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Delec Enfield Loco
memories from the 1970s and 80s
PICTURES
(Pics by Neil
Lyall)
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click on the small picture to view the LARGER picture ...
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line of locos at the entrance to number 1 road. Here a fitter would check the log books, check how far out the brake pistons were, and would make a decision whether it should go into the shed for new
brakeshoes, or other minor repairs, or whether it was ready for service which meant parked in the paddock, or to the Departure Road.
44223, 4833, 48, 48, 44 all lined up, and a 48 in the shed. Number 1 road inside the shed was probably full, and as soon as the locos on it were ready the fitters would tell the
Chargeman, who would get the Shed crew to move them, and bring more in. A 422 parked over the Spray pit, to the right. Number 2 road had space for 4 mainline locos, and locos parked in this road were in for much longer, not just quick or minor repairs or adjustments |
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Then 42104 in Enfield yard. This looks to have
another 421 behind it, and is on a Mayne
Nickless Express, which went to Dynon in Vic.
The sidings for this were between Enfield Yard
and Delec. Another Delec job was what was
called the "Low Level Shunter" which
was a 73 class allocated to make up these
Mayne Nickless Expresses. The overhead gantry
had METS written on it. I never knew if that
was the make/model of the gantry or meant
something else.
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| 4206
& 4306 in the paddock. Between them can be
seen the roof of a building. One end was the
canteen / mealroom, the other end was lockers
and showers for staff. Also can be seen are
two old red railway carriages. Some Trainee
Engineman basic courses were conducted in
these, they were "carriage
classrooms". I was glad I wasn't trained
in one of these - cramped and no A/C, heaters
or fans. I was told by firemen who had been
trained in them they were very hot in summer.
Off to the right sit a 422, 44, 422. The shed
is to the right, just out of view. The sign on
room is to the left but cant be seen, in line
with the mealroom/ablutions block.
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Picture
is in 'the paddock' in Delec, roughly opposite
the fuelman's /shed drivers humpy, going by
the patch of green grass. Photo taken facing
south. One and two roads into the shed on the
left hand side, three road had the spray pit
shed in front, the far right of the shed was
the '46 class side". Further to the right
of the shed begins the expanse that was
Enfield Yard.
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Picture is in 'the paddock' in
Delec, roughly opposite the fuelman's /shed drivers humpy, going by the patch of green grass. Photo taken facing south. One and two roads into the shed on the left hand side, three road had the spray pit shed in front, the far right of the shed was the '46 class side". Further to the right of the shed begins the expanse that was Enfield Yard.
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line of locos in the paddock, waiting their call to the Departure Road. In order can be seen a 422, 442, 421, 48, 44, 48, 48. When the paddock was full, which was not often, but did occur over Easter & Christmas, 40-60 locos would be on hand, sometimes more. I can recall seeing as many as thirty to forty 48 class on hand in Delec one Easter. Above them can be seen the storage silos for a flour mill.
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4514 waiting its turn to go into Number 1 road in the shed for a quick check by the fitters. A long haired young fireman can be seen skulking past it, probably going for an unauthorised break in the
meal room, hoping Benny doesn't spot him. To the left can be seen the shed over the Spray Pits
In the very background, above & behind the 44 is a grey blurred image. I
don't remember if that was Fielder's flour mill, or the Railway Married & Single Men's Quarters
(Peyton Place), not be confused with the Barracks which were in the opposite direction.
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| The first is an X200 outside the shed on 4 or 5 road (I think). To the right of the loco is an old brick toilet block. There used to be a lot of graffiti written on the toilet doors, in particular against Tom, one of the Head Cleaners. Tom was a grumpy old man , no doubt about it, but he never used to send anyone home with a charge, like Benny did The Head Cleaners building was only perhaps 10 metres to the right of this toilet block. The Cleaners only wrote graffiti in there to annoy Tom because they knew Tom used this block.
(There were a number of toilet blocks in
Delec). Tom used to go in there with steel wool to remove the graffiti defaming him, which only encouraged some cleaners to write more. |
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| Photo taken standing somewhere near the turntable, looking towards the shed. 4201 & 4206 back to back, had just come into Delec and been refueled and sanded by Mongrel Mick or his crew, now outside 1 road to have their log books checked by the Fitters, they might go in for a brake adjustment, then to the Departure Road for its next job, or to the Paddock if not required right away. I fired on both these locos on different dates in 1977 |
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Traction
motor from in pit.
Steam clean.
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7301
fresh out of workshops by the look, picture
taken somewhere near Delec turntable. Obscured
442 behind it.
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Paddock
full of 48s in Delec. Its a poor quality
picture, but its one of the few I have left.
The towers behind them were to the rear of the
fuel humpy, being part of the Sanding
apparatus, to refill the sandboxes on the
locos. Part of the Delec turntable can be seen
in the right foreground
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Here a few
more pics.
