Railfanning NSW In The 70's and 80's

Kiwi Rob · Posted: Sat Nov 17, 2007 11:59 am

For you older folks out there, what was it like to pursue the hobby in NSW in 70's and 80's?

Was access to yards, signal boxes, depots/workshops much eaiser then now,including Sydney/Newcastle/Illawarra?
Was Sydney a much more friendly and easy going towards responsible enthusiasts then?
Was getting a cab ride a much more frequent event in this era?
Did many of you take the chance to visit stations like Locksley, Tumulla, and Borenore in their twilight years?
When did the safety mandarins and the lawyers begin to ruin things?

Will all the silly red tape these days, many of the shots taken on rail property by Mead,Renton and Cotterall in their master opus Units In Focus show just how stripped down the once mighty NSW system has become and how much goodwill that's been lost between fans and the powers that be.Things have certainly changed for the worse since those days.

A great pity I was born too young [I'm 32] and on the other side of the Tasman! Judging by the pics in the Units In Focus/Among Their Favourites era, I would loved to have been part of it.

I'd like to hear some railfanning experiences in this era.
Cheers,
Rob.

MBAX · Posted: Sat Nov 17, 2007 2:46 pm

The big difference in those days was in the country. Lots of friendly staff, easy to find things out, no over the top safety "nazis", and best of all most of the branchlines still had services operating. More and shorter trains too.

They were great days to be a railfan.

22nd November can't come quick enough...

http://roy-marshall.fotopic.net/

TheLoadedDog · Posted: Sat Nov 17, 2007 6:10 pm

I've mentioned this before, I'm sure, but here is a comparison:

Railfanning 2005
At Central's 150th, steam movements into an out of the station involved a row of Transit Officers at the ends of the platforms to stop enthusiasts from venturing further. Safety vests galore.

Railfanning 1982
After a Gosford - Wyong - Gosford steam shuttle, the train left, but everybody was still in the railfanning "mood", so we just all streamed off the end of the platform and hung about Gosford Yard for an hour or so. Men, women, and children. Live running lines. We climbed in and out of the cabs of stabled locomotives, sat in the drivers' seats and took photos, we crossed the live Up and Down Mains with just a quick left and right look for any traffic. We used our heads. We neither damaged nor stole anything. Nobody got hurt.

Humphrey! We're leaving!

Raichase · Posted: Sat Nov 17, 2007 7:49 pm

LocoShed · Posted: Sat Nov 17, 2007 10:04 pm

Hi all,
While I did have a few rail experiences in the 70s, I didn't really get into the hobby until the start of the 80s.
They were certainly better days. It was a lot harder to find the information and much of what you did score was purely by surprise, or through the help of those near extinct signalbox people.
Access was easier, people far friendlier. Certainly the abuse aimed at you by train crews everyday was unknown back then. There was a mutual respect, you would even go out of your way to inform the railways if you noticed a problem.
I can't think of a yard in the early 80s that you could not enter easily. Staff were almost always helpful when it came to entertaining the wishes of a young LocoShed.
Of course there was lots more lines back then, we even had steam trundling around the Hunter coalfields.

Another thing that has changed is the amount of resentment in the hobby. This seems to have come hand in hand with the internet.
So much easier to get all the important stuff as it appears somewhere here, now all the younger fans are hell bent on being the first to record it. You will go out and see 20 railfans at each of these events, most will ignore you and walk off after the train comes.
In the 80s around the Riverina it was by chance you would come across someone and on this rare occasion you would introduce yourselves and perhaps spend a day or two chasing together before heading off in your own different ways.
Nowdays you find if someone does approach you to talk it is usually a pervert of some kind, the more mentally stable seemingly having a mistrust for another railfan.

So the 80s was far different to today. It was far more enjoyable and was the highlight of my railfaning existence.
2007 is just not enjoyable and lineside adventures are usually just done to be with old mates and have a laugh.
We have certainly lost something over the years, something that was very special, and something that now seems so very dark, uninviting and disappointing.

Oh yeah, forgot to mention all the ALCos back then Wink

Brad

Raichase · Posted: Sun Nov 18, 2007 6:37 am

Brad, I know what you mean about the resentment. Everyone more than happy to get in everyone elses way, ignore each other etc. I won't talk to someone that looks like they're going to bat off over the first silverset to come past, but if someone looks friendly and unassuming, I'll always say a quick G'day.

