So, what did you do on the weekend?

It’s the age old question for most people heading back to work on Monday mornings.

This weekend, there was a couple of interesting rail activities happening, Steamrail Victoria ran their first trip of the year, The Otway Explorer, from Melbourne to Colac on the northern fringe of the Otway ranges, and on to Warrnambool.

Westbound trains in the morning, and eastbound in the afternoon can be a pain for light (or an opportunity if you get creative), but either way I gave Saturday’s trip a miss. 

I’d decided not to travel on it a while ago, as I’m not keen on sitting on a train for hours with a mask on, just something I’ll have to get used to eventually I suppose.

Sunday was a bit different. I usually have a bit of an idea of what interesting freight is running around through friends and a couple of Facebook groups, and Friday there was rumours of a grain train running from Melbourne’s Tottenham yard, to Manangatang in the north.

What made this stand out is that it was to run in daylight, which is rare,  and the locomotives on it were an interesting selection from the 1950s, 60s and 80s.

It was also timed to leave at a comfortable 11:50, so plenty of time to do a few things at home, then head out for the afternoon.

Leaving home at 11, I swung past Tottenham to make sure it was still there, as freight schedules can be a bit rubbery, and saw it was slowly moving up the yard, so I headed to Brooklyn. Brooklyn is a junction station where lines from Sunshine and Tottenham converge and lead to Newport, and beyond. The line from Tottenham is dual gauge, both standard (1435mm, or 4’8 1/2”) and broad (1600mm or 5’3”). Brooklyn to Newport is dual track, both able to be operated as single lines with trains running in either direction, although the ‘West’ line has been booked out of service for a number of years.

I found myself a nice ballast pile for a bit of extra height, and set up for what I thought would only be a couple of minutes…

About 20 minutes later, the level crossing bells started ringing, and a horn from Newport direction sounded as two standard gauge locos came through, having been serviced at the UGL centre at Spotswood. Once they cleared the yard at Tottenham, the grain was able to get underway.

NR 105 and 9323 pass through Brooklyn on their way from the UGL maintenance depot at Spotswood. The ‘East’ line was converted to dual gauge in the 90s, while the ‘West’ remained broad gauge, and is currently booked out of service.

With the oldest loco,  GM Bulldog S302 leading the way, its older classmate S317 next in the classic back to back configuration, smaller locos T363 and P16, with a third S class, 312 bringing up the rear. Plenty of horsepower for an empty train, thankfully with an 80kmh limit giving half a chance to get some shots and overtake it again.

1957 built S302 leading the way from Tottenham, the line in the background heads to Sunshine, past the silos in the background.

Little River was my next choice however I decided against, and circling the outskirts of Geelong, went to Moorabool on the Geelong to Ballarat line. There’s a few options here,   I selected a spot where I could shoot the train climbing out of Geelong through Bell Post Hill and Lovely Banks with the massive grain terminal in the background.

Before our train of interest, there was another standard gauge train, also an empty grain which would head west at Geringhap, towards Ararat, while our broad gauge train would swing north towards Ballarat.

G classes 540 and 542 climb out of Geelong with empty grain wagons to Marmalake, in Victoria’s Wimmera district.

There was another pile of ballast here too, so I chose that over a closer to trackside location where there were three other people waiting to get some photos.

In due course, a headlight could be picked up in the distance, and then despite the wind, the healthy chatter of some of General Motors finest diesels singing a happy tune.

Some nice whistle work for the enthusiasts at the crossing as the train powered past, and time to be off again.

Safely back off the Ballast pile and into the car, I overtook the train at Geringhap, as it also went past the standard gauge grain, and started thinking about my next shot. 

While chasing steam out there in May last year, the runway of the Lethbridge airport with its windsock caught my eye as a future opportunity, so I decided to give it a go. 

It didn’t turn out as well as I hoped, but it’s somewhere I want to experiment with, maybe directly down the runway next time.

Next shot was locked in my head, curving out of Meredith past where the up distant signal stood until a couple of weeks ago, shame it went when it did, but that’s progress.

Swinging towards Boundary Rd. at Meredith, the crew have the train well in hand and cruising along at around 80kmh.

From here things didn’t go according to plan. There’s a lovely forest section between Yendon and Lal Lal with some nice curves and cuttings, that from distant memories seemed like a good thing. 

I caught the back of the train by Yendon, and headed off the main road on the skinny single strip of bitumen that follows the line. Despite it being bouncy, I soon overtook the locos, taking a few moments of windows down to absorb the ambience before pressing on.

Eventually, the road came to a crossroad, and the dirt road into the forest was my chosen path. It started out reasonable, but quickly became a deeply rutted track, nothing like I remembered. 

Despite some spirited driving on the few decent bits, the train doing a solid 80kmh very quickly overtook me, and left me in its wake.

