Edited 01 May 2021 15:22, last year, edited by ngarner

Breaking the run of sequential rosters, the Roster Clerk shifted me back to 130D, instead of moving on to 142D, working with Driver Ian Anthony for the whole week. As I wasn’t officially allocated a place on the roster, I was only pencilling the next week’s roster in, just in case it changed, as happened this week, so 142D’s jobs are not available to report anymore.

Sunday was off.
Monday was rostered on at 0450 for a Bendigo, changing over with a 0615 up, however this train had been cancelled, or run by another crew. Instead, we went onto standby to sit it out in the meal room for hours until Manpower called us out to give us the task of taking out the loco for the 0945 Serviceton ‘Jet’. We walked out to the depot yard to locate C507, probably on the turntable, prepared it and headed for the TR point. Making our way to North Dynon yard, we coupled up and waited for the train examiner. Once the train was checked, we were directed to get the train underway as the crew running it towards Ballarat were delayed. We departed the Yard, crossed the Maribyrnong, ran through the Bunbury St tunnel, travelled the dual gauge to diverge onto the Down Independent Goods line, ran past Tottenham Yard and descended the grade towards Sunshine. We stopped at the home signal, until the ‘stick’ cleared. We got the train moving again to join the main line and stop at the platform where our relief were waiting. After relief, we crossed to the up platform and caught the next spark back to the depot. We returned to the depot to sign off at 1130.

Tuesday’s start was 0405 for 0425 light engines to ‘the Marsh’ running as train 0101. Together with the crew running the following up pass we found B64 and B70 coupled together for us by the fitters. We climbed into B64 as the other crew boarded B70. Leaving the depot, we reversed beneath the hump and joined the main line at South Kensington to run through Sunshine and on to ‘the Marsh’. Directed, by the signalman, straight into the yard, at 0525, on arrival there, we separated the locos, coupled each to its own train and completed a continuity test. We were running the 0630 up, the first departure, so when the disc signal cleared we drew the train out of the yard onto the main line. When the road was set for the platform, and the signal cleared, we pushed back into the platform to enable our passengers to board. On departure time, with a clear ‘stick’ and staff on the loco we powered away from the platform to stop at the usual stations to Sunshine performing hand exchanges of the staff at each to Rockbank. After the set down only stop at Sunshine we continued in to be directed into an empty platform at Spencer St where we drew to a halt at 0730. The details of what happened next are not recorded so we either returned the T to Dynon or were relieved to make the same journey by spark to go onto standby until 1205 when we signed off, having dodged the Fuel Point duty bullet once more.

Wednesday’s start was at 0510 for the 0625 Sunbury pass, train 8007. The early departure time makes me think that we actually took our own loco off the pit for this job as the first sparks running through North Melbourne, on the up, would have limited the amount of time available to get us to Spencer St and settled before departure time. The loco allocated to run this train was H3. Interestingly, this is the first Sunbury local that I worked in my time at Dynon, and I only worked one more in the next five months, for a total of two in five years. There was one occasion in March 1981 where I was rostered to work a late morning Sunbury but was taken off the job when I signed on. With the train examiner finished his job we prepared to depart and then worked the ‘all stations’ beyond St Albans to Sunbury where we arrived at 0705, which was 10 minutes ahead of the timetable. Considering the maximum speed, of an H class, was 80kph, the timetable must have had some padding to allow that to occur. On arrival at Sunbury I cut off so we could run the H around the carriage rake, then coupled up after which we manoeuvred the train from the down platform to the up one, most likely via the centre road. Once in the correct platform we waited for our passengers to board and our departure time of 0735, running as train 8020. With the all clear given, we set off to collect more passengers on the way back to the city and drew to a halt at Spencer St at 0825. The H was released from the carriages and I would suggest that we then returned it to Dynon, since they weren’t used a lot on passenger trains with the coming of the ‘New Deal’. Back at the depot we were relegated to standby by the Manpower clerk and stayed in the meal room for the rest of the shift to sign off at 1310.

