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Johnny's Pages
Old S.A.R. Shunter's Memories
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Page
last updated: 04 March 2010
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MEMORABLE JAMESTOWN
DAYS
ON SOUTH
AUSTRALIAN RAILWAYS NARROW
GAUGE
IN
THE 1960's
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| Jamestown
was a very busy reducing station for the Belalie North bank right up
till the 3' 6" Narrow Gauge track was closed down from Broken
Hill to Port Pirie after the 9th January 1970 and was
replaced with the new Sydney - Perth Standard Gauge 4' 8½".
This was the death knell
of a fantastic era in South Australian Railway's
history in this Mid North of South Australia, still to
this day. Now all only pleasant memories left for those who
knew, and worked on this narrow gauge track.
I regard myself very
fortunate to have been stationed at Jamestown from April 1963, till
May 1970 as a station porter. Jamestown was round the clock
working and a lot of shunting, mostly at night. I witnessed the
narrow gauge come to its final end, and the ushering in of
the new and totally different rail era, the new Standard Gauge. It was, a very sad, sad,
sad day, and was not a pleasant feeling to see the old 3'
6" narrow
gauge ripped up for those of us who loved the old
S.A.R. It was like a close family member had died. Now all that's
left is only these old pictures and some great Garratt and T
class steam sounds to haunt me from the past on my computer.
Here I can at least, share some of my old ghostly images of
when I was stationed at Jamestown in the 1960's, to come
back for a moment or two to pleasantly haunt us of those
absolute magic
moments of that now long gone South Australian Railway era at
JAMESTOWN. |
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click on the small pictures to view a larger picture ...
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Map showing Jamestown on the Peterborough
Narrow Gauge Division till 9th January 1970.
All UP trains
from Port Pirie to Peterborough had even numbers. (e.g.
274)
All DOWN trains from Peterborough
from Port Pirie had uneven
numbers. (e.g. 275)
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Jamestown Station September
1965
This was my workplace and home from April 1963 to Jan 1970, as the
Station Master (Jack Kelly) had his own private residence in Jamestown township
itself. I was so overjoyed when we shifted to Jamestown and
found out I/we had to live in the Station Master's
residence, it was like old times back when my father was a Station
Master when I was a youngster at various stations he worked as Station
Master and we lived in SM's residence.
It is also called living on the job and I loved it.
Where
you see the Jamestown station sign, the window below was the start of the
SM's (Station Master's) residence. That room and next one
this way were bedrooms, then side gate. The SM's residence had 3 big bedrooms,
a lounge room with side entrance front door on other
side
of station and a lean-to type
sleep-out this side and a lean-to bathroom other side with a
wood fire chip heater to heat water for bath water and a
galvanised bathtub and hand sink. The
kitchen (can see chimney in above b&w picture with a
lean to weather
cover from main building to kitchen) was a stone building separate from
the main building
with a sink for washing dishes and a firewood heated stove/oven for cooking purposes.
Wood was
plentiful as we had to cut up old narrow gauge railway
sleepers for firewood. Every room had a fireplace.
The toilet (can see on back fence near gateway) was "pull the chain" with a dog spike
for a handle and serviced by a septic tank (was only mod con)
just outside the back fence. The a wash-house (laundry)
with a firewood copper for heating washing water to
boil washing and 2 compartment concrete wash
troughs, one for scubbing clothes and one for
rinsing water. (my my washing machines done away
with that hard chore) Both laundry and toilet were
separate from the main
building.
Water for the house was from the big
overhead water tank close by that supplied the steam engines with
water. There
was also a well 12 feet deep by about 6 feet wide circular brick lined
fresh water well, fed from roof with old crank pump for drinking water. (was
very cold water all year round) It
was a very comfortable home with very small back yard. A
wood heap near laundry to chop wood and a little bit of garden.
Not a lot of work to be done around the place. This
was train heaven.
