban ticket. Behind B65!
Cheers
David |
The B was blue, presumably; what liveries were the cars?
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K160
Minister for Railways
Joined: Jan 14, 2003
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Location: Bendigo
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mjja
Sir Nigel Gresley
Joined: Jan 13, 2003
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Location: Mount Waverley, Melbourne
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cfclael57
Chief Commissioner
Joined: Sep 29, 2003
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Posted: Thu Feb 13, 2003 12:03 pm
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Never seen her at AMRA before Michael.
Rgds,
Nick
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nazarail
Chief Commissioner
Joined: Feb 08, 2003
Last Visited: Jan 8, 2009
Location: meeks road deport
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Posted: Thu Feb 13, 2003 4:38 pm
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whouldent be kim russel whould it??
ahhhhh she drives me up the wall about the frigen XPT.
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DavidB
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| DavidB |
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Posted: Thu Feb 13, 2003 5:37 pm
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| mjja wrote: | | DavidB wrote: | | Most enjoyable "unusual" car was catching the 15.15 Sunbury one afternoon in 1992. This was rostered for the MTH set, which was supposed to be two MTH railcar trailers and a CP van but was often a scratch set. This afternoon it was 263AZ, which has just come off standard gauge and not yet converted to an ACZ, 262ACZ and a PH van. So I rode to Sunbury and back in V/Line's last full first class carriage on a suburban ticket. Behind B65! |
The B was blue, presumably; what liveries were the cars? |
Yep, B65 and B75 were both blue until the end of their V/Line days. Both carriages were in standard V/Line orange.
Cheers
David
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nazarail
Chief Commissioner
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Location: meeks road deport
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Posted: Sun Feb 16, 2003 4:32 pm
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i had a vset stoping all staions to hurstvill from sutherland due to a coal train brakeing down.
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