There’s a speed restriction on the line at Lal Lal which allowed me to once again overtake it, and enjoy the sound as the train accelerated, before heading to Navigators, where there is a bluestone bridge over the line.

Plenty of shots get taken from the bridge, but I decided to include it in my shot instead.

As can be seen, the bridge was built to accommodate double line. which was how the line was originally laid between Geelong in Ballarat in 1862. A change to flat bottomed rail in 1934 saw the cost saving measure of only upgrading one track, and removing the other.

The red earth on the other side of the bridge is where the Melbourne bound platform once stood, This side was out of use very early on, with the in service platform on the right of the track as we face it. The station was renamed ‘Railmotor Stopping Place 11’ in 1956, and closed entirely in 1978.

I decided to give up the chase from here and cut for home, leaving others to continue.

It was a great few hours of chasing trains, getting some photos, and generally having a fun day out (before getting stuck on work calls to 10:30pm)!

I hope your weekend was whatever you wanted it to be, and you’ve had a great week so far.

Regards,

Scott

A Work Anniversary

Hi Everyone, 

I hope you’ve have a great Christmas and New Years break, and had some time to relax and catch up with family and friends.

I mentioned in my about page that I’d been working in the rail industry for a fair while, 27 January 2022 actually marks the start of my 35th year!

It seems forever ago that Mum, Dad and my sister dropped me off in Newport where I was boarding, a 16 year old kid who hadn’t spent that much time in the city at all, let alone by myself.

Next morning, I was up bright and early to pedal my bike down to Newport workshop, once the heart of the Victorian Railways  to commence my apprenticeship.

There were lots of other kids starting their railway careers that day, electrical fitters, painters, boilermakers, electricians, fitters and turners, car builders, upholsterers,  almost any trade you could name, and they were there from all over the city and the state.

TAFE was just next door to the workshops, and right beside the Geelong railway, which saw a fair bit of interstate rail traffic, as well as local goods trains, including some shunting at the nearby refineries. 

As the railways was yet to embrace radios for a lot of the shunting, the loco used on these short trips used to have a goodly number of shunters sitting and lounging around on the front of the little Y class so when they got to some of the curvier sidings they could relay hand signals to the driver to start and stop as required. It’s  something that’s very much vanished from the modern railway scene with the traffic long since lost to road transport, and many of the sidings built over.

The Steamrail Victoria depot was also on that side of the workshops, and a common shortcut from TAFE to Newport station was up a rarely used siding, and onto the main walking path. 

After only seeing infrequent steam tours to Bendigo, it was fantastic to wander around the main hub where the locos and carriages were restored and maintained.

There was also a “Workshops train”, a suburban service that ran into the workshop complex in plenty of time for people to get to their section and take their token off the hook to prove they were there and start their day.

In the afternoons, the reverse happened, knock off time came, and the workshops train was waiting to slowly trundle up to Newport station and on to Flinders St.

It was certainly an interesting time, and I’m lucky to have made some friends from those days that I still catch up with, still work with, or bump into occasionally from other parts of the business.

I’ll finish up today with the first photo I took in Melbourne when I moved down, it’s not dated, and won’t win any awards, but its a little piece of my history. Looking towards the Yarra from Platform 14 at Spencer St. The white building in the background is still there, but B84 was retired in May 1988, and platform 16 at Southern Cross is about where the goods lines it’s running on is now.

The old No 1. Goods shed has long gone, with those familiar with modern Melbourne would now know it as near where the “Big Bird” at the curve in Wurundjeri way stands.

Regards,

Scott

A Very European Christmas

With the Christmas festive season well and truly on our doorstep, I’d like to take this opportunity to thank you all for subscribing to A Railway Life, and starting this journey with me.

Way back in April 2009, friends from the UK were back in Melbourne for their wedding. At one of the pre, or post wedding catch-ups, the idea of German Christmas the following year was discussed over a few drinks, as there was a couple of notable birthdays coming up.

Despite these sort of enthusiastic discussions usually ending in little more than conversation, as a group of three couples (plus our then 13 year old), some effort was put in, and we actually made it happen!

The location chosen was the Harz Mountains in Central Germany, an area with a rich history of folklore and fairytales.

With Silver mines that had been in production for over a thousand years, and a fantastic metre gauge steam operated railway in regular service, what more could you ask for?

We ended up staying in the Unesco heritage listed town of Goslar, in one of the towers that once formed part of the town’s defensive walls.

Goslar town square and its wonderful Christmas Market.

It had been snowing heavily for the weeks leading up to Christmas, so the half timber, half slate clad houses were certainly something out of a fairytale, and the Christmas market was fantastic!