Next to SM's residence was the main Station Office, then
a walk through station passage, then Station Master's
office, a large room for luggage and parcels barrow (was
once a refreshment room in its hey day), then a store
room near other end, a ladies waiting room, with ladies
toilets inside and the Gents outside toilets round the far
end of the station.
Alongside of the station was a subway for pedestrians
to walk under the rail tracks to main street,
as the Jamestown railway yard was nearly in the center of
Jamestown, and the railway yard cut the town in half. The
main Adelaide - Orroroo - Peterborough road crossing
was at the West (Caltowie) end of the rail yards. Also
another crossing was at the eastern end of railway yards.
The fouling peg between the UP and DOWN main lines was right
at the
main road crossing itself. With a train sitting right on the
edge of the crossing to fit in to cross an UP train (to
Peterborough), it use to be quite daunting to road users
seeing the engines (especially at night) sitting
right on the very edge of the main road crossing. No crossing gongs in
those days. Everyone just had to be careful. In my 7 years
there only one crossing accident when a down train
twin diesels with 1700 tons was sitting at the Xing
waiting to cross the up Brill Railcar railcar
coming from Port Pirie at 10.05pm. The railcar was
coming up through the small cutting and hit the road car square
on dead centre and the car was pushed and slid along
tracks with wheels both sides of the rails for some
distance. Actually being hit dead centre
actually saved
them from any serious injuries as no one was hurt much, mostly just badly shaken thankfully. If the
car had been just 1 foot further onto the crossing
they would have been crunched between Railcar and the twin
830 diesels.
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Yard from SM's residence March
1968
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Jamestown
Silos & weighbridge 1964
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Here can be seen the old wheat sheds and
iced cool car sent to Broken hill Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.
Picture taken
from roof of the station house. My bird cages and Peach tree, the
fruit was first class too.
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Jamestown Station
office, and parcel area 1965. (seen
better days)
(Terry
Faulkner parcel and ticket clerk)
Picture
left: Party phone seen on far left wall and right of
picture was the Peterborough "Train Control"
phone.
Alongside the phone can be seen the Train order clip where
the original train order copies were kept. Train orders
were written out in triplicate using two pieces of double
faced carbon paper, the top original copy we kept on file,
the second copy was for the engine crew, and third copy
for the Guard.
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On this train order it
states to the Engineman and Guard of 108 goods, engine 860 which is
heading to Peterborough to take the Main line at Yongala and cross 185
passenger Railcar car number 104 which will be, or, will take the Passing
siding at Yongala. Note also this train order I
wrote out was issued at 4:41am and it was about an hour to
travel to Yongala. So that got 108 goods into Yongala around 5:45am
which if the passenger railcar was on time that day, it was delayed
at bit. A train controller's nightmare delaying a passenger
train too much.
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Here on
this train order it states to the
Engineman and Guard of 554 roadside goods,
engine 402 (Garratt) sitting at
Jamestown which is heading to Peterborough
to take the Passing Siding at Yongala and
to cross 107 Goods (an ore train to
Port Pirie) engine 860 (830 class
Diesel) which will be, or, will take
the Main line at Yongala. The fact
554 is taking the Passing siding on this
order, one could well bet 107 goods would get a run
through Yongala without stopping.
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Remember
the electric staff is what controls the section, not
the train order. The train orders on Electric
Staff Territory are instructions for a cross at an unattended station, and other train
working instructions. (worked very well) Yongala and Caltowie were both
unattended stations after they were closed down and made unattended
stations in early 1960's.
SPECIAL
NOTE:
These exact same type of Train Orders were also used on
Train Order Territory. That is, where only the Train Order
itself govern train movements.
Electric Staffs were excellent where there was a lot of
frequent train working going on, like in the steam days. But
on tracks where very few trains were used, then only a Train
Order was used. On Train Order territory when issuing and
repeating back a Train Order, all numbers and stations had
to be spelt out, whereas a train order on Electric staff
territory was only repeated, no spelling of stations and
numbers were needed, unless actual Train Order working was instituted,
but this was very rare occurrence,
well on the Peterborough - Pirie line anyway.