Pretty woeful quality, but a lousy picture is better
than no picture at all, it still conveys some
information
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Front
view of 7301, newly painted. To the left is
the building where showers, lockers, and the
mealroom were. To the right can be seen the
Shed wall, nearest 1 road.
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A
lone little steam loco that was still sitting
in Enfield Yard in 1976 in very poor
condition. It was parked more down the south
end of the yard, on the side furthest away
from Delec. I had pics of a few different
angles of this loco, this is the worst shot I
took, but seems to be the only one that has
survived. The loco number was 1904 and it
disappeared in 1977. Photo taken on the tender
looking forward.
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| 4617
& another 46 class. This is one of the few
photos I have taken at the south end of the
shed, all other pics so far are at the north
end. Here the 46s are seen having just exited
the shed, on 8 (?) road.
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4831
and 4846 heading down the short road from
Enfield to Delec. To the right can be seen
other locos parked in the paddock at Delec.
Enfield Yard was at a higher level than Delec.
Locos wanting to get from the Yard to Delec
stopped at a frame and tooted for a Shunter to
get out of his humpy, & operate the frame
to set the points to send you down into Delec.
The road was short and steep, and when down in
Delec you changed ends, held or threw the
points at the bottom, then halted the loco(s)
at the Fuel Point. From there Mongrel Mick and
his mates would look after the fuelling and
sanding, then the shed crews would look after
it, and the Driver and Fireman who bought the
loco in would walk to the Sign On Room. The
Fuellers & Shed Crews Humpy can just be
seen, with the red roof and cream coloured
walls, through the weeds. As Humpy's rated,
this was a quality one, unlike the close to
"Garden Shed" variety found in
Enfield Yard.
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Due to the locomotive shortage in the mid 1970s there were some SAR locos 'hired' to make up the numbers.
I remember seeing 847, 848, and 849 around the place.
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847
with a 46 in Enfield yard,
just opposite Delec shed.
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848 lined up to go into 1 road of Delec shed, roughly opposite the Spray Pit shed, picture taken from near where the shower, locker room block entrance was.
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There were 2
parallel Departure Roads, one was kept clear as a kind of two way
Through Road, so that locos being taken out of 1 road could use it to head north to the Paddock. Locos leaving the Paddock could also use this road to head south down to South Box, (and from South Box to anywhere). This Through Road was also electrified so electrics could use it. The 46 side was on the other side of the shed (7 & 8 roads which were electrified) and 46s almost always departed from over there, not via this Through Road. It was on this
through road at about where the 49 is sitting that I got bumped by a 42 class, and consider myself very lucky not to have been badly hurt, or worse. I
mentioned this much earlier in my Delec/Enfield
memory page.
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Break Down Crane, in the paddock at
Delec. Up the north end of the Paddock was a large Break Down Shed with trucks, cranes and heavy equipment. Many of the Delec fitters and labourers doubled as break down crew
(ie for derailments) and from time to time you'd hear over the speaker system "Break Down Crew to the Break Down Shed". Some weeks they were called out more than once, seems more than a few derailments would occur.
The red roof of the Fuelmen's and Shed crew's humpy can be seen just above the right hand end of the crane. Enfield yard off to the far right.
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4918 on the Departure Road outside the southern exit of the shed at
Delec, next to 1 Road. 49 Class were rare visitors to
Delec, they usually worked out west.
A 45 class sits partially obscured having departed One Road in the shed. In front of the railing on the ground sits a metal stand with a bag to hold dirty old discarded rags, and a mop bucket for the Trainee Engineman Cleaner allocated to clean Departure Road loco cabs, which was probably me on
this occasion the picture was taken.
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4437 in Enfield yard. I'm fairly sure this was on the Up side of the Yard
(side closest to Delec) next to or maybe on the Up Through Road.
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Break down crane. This is in the paddock, up past the Fuel Humpy. The Breakdown Shed can be seen behind the crane, and on the far right can just be seen one of the old red safeworking tuition carriages outside the canteen.
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Seeing as I mentioned 44 class, here is a picture of 4418, newly painted, looks like its over the turntable, the back of the canteen/shower block can be seen in the background, paint peeling and looking very shabby. If you had a shower in there, even wearing rubber thongs, you were guaranteed to get a bad case of foot rot, that would take months to cure. In the background can be seen the overhead wiring for the Goods Line that ran down to Delec platform
(Delec platform was maybe 50 metres further
along) and from there the line ran down to South Box and Campsie on the Bankstown Line.
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4902, over the turntable. Down at the shed is a 421
and 422, to the right is a 48 and 44 mostly obscured.
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422 and
a 44 at METS siding in Enfield Yard, with a
Mayne Nickless express freight readying for
the trip to Melbourne, coming on dusk by the
look
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4908, with the breakdown shed in the background,
and 2 x 422s
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Breakdown crane, near the breakdown shed
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Here is a rare visitor to Delec - 70 class.