Did so to quite a few people on the Steam in the Suburbs Saturday, as well as when 3801 went to Austinmer, and met some really nice people. On the 3801 to Austinmer day, spoke to a Cityrail driver who knew the blokes crewing the 38, and we had a great chat. Got some great photos too, because he had the driver out the window. Ditto on the Steam in the Suburbs Saturday, spoke to a Countrylink bloke at Central from Grafton, who was getting the Indian Pacific to Perth with the missus - great guy, really friendly. Also spoke to a couple of other blokes while at Wolli Creek, who were up for a joke and a chat.

It makes things a hell of a lot more interesting than just standing there foaming on ones own Razz

- Raichase.
My Flickr! and Website - Trackside

Comments made are not my own and may be complete rubbish.

Inspector · Posted: Sun Nov 18, 2007 7:57 am

Having done the bulk of my active railfanning in the 70's, 80's and early 90's, I can heartily endorse the comments of TLD™, LocoShed and Raichase. As MBAX said, it was a great time to be a railfan. Cool

The key to it was respect. We respected the way the rail system went about its business, and the majority of railway workers respected our interest. 99% of railfans knew what to do, and more importantly, what not to do around tracks and trains. You hardly ever saw - or heard about - anyone doing something dangerous or stupid. I remember one evening (circa 1980) photographing - along with thirty-odd other gunzels - in Albury Yard. Plenty of trains, both standard and broad gauge, moving in the yard, shunting, loco changes, etc; and we photographed it all, without any fuss or drama, and without an orange vest in sight. On another occasion, at Dubbo, I and several others were taking time exposures of a stabled 3801. The local constabulary came around - and helpfully shone their torches on the wheels and motion of the engine! Can you imagine it today? Surprised

Special delivery - a berm........a BERM??!!!?

OLE (Order of Lithgovian Empire), Lithgovian New Years' Honours, 2008.

SMR30 · Posted: Sun Nov 18, 2007 11:44 am

Atleast Alco fans would have had more to see back then with 45, 442, 44, 80 and 48 class.
And Alco hauled coal trains.

Tribute to the SMR 10 class
http://www.freewebs.com/smr10class/
Tribute to the NSW 442 class
http://www.freewebs.com/nsw442/
PB's Rail & Steam Pictures
http://pbsrailsteampics.fotopic.net/

Riccardo · Posted: Sun Nov 18, 2007 12:11 pm

Gunzelled Hexham in its last year. Just wandered in, spoke to guy, signed indemnity upstairs, that was it. Very relaxed. Many giant flies!

Rode 620s to Richmond and Toronto, Dungog and Kiama

Loco hauled SRA train from Sydney to Moss Vale via Unanderra (missed the CPH Sad

)

Rode the last year of the Cooma Mail

Caught the Tenterfield XPT (but not to Tenterfield Sad

)

Got ride in 46 light engine cab back from Gosford after missing last train

Rode tonnes of non-air loco hauled trains to mountains, NTL, Bathurst. Saw one to Lismore on the board at Central but didn't catch.

Did driving trips to Ardglen, Rhondda, Telegraph Point, Bethungra and more

If you need to get in touch, drop a comment at the Transport Textbook or on my blog.

remotemants · Posted: Sun Nov 18, 2007 6:50 pm

OH&S and insurance seems to have killed a lot of things, not just railfanning

Kiwi Rob · Posted: Sun Nov 18, 2007 7:18 pm

Awesome thread so far! Having been in NSW in 1998, 2002, 2004, and 2006 despite the red tape limiting the scope of what I could do, I found there was still some old vestiges of the respect enthusiasts had in the days of yore in country NSW especially in the Central West.Thankfully there's still some degree of latitude once you're well out of Sydney and the rules aren't enforced to the letter.