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The room the other side of that Train Control phone was our lounge room.
Cannot get
closer to the job than that. Bearly 30 seconds and I was on the job,
out of station house door and into station door and book on.
Phone on left wall was a "party line" phone, then also to the left can be seen two electric staff instruments sitting on what looks like
boxes. The furtherest one was the "Jamestown - Belalie North" electric staff instrument. Later the
"Jamestown - Belalie North" section, became "Jamestown - Yongala" section when
Belalie North was closed down.
Alongside the Belalie North staff instrument was the "Jamestown - Caltowie" section
electric staff instrument. Only one staff could be withdrawn from
the staff instrument at any
one time, and then, only with permission from the Train Controller
at Peterborough. These duralumin staffs
were placed into a cane hoop (see hoops hanging on side of
instrument box) and were handed to the engine crew for
the safe
working in each section. Electric
staffs were used in conjunction with Train Orders as well.
When a staff instrument got low on staffs, when more trains
went in one direction, an electrical fitter did what was
called a "staff balance" by unlocking the
instrument and taking out the extra staffs, record them in
staff register book and then take
them to the other staff section instrument and put them in.
The electrical fitter was only person ever allowed to unlock
a staff instrument, and another employee had to double check
staff numbers as they went in and then sign in staff register book that they
were all present and correct. This all in the name of
train working safety. Was a very good system, as the driver then
knew once he had the correct staff for the section he then had
the right of way to that section. No "head
on" calamities. Put him in the clear.
On afternoon and night shifts in winter we use to cut a
narrow gauge sleeper in half (cross ways) and put them up the chimney alongside each other in
office open fireplace, that would keep the
office warm the whole late afternoon and night shift on very cold
and freezing frosty nights. The office would be so warm that when we would get 2 or 3
trains in yard at once, it was darn hard to get engine crews back onto their
trains. Could not blame them as we had plenty of "Jack Frosts" at
Jamestown. Yongala was just up the road towards Peterborough, and was known to be
the coldest place in South Australia.
We had light snow just out of Jamestown towards Belalie North twice
in the 7 years while I was there, once as seen in the picture below.
Was pretty sight.
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Here is picture taken
out towards Belalie North.
The day after the Americans landed on the
moon.
Yes my car was a 1956 Ford V8 Customline, they made nice cars back
then.
Petrol was very cheap in comparison of today.
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Jamestown yard layout till 1964
After 1964 yard was lengthened.
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Jamestown Yard looking West towards Caltowie
1964.
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Here can be seen at
the other end of
railway yard, the railways
dams for water once used for steam engines, also wheat being loaded from silo.
The silos had not long built then. Can still see the start of the old bagged
wheat sheds to left of picture. This
picture was taken top of Belalie North "Home" signal.
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Belalie
North end of Jamestown yard interlocked switches and
signal levers.
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Here we
are looking at a "cheese knob" switch, pinned and set for the
DOWN main line with 2 signal levers which are shown here pulled off ready
for an arrival of a train from Belalie North. The track
these switches are set for has a brownish look, it is actually rust.
When the trains come into Jamestown from Belalie North the grade
control valves are in HP position, and when a train came in you could see
at times molten globules dripping from the cast iron brake blocks,
was that much heat generated coming down the steep Belalie Bank. On
sunny days when train came in and had to stop to re-adjust the grade
valves, you could see a lot of silver glitter flecks of steel flying
around everywhere. Reason this down track has that rusty look about
it, as it was the steel particles going rusty. Most railwaymen's
eyes over the years when we look at the sky you can see specks
everywhere, this is scarring on the eyeball from those little
slivers of steel off the old cast iron brake blocks.