This was the only time I saw one of these in
Delec, or anywhere else.
In this shot, sanding and fuel area to the left, and a Bathurst 44 to the right
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| 7007 again, to the left is the Fuelman's humpy, and in the background in Enfield yard can be seen a wiring train, these were often stored in that part of the yard
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7007 again with a 422 to the right
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Enfield yard 48161 + 2 more 48s, and a 73 in
the background (probably the Low Level Shunter)
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Delec, 4914 with a 73 class in the paddock.
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EVELEIGH
(Pics by Neil Lyall)
Here is somewhere every Delec engineman visited from time to time, to pick up or drop off
locos. |
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click on the small picture to view the LARGER picture ...
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4534 next to Eveleigh shed
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Eveleigh, shed, with a 422 just visible inside.
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X203 in Eveleigh
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In my last post I said I only saw a 70 class once,
but I was wrong, I just havent looked at these
old slides closely, here is 7003 in Eveleigh
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Eveleigh 4203 next to the shed,
and either Southern Aurora or
Indian Pacific cars in the foreground.
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found another Eveleigh picture in my roof
its another bad shot, but here it is anyway -
X205
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GOSFORD
(Pics by Neil Lyall)
After reading travails and tribulations near
Gosford N.S.W. I scratched through my slides for
pictures I took around Gosford when I was
still at school, I'm sure none add anything to the
story, they are after the steam era ended, these
were taken in 1975 I think. Maybe they are a bit
nostalgic for anyone who hasn't been there for
years or who has any fondness for the old diesels. I
haven't been near Gosford since the 1970s. They are
pretty rough, taken with an Instamatic camera. |
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click on the small picture to view the LARGER picture ...
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LITHGOW
(Pics by Neil Lyall)
Seeing I touched on Lithgow, and anyone who
worked at Delec in those days did plenty of trips up
that way, here are a few photos of Lithgow Loco
Depot. |
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click on the small picture to view the LARGER picture ...
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44 & 45 heading west out of Lithgow Yard.
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A 44 at Lithgow, at the head of a string of wagons. Curiously a string of S trucks is behind the loco, these were supposed to be marshalled at the rear, for freight trains. Maybe the 44 was just shunting a long rake of wagons.
This picture taken at the little signalbox (forget its name
now) halfway between Lithgow Yard and Lithgow station.
Note the wooden building opposite has the stanchions that hold the catenary up, virtually built into the roof and wall. I
don't know what that building was
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46 class, a row of 6 stabled at Lithgow
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| 4864 at Lithgow. Shunter on the front looks to be wearing jeans and thongs !! Driver in blue boiler suit (this was just before green uniforms were introduced) |
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4715 at Lithgow. ASM signalman named Kurt
Englehart (another traffic branch
member out of uniform) passing something to
the Driver, who is also clad in blue boiler
suit, just before greens were issued.
The photo with 4715 was taken in 1976, so I
can't be 100% certain if that was Kurt in the
picture, but he had hair something like that so
I guess it is, and given the angle it looks like
another picture taken at the little Signalbox
not far from Lithgow station (not to be
confused with the large Signalbox about 1km
further east, which was much closer to Lithgow
loco). |
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7326
at Lithgow, with 3 people on front, one sitting.
Maybe they were shunters, maybe they were T.E.
Cleaners going for a ride.
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| Lithgow
with the last of its breed, 44100, a fresh
looking 45, and another 44, heading west. To the
right is the small Signalbox where many of the
pics I have here were taken from. Funny it looks
even smaller than I remembered. |
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| 4912
shunting, this time looking to the west from the
little Signal Box, the S truck in the background
loaded with beer kegs |
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| Around
the turntable at Lithgow loco, 44, 45, 47, 48
& 49 class can be seen. I imagine the hose
in the foreground was used to top up the water
tank on locos. |
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| Lithgow.
Note the Gladstone bag on the platform opposite
the 4490. This was the type of bag most old
drivers had in those days. I'd take a guess this
was the Central West Express
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OTHER
PLACES
(Pics by Neil Lyall)
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click on the small picture to view the LARGER picture ...
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4603
& another 46 on the Indian Pacific, looks
like the locos have recently been waxed and
polished, or maybe they had the "shortcut
shine" of rags dipped in diesoline rubbed
over them to give a shiny appearance.
I can remember T.E. cleaners doing this in the
shed at Delec when there wasn't time (or
energy left) to finish a wax and polish job
before going home time.
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| Strathfield,
but can't be sure. 42108 leading a 422, 4629 and
two doubledeckers.
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Working
down the mountains.
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| 4629
with a wheatie at Lapstone, the old orange
handlamp can be seen in the front window.
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| 42210
at Central, probably having hauled Number 2 or
Number 4 South (Southern Aurora or Spirit of
Progress)
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