The roster had us booked off on Thursday, however, the Roster Clerk decided that he needed us to work, so booked us both on, at 0440, to work the 0500 Newmarket-Brooklyn Pilot. The decline in livestock traffic was noticeable by this stage as there used to be at least one Newmarket Stock Pilot, if not two, for both day and afternoon shifts plus another working exclusively at Brooklyn. Now one loco was covering both locations and only for one shift. We took Y158 off the pit to either Brooklyn or Newmarket, my notes are very vague on this point. What I did record is that Ian handed the loco over to my control when we were at Brooklyn as we prepared to transfer a rake of livestock wagons to Newmarket. This was achieved by climbing up towards Tottenham, with the staff on the loco, along the Up Independent Goods line into the Centre Yard, where we then ran around the rake, re-coupled and departed to travel to Newmarket, via the high line goods line to Kensington and the suburban line to the Racecourse line junction. We, presumably, did some shunting at Newmarket, with the loco still under my control to make up another rake which was then transferred to the Centre Yard. On arrival at the Centre Yard Ian took over again but whether that was so he could take the Y back to Dynon, having completed everything required of us, or to return to one of the stockyard sidings, to do more shunting, I failed to note. Either way, we finished working at 1200 and with the loco in the fitter’s hands at Fuel Point we made our way to Manpower to sign off at 1240.

Friday’s start was an 0530 on to work the 0615 Frankston goods. We removed T380 from the depot and ran it past the East Yard to then set back into that Yard to couple to the train. Once the train examiner had finished his job, we prepared to depart when I was given control of the train. With the dwarf signal cleared I applied power and we moved out of the Yard, past Spencer St station through Viaduct Junction and onto the new viaduct. Passing Flinders St ‘A’ box, we ran through the road, known as 12 West and 12 East, even though it was the one stretch of track, between platforms 9 and 10 and on along the ‘Special lines’ towards Richmond. Joining the Caulfield Local Lines, we passed through Richmond station, crossed the Yarra River at Cremorne and cleared South Yarra station where power was applied to tackle the grades the other side of the William St bridge. Climbing up to Malvern I reduced power as we crested the grade and approached Caulfield. Passing through this station, although whether through the centre road or the platform, I can’t recall now, we swung onto the Frankston line to continue on towards Frankston. My impression is that we ran through to Frankston without any stops, since we arrived into the yard at that station at 0800. One of us cut the loco off the train, technically my job but I may not have done it since I was in the driver’s seat, and the loco was attached to the other end of the train. Whatever shunting may have been required was done before a continuity test was completed and we departed Frankston on the up journey, past the cleared disc signal at 0850, with me still in the driver’s seat. This trip was obviously not a straight run back to Melbourne, based on the time it took us to get back to the Arrivals Yard so we had to have shunted at a number of locations en route, including the yard at Caulfield, if I remember correctly. Departing Caulfield, we made no more stops for shunting and descended into South Yarra, passed through Flinders St again and onto the goods line to stop in the Arrival Yard to leave whatever we had brought back with us for the Hump Pilot to deal with. With the T class returned to Fuel Point at 1300 we made our way back to the depot and signed off at 1330.

Saturday was an 0400 on rostered to standby. At 0700, Manpower called on us to take out the loco for the 0845 Bendigo pass. In the depot yard, we climbed onto X43 where I released the handbrake, checked the tool kit, the VC seals and the other items on the check list, to confirm a loco was okay to go, and then we headed for the TR point. Once over the flyover, we dropped the X class onto the train and began the train examination when that gent rolled up and banged on the side of the loco to get our attention, which was their usual way of letting a crew know that they were ready to go to work. At some point, the crew running the train arrived and relieved us. We then made our way to platform 2 tasked with the job of relieving the up ‘Overland’. This train arrived into the platform, hauled by twin S class, nos. 302 & 312. The Ararat crew stopped the train near where we were standing, so we climbed into the cab and let the foreign crew head off to their rest. I uncoupled the paired S class and we drew into the dead end to change locos. When the points changed and signal cleared, we throttled up and set off to take them to Dynon for refuelling. We left the locos at Fuel Point and returned to Manpower, who didn’t give us any time in the depot meal room, instead sending us straight back to Fuel Point, to work there from 1030 onwards. We shifted locos until 1200 when we signed off.

Neil