The Harz Mountain Railways

The Harzer Schmalspurbahnen, or HSB, is the grouping of interconnected metre gauge railways forming a 140km network. The line features regular steam hauled trains on most sections, with the exception of the line between Eisfelder Talmühle and Stiege, which is operated by railmotors. With 25 steam locomotives, the HSB is no tourist railway, it’s the real deal in the 21st century!

We travelled twice, firstly as a whole group we had an outing to The Brocken, and a day or two later, we left the ladies and our son to explore Goslar, while three of us headed to Eisfelder Talmühle for a day on the trains. Both journeys commenced from Wernigerode, where there are major locomotive facilities, and an interchange with the DB main line, an easy connection from Goslar.

The Brocken

In Goethe’s ‘Faust’, and other popular literary references, the peak of The Brocken is the site of revelry for witches on Walpurgisnacht (Walpurgis eve, April 30).

The Brockenbahn was constructed south west into the mountains as far as Drei Annen Hohne, before heading for the highest peak in this, Germany’s northernmost mountain range. Popular with hikers, even in the 1890s when the line was built, the main reason for its existence was for tourism. 

Post world war II, the mountaintop was the site of GDR and Stasi radio surveillance facilities until reunification in 1989.

The day of our trip, it wasn’t snowing, but as is often the case, the mountain (and much of the surrounding country) was shrouded in thick cloud.  

Fortunately, the trains are all steam heated, so cosy and warm, but with end platforms on the carriages offering a great viewing platform, a fair bit of time was spent braving the cold.

Drei Annen Hohne is a major junction station on the line, with the Trans Harz line continuing south to another junction at Eisfelder Talmühle, and onto Nordhausen.

After the steep climb from Wernigerode, our train stopped to take on water, before branching off to Schierke, and the climb to the Brocken.

Arriving at Schierke, we had a pleasant surprise, with Santa joining the train! For our mostly Aussie group, it was something to behold, and changed Christmas for us forever. Shopping centre Santas on a blistering summers day just don’t seem right anymore.

Santa in an appropriate Christmas Card setting at Schierke

Continuing on, we were passing through pine covered hillsides, the trees heavy with snow giving the impression of witches hunched over against the cold, to my imagination anyway.

After we arrived at the peak, we didn’t wander very far, the snow was as high as the train, and with virtually no visibility, we caught the returning train to Wernigerode, and visited the Christmas market.

Eisfelder Talmühle

Oiling round one of the locomotives in steam ready for its day’s work

This was more of a boys day out, we arrived in Wernigerode in plenty of time to wander around the loco depot and get some photos, before boarding our 11:55 train to Eisfelder.

Our train also required servicing before continuing its journey, which gave time to photograph a Brocken service departing in fine style, before rejoining our train. 

A train bound for the Brocken departs, as our Eisfelder train takes on water.

With only a handful of passengers aside from ourselves, we had our choice of windows and end platforms to enjoy the ride. The Conductor occasionally passed through the train with snacks and drinks for sale, the local Schnapps was well appreciated!

Eisfelder has a fairly large station building including a bar / cafe as is common in parts of Germany, and is the junction with the line to Stiege, which has a regular rail motor service to Nordhausen. The south bound rail motor was at the station when we arrived, and shortly after, the Stiege service arrived, giving the opportunity to capture the three services in photos. 

Three trains at Eisfelder.

Once the Nordhausen train left, our steam loco ran around the other end of the train, ready for the return to Wernigerode.
This meant that the funnel of the loco, and warm smokebox was up against the front of the first carriage, so guess where we set up!

The two lines are parallel for some distance leaving the station, and with both services timetabled to leave at the same time, it was great to be passed by, and then repass the rail motor a couple of times before both trains swung of on their separate ways. Arriving back in Drei Annen Hohne, we left the train and had a couple of beers in the station bar and watched trains arrive and depart, before catching one back to Wernigerode, and then Goslar.

Two Wernigerode trains sitting at Drei Annen Hohne, the one on the left is our train from Eisfelder.

It was an amazing trip, one I’d love to do again in winter!

Thanks again for subscribing, I hope you and your loved ones have a merry Christmas, and a safe and Happy New Year!

Regards,

Scott

How I shot Falcons Lookout

While it’s sometimes possible to just arrive beside the track, wait for a train, and off you go, I more often than not put a fair bit of planning into my photographs. (I have also stood in snow in Canada at -6 Celsius waiting and hoping for hours for little reward)!

 For a few years, I’d looked across at the Melbourne to Ballarat railway line through this section near a rock face known as Falcons Lookout, wondering if brief glimpse of the Ironbark Gully Bridge might be worth trying to do something about, but wasn’t sure if it was even feasible. 

After helping friends move house last year, returning from Ballarat I had the good fortune to spot a train travelling through this section, and thought yes, I’m going to be able to do something.