Some memories from my trips
-Invited to pull Up Distant for Up XPT at Harden South Box
-Offered the chances by Malcolm at Orange East Fork Box to ride a hi rail Land Cruiser for several hundred metres that was passing [I didn't take it up]
-Thanks to a fellow RP member,was able to visit Orange Control and have a play of the levers of Orange Yard Box [It was a Sunday evening and noone was on duty]
-Chatting with both operators of Werris Creek South and Station Box. The lady operator at the Station Box was a great lady to talk to and she showed a refreshingly cavalier attitude towards the safety Nazis by not wearing a orange vest while setting the route and exchanging the staff for a Moree line freight.On a earlier visit the bloke on duty there [who trains a trotting horse] did likewise. Obviously Werris Creek did things by it's own rules.
-A chance meeting with a Dubbo B Frame signalman in 2004 led to regular email exchanges and staying with him for several nights last year.
-Invited into Junee Control [when it was located on the platform there]
-Being able to play with some levers at Parkes Box after mentioning I do so on the ZigZag Railway.
-Got a cabride from Strathfield to Hornsby in 2002 as my aunt,an occupational thearpist had a Cityrail driver as one of her clients.
-Being able to videotape coal trains within the fence at east end of Lithgow Yard by the ground frame there.
-Chatting to quite a few country signalmen [as you might gather I'm a signal box fan],one from Orange East Fork Box gave me some rule books from the late 50's and a 1979 PTC list of stations and sidings.
-A chat last year with the Muswellbrook SM and mentioning the Sefton resignalling when browsing through a Weekly Notice led him to show me the old CTC panel that was in the signal box there for safekeeping for the local SB preservation group and some signal diagrams from the early 1970's.

I feel the sucessor organistions to SRA have lost a got of goodwill they use to enjoy from enthusiasts which is a great shame as it made for good community relations. Sure there are idiot fans out there, but that doesn't mean every that the majority should suffer and while safety rules are down getting ludicrous,why can't there be some latitude and common sense for individual situations?

Hopefully one day the tide of political correctness fades and we can take back what the safety mandarins and corparate culture has stolen from us.

Thankfully in NZ while red tape has taken the fun out of the hobby, to some extent it's hasn't been as bad as in Australia. There's still very little jail height trackside fencing,even in Auckland and Wellington, no one [yet] gets harassed for taking pics on platforms, I get on well with our local track gangs and signal maintainers, and several of employees of my local Morrinsville yard,have been breifly inivited into the cab of a freight at a CTC operated loop while waiting for a opposing movement, Auckland MU drivers give me give waves when photographing at Otahuhu station, I've got on well with several signalmen over the years, and earlier this year I got a surprise invite to take a ride on a hi rail Mistsubishi in the beautiful King Country on the North Island Main Trunk[ while I rode one of the gangers drove my car].

Maybe I've been lucky, but I've generally had a good deal in New Zealand.

BTW, how do fans get treated in South East Asia? Judging by the comments by a RP member it seems like what Aussie used to be. What about South American countries like Boliva, Argentina,Peru,Brazil and Ecuador? Would the same apply?
Cheers,
Rob.

silverset · Posted: Sun Nov 18, 2007 7:40 pm

It seems the country is the SOLE remaining part where good will and understanding of people interested in trains remains, in a less anal attitude and more keen to relate to the hobbists concerns.

Most country staff have a care free and relaxed attitude and welcome people - msot likely due to the isolation factor?

Meanwhile in the big smoke of 2007, the laws is anal and doesnt wish to respect the past or future or anything!

It really is sad.

Trev Trainnut · Posted: Sun Nov 18, 2007 11:32 pm

I miss the sheer craziness of the old photo stops where after hearing the cock-a-doodle doo whistle, we all clambered out in the middle of nowhere, lined up in an orderly single file across the paddock while the train backed up a couple of Kms to then come steaming through flat chat - brilliant.
Throw the breaks on, back up to get us and then off on our way!
Lots of funny stories from these stops! Very Happy

Trev Trainnut · Posted: Sun Nov 18, 2007 11:32 pm

I miss the sheer craziness of the old photo stops where after hearing the cock-a-doodle doo whistle, we all clambered out in the middle of nowhere, lined up in an orderly single file across the paddock while the train backed up a couple of Kms to then come steaming through flat chat - brilliant.
Throw the breaks on, back up to get us and then off on our way!
Lots of funny stories from these stops! Very Happy

dasher · Posted: Mon Nov 19, 2007 7:55 am

That sounds bloody brilliant Trev! Very Happy

I am jealous.

I can also vouch for the country attendees being a friendly lot. I have only been actively in the hobby for about 8 years, but the country lads are far more friendly.

The workers at Temora a few years ago let me wander around the yard there for about an hour. Didn't need to sign in, just said wear this safety vest and be careful.

Also, before Stockinbingal went to CTC(?), the bloke there let me photo him in a staff exchange with an ex-Parkes freighter. I then had a good chat with him for a bit after that.

I didn't come here looking for trouble, I just came to do the RP shuffle... break it down...