The next track over was called the UP main line, where a
switch stand is showing that it is a main line.
The signal lever on the left is for the "Distant" permissive signal which was some half a
mile away up the track. (see next picture further down) and the next lever
alongside was the "Home" absolute signal.
To pull these lower quadrant signals off, first you had to make sure the
switches were set and pinned for the down main line, then you had to put
your foot on left signal wheel to help take the slack out of the
long wire, then pull the lever quickly to pull the distant signal
off. The "Distant" permissive signal was
pulled first, then the "Home" absolute signal.
Originally
when I first came to Jamestown in 1963 all switches throughout the
yard were cheese knobs. (back breakers) a little later all the main line
cheese knob switches were changed over to Switchstands with kerosene
lamps on top of them, and coloured display panels by day, this was far easier to see if switches were correctly set from a distance
day or night.
It was unusual with this switch, as all main line switches were converted to
Switchstands, but for some unexplainable reason this cheese knob
switch was still used here on these "down main" facing
switches till closure of the Narrow gauge. Cheese knob switches were still used throughout the rest
of the yard.
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The "distant permissive" signal
coming into Jamestown from Belalie North.
The "distant permissive" signal
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Top
of the "distant permissive" signal
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The signal
light was only about a third of the way up the mast, was too hairy
(scary) having to climb to top as it was so high with a kerosene can to fill signals and clean
wicks twice a week. The "home absolute" was bad enough. With the
signal arm itself high up was much easier to see above the background from
further back up the hill as the train came around the curve. If
you look carefully in larger picture you can just see a white
speak above 3rd telephone pole that is the Absolute home signal.
Now you see why it was so high up as well with a white background.
This is a 1 in 60 grade. All ore wagons had grade control
valves fitted to assist with helping to keep control the speed
of the train while coming down from Belalie North, so plenty
of warning was needed. A
train to have a brake failure down here from Belalie North
would be a big tragic mess. Reason why the down main switches were
always set for down main as to protect any train that may be
sitting on the up main. Any shunt movements with up trains had
to in clear at least 10 minutes before expected arrival of a
down train.
This picture cropped from bigger picture
To view
what the Lower Quadrant signals and lamps look like close
up:-
CLICK
HERE
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W.T.T. 239 of Sunday 12th November 1967
(auto
couplers had been fitted to the Garratts)
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1
x 830 |
2
x 830 |
400
Garratt |
Tclass |
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Port Pirie. |
1000 |
2000 |
1050 |
378 |
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Crystal Brook. |
835 |
1670 |
835 |
365 |
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Huddleston. |
1270 |
2400 |
835 |
378 |
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Gladstone. |
750 |
1500 |
850 |
365 |
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Caltowie. |
950 |
1900 |
950 |
378 |
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Jamestown. |
530 |
1060 |
600 |
270 |
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Belalie North. |
1000 |
2000 |
600 |
380 |
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Yongala. |
1000 |
2000 |
600 |
380 |
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Peterborough. |
2100 |
2400 |
900 |
526 |
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Yongala. |
875 |
1750 |
900 |
410 |
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Belalie North. |
1750 |
2400 |
1750 |
1100 |
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Port Pirie. No tonnage changes en Route |
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When
only HOOK couplers were used on the narrow gauge
Peterborough to Belalie North loads were:- |
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T
+ 400 1100 tons,
2 x T's 820 tons. |
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The
load for everything from Belalie North to Port Pirie was
1100 tons.
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Grade
Control valves on wagons were used from Belalie North to Port Pirie.
Click picture to see
the enlarged picture with
grade valve information.
On
the Peterborough Narrow Gauge Division of the South
Australia Railways we used Grade Control Valves which
were fitted to most bogie wagons. Also there was a lot of
four wheeled wagons, these were not fitted with these Grade control
valves. Four wheeled vehicles which
were always marshalled at rear of train behind the automatic couplings and going down
the Belalie North steep grade the amount of four wheel
wagons on any train was governed by how many bogie wagons were
fitted with these Grade Control Valves.