Planning the shot

A bit of Google Earth research showed it was just over 4km from the freeway to the railway, and digging deeper, looking at lens sizes, a 400mm zoom  (which I didn’t have) was effectively the same as a 8x pair of binoculars (which I did have)!

Dragging out the binoculars, and having a practice locally as we were back in lockdown showed it was a reasonable option. All I had to do was wait for Covid restrictions to lift, an interesting train, hire a lens, and hope the weather was ok. It was a long term plan, I’d waited a couple of years already, so no rush.

Restrictions lifted, and with a few steam loco driver training runs to Ballarat planned, I looked at the train times, and where the light would be coming from to see if it was a suitable time of year for the shot using an App called PhotoPils.

A great little App, it allows you to drop a pin where you want to shoot from, and see where the light will land - it also gives sun and moon rise and set, and altitudes.

A Photopils screen shot, the arrow pointing from where I was shooting, to the bridge itself.

Next was the lens.

I started looking at lens hire. The cost of the lens I wanted to hire for a few days (and had always wanted to add to my collection) wasn’t too bad, but after a little shopping around I went and actually bought it outright the afternoon before the trip was going to run!

My lens of choice was a Canon 100-400 F4.5-5.6 IS II. It certainly gave the reach I needed, plus the flexibility of overlapping with my 24-105mm lens.

It’s a very nice piece of gear, super sharp, the only drawback being it’s rather heavy!

Shot time!

We headed out leaving plenty of time to scope out exactly where I wanted to get the best angle, and were lucky enough to have a couple of Vline passenger trains to practice on.

There was a northerly wind blowing, so pushing the smoke away from the train, but also making it a little difficult to hold everything steady. 

It’s not a problem from a shake perspective, the lens and camera have fantastic image stabilisation, it was holding my composition where I wanted it - I had decided against using a tripod so I wasn’t locked into one position.

Right on time, the train appeared climbing into the flatter section of Bank Box Loop, where trains can pass, so I took a couple of shots, one of which is below.

 Leaving Bank Box, the train then enters into a bushland section, before with only a little notice, crossing the bridge.

I ended up taking five photos as the train approached, crossed, and headed back into the bush, but as usual, there’s one that stands out from the others.

The Image has ended up in two magazines, Railway Digest, and as a centre spread in Newsrail.

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about how I took the photo, and it’s given you some appreciation to some of the effort that goes into getting them.

Regards, 

Scott

A taste of high speed travel

High speed rail lines. They’re one of the many ways that Europe differs from Australia (and there are many)! These lines link the larger cities within countries, and work is progressing on faster links between European destinations.

Prior to our first trip to Europe in 2008, the fastest I’d travelled in a train was in NSW on the XPT service from Melbourne to Sydney. And the 160kmh milestone was only for a very short portion of the journey.

After spending time in Paris, we headed south to Avignon, some 650 km away, which by the legendary TGV (Train Grande Vitesse), was covered in less than three hours!

France’s first high speed rail line, the route still uses some sections of steam era routes, obviously much improved, but the high speed sections allowed for running at up to 300kmh.

For some Australian context, Melbourne to Goulburn is 680 km, and takes almost nine hours, on the very same XPT I mentioned earlier.

To say that the trip from Paris to Avignon was enjoyable is an understatement! Aside from those brief moments when a plane takes off and lands, I’d never been so fast on the ground! And it was super smooth.

Since then, we’ve travelled on the high speed rail lines in the UK, Germany and Italy, I think the German ICE trains are the pick of the bunch, but would happily climb aboard any of them!

Not all TGV journeys are high speed for their entirety. Some routes, such as across to the Alps at Annecy use a portion of high speed line, then take to slower, more winding traditional lines.

Similarly, the line towards Strasbourg, and beyond into Germany, has some amazing 320kmh running out through the Champagne region. It then follows a river and canal twisting and turning for a portion of the journey - the next stage is being constructed to bypass this scenic section.

One of the highlights of the latest generation trains on this route is an in-carriage speedometer, where you can keep and eye on just how fast the countryside out the window is flashing past you.

Or, you can track your progress on the on train wi-fi - also great fun!

Scott.

What interests you about Railways?

Welcome to A Railway Life, a space to admire, and if you like it, chose some of my railway photography to take home with you, or gift to someone you know will enjoy it. I think most of us would have grown up with model railways as kids, and for those fortunate enough, had steam trains visit your home town.

I was lucky growing up, my home town of Bendigo was a railway hub, had frequent train services, and, during the grain season, lots of long, heavy trains heading south to ports of Melbourne and Geelong with a steep climb ahead of them.

I still have fond memories of having my bedroom windows wide open in the night, despite the mosquitos, listening to the trains climbing up to the Big Hill tunnel, the noise fading in and out, and the scent of the diesel exhaust in the air until it was quiet again.

What draws you to trains and railways?