The 2022 Steam and Heritage season August, September, and some overseas travel to come
Hi Everyone,
A bit of a recap of August and September, and some French expectations.
August was busy with several nice tours out and about on consecutive weekends starting with Steamrail's second Snow Train to Traralgon, and side tours to Mt Baw Baw and Walhalla on the 13th.
I forgot to mention the first Snow Train in last month's journal, given it was barely light when it left Newport, and I only took a couple of shots at Spotswood as I had other things on.
In the dim pre dawn light, R711 and R761 lead the Snow Train between Newport and Spotswood, past the old power station and oil sidings.
Snow Train 2 I left home a little bit late, arrived at Toorak in Melbourne's leafy green affluent eastern suburbs to find all the good angles taken.
R761 and R711 power through Toorak with the second Snow Train of the year.
I got a reasonable shot, then headed off, got held up by a tram, stopped for fuel, and took a wrong turn heading for the freeway, so gave up and went home. The preparation was certainly lacking on that one!
Next Saturday, Steamrail was out again to Gippsland with the Warragul Flier featuring A2 986.
The A2 was fortunately preserved in a park at Warragul when it withdrawn, and later exchanged by Steamrail for J550 for a long restoration to mainline service.
J550 has subsequently ended up at Noojee, once the branchline terminus of a line from Warragul, while the A2 now makes up part of Steamrail's impressive fleet of heritage steam locomotives dating back to the 1880s.
With the weather forecast was miserable with rain and flood warnings, and a nephew's football grand final in Geelong in the afternoon, I wasn't that committed to going out for a shot or two.
I ended up setting the alarm (not as early as the dedicated Steamrail volunteers or Vline heritage crew), and looked at the weather on the morning around 6am.
It was raining and gloomy in Melbourne and Geelong, but half a chance for Drouin in West Gippsland where I wanted to shoot.
I took a couple of shots at Spotswood of the train from under the station verandah, before heading out east.
Picking up speed as it approaches Spotswood, A2 986, with A66 head through the mist towards Warragul.
The city was invisible from the top of the Westgate bridge, but with a goodly amount of wet weather gear in the car, I pressed on. I arrived at Drouin in plenty of time, and was able to play around checking out variations on the location I wanted to shoot at. There was some ankle deep water to get through, and a passing deluge, but, nothing too horrible.
As I'd walked a km or so in to get to my planned shot, I thought I'd shoot the train to Warragul, the first shuttle back to Longwarry and then move locations nearer to the car so I could head back home, then Geelong for the footy.
As frequently happens, things don't go to plan.
The Train ended up sitting at Longwarry for a while, apparently due to members of the public getting too close trackside, and causing delays while they were herded out of the way.
Eventually the A2, and now preserved diesel A66 on the rear could be heard working hard out of Longwarry onto Drouin bank. I'd set up to video as well as photograph this time, so got some sound and light, as well as a few photos as it went past.
The steam exhaust of A2 986 hangs in the air as the train makes up for lost time.
Time slipping away, I headed back towards the car, revising my plan to just one shot of the first shuttle. I actually settled on a spot right near where I'd parked which was helpful for a quicker departure.
After catching up with an old friend who's a brilliant photographer and chatting for a bit, the train finally made an appearance with A 66 in the lead, resplendent in its 1980s Vline orange livery, and sounding great as it roared past.
A 66 has been out on a lot of tours recently, adding a different look in its 1980s livery.
Back to the car, home, then off to Geelong to see a loss unfortunately, but my nephew got best on ground for his team.
Another consecutive weekend of steam had the K's out to Hurstbridge for the Wattle Festival shuttles, the first in three years. I went as far as Yarraville for an early morning shot, but didn't go further, as I had other things planned, and as it happened, the train was held up for a considerable time after it brushed the platform at Heidelberg on the way out.
K183, with K 153 dressed up as K100 bringing up the rear cut through Yarraville, and past the old St. Georges theatre.
Next outing for me was the first weekend of September, and Steamrail's third 'Eureka Express' for the year, and with another spot on Mount Warrenheip in mind, I set out again to try my luck.
I decided to look for a different angle of the horseshoe curve at Rowsley, and after wandering around, scratching crosses in the ground, ended up choosing a spot, and standing on the bull bar of the poor old Landcruiser for a little more elevation to avoid some shrubbery in my line of view.
Some golden Canola, the You Yang mountains, and a nice line of curve was my aim, and it was dependent on the passing clouds and showers how it would go - once again the weather gods were on my side.
R761 rounding the Horseshoe curve near Rowsley, with the You Yangs and canola providing a nice backdrop.
Off on the chase again, I got a shot of the train arriving at Bank Box loop, then headed to the Ironbark Gully bridge to try something different.
The train arriving into Bank Box loop where it stopped to allow a Melbourne bound service to pass.
While I'm very happy with my Falcons Lookout, I'm keen to do some more work on different angles on this bridge, and explore the gorge some more.
I ended up out in the bush on a ridge which gave me a nicely framed view of the bridge and loco, and a few more ideas for another trip…
Back into the climb, and over Ironbark Gully bridge.
I then cut for Warrenheip to find the third shot I had in my head for a series, hoping the weather was going to be kind.
Some more showers, patchy light, and standing in the cold and rain later, I got the shot I was wanting ( or at least this version of it - there's always another better shot for next time).
The Eureka Express take III crosses the Lal Lal creek bridge in a small break in the weather.
For a while there'd been a plan to go camping on the Saturday night in the Muckleford forest again near the Victorian Goldfields Railway, as there was a 'Murder on the Orient Express' trip running. However, the large amount of rain, and work commitments from some of the group scuttled this plans, so it was back home instead of heading bush.
That's been about it as far as rail photography goes,
I didn't go up to Wycheproof for 707 Operations trip, and we've been getting organised for our trip to Nice at the end of September.
There's a couple of days of rail travel planned into it, a day trip on the Chemins de fer de Provence - a metre gauge railway from Nice which normally runs way up into the mountains to Digne-Les Bains. Unfortunately the section I really wanted to travel on is closed and replaced by busses due to civil works, so we've revised that day to visit a medieval citadel - I'll post that out in a couple of weeks.
Another day planned is into Italy to San Remo by train, there might also be some gratuitous travel posts!
As always, thanks for following along on My Railway Life.