When a train arrived at Belalie North from
Peterborough The guard and fireman would walk along the train and set these
grade control valves to the HP position (handle pointing
up see picture above)
on all these bogie wagons mostly ore wagons from Broken
Hill, with silver, lead and zinc concentrates for the smelters at Port
Pirie.
When the train descended this steep Belalie grade, the first
train brake application was made the train brakes would
apply, but as soon as the train brakes were released, 7lb psi
of air would be retained, so all the brakes were
slightly on all the time coming down the hill, this was to assist the
driver to recharge the air and so he does not run out of air and end up with
a runaway train. From Belalie North to Port Pirie it was all
down hill, with exception of a couple of places.
When a freight train arrived at Jamestown from Belalie North, the
train would always stop and the guard and station staff would
then turn
all the Grade Control Valve handles into the horizontal or IP
position. In the horizontal position it took extra time for brakes
to release
completely, again to give engineman time to recharge the
braking system. 10 minutes was allowed for this job to be done. The
GCV's would stay like this
all the way to Port Pirie.
Here
is an event that actually happened. Nothing to do with GCV's
but to show just how very
important air tests on trains were, and still are
today.
This
happened a couple of months before I came to Jamestown in
1963. A "T" class steam engine with a full load
from Peterborough over Belalie North stopped at Jamestown on the down
main to do
the Grade Control Valves. After the GCV's were done the
driver decided he better take on some water, as Gladstone
was next usual watering hole. Taking water on the down at
Jamestown was not a normally done thing. The station porter closed the air
taps on the engine tender and the ore wagon and uncoupled the air
hose. A normal procedure
would be to let some air go on the train loading, so brakes are at
least slightly applied to prevent the loading from running away, also
apply some hand brakes, though was rarely done as
the actual bottom end of the station yard itself was a
relatively level flat area, hard to move wagons.
The engine was piloted over onto the up main to the water
column to top up on water. Normally 99½% of the time
there are always small air leaks on wagons on nearly every
train, and after a short while the brakes would then
automatically leak on and apply by themselves, but this
train loading held its air
perfectly. The
engine was bought back onto the train and the air hoses were coupled up and
the engine tender's air cock opened, but in the rush to get
the train going the air cock on the train's
loading was forgotten. Probable answer, but this is no
excuse, was because there was usually always a big hurry to
get trains out the yard as quick as possible because of
crosses (often tight crosses) further down the track. Train Control would at times could
put a lot of pressure on station staff to meet their tight crosses, as
the controllers too had to explain train delays to the Superintendent or
those above to the why's, and the what for's in delays to trains. There
is a lot
more to train working than meets the eye.
The
driver whistles to the guard to say we are ready to go, he's got the
correct staff
and the guard waves the flag to give right of way. Now a chain of
events is about to happen very soon. The train pulls out the
yard okay and there is no hint of any problems, heads over the main
Adelaide - Orroroo road crossing at
end of yard, and now picking up some speed down the hill
that leads up into Jamestown yard, and usually the train
only gets
to track speed at the bottom of the incline and engine then
has to gather enough speed to get up and over Slattery's hill. Still no hint of anything amiss. Over the
hill and then it was all downhill for some 5 miles into Caltowie
yard fortunately not
as steep as Belalie bank of course. The driver then starts to
apply the brakes to check the train and suddenly the full realization hits
home. Hell,,,, no train brake air, the only air brake is the engine's brake
and the engine's brakes going down hill with a full 1100 ton
load is no match
for the ore loading's momentum.
The
Fireman starts to panic and wants to jump off, but driver
says, "hang in there, and stay with the train".
The engineman starts whistling madly to the Guard to attract
his attention and hopefully to get him to pull the air in his Brake
Van. This would have saved the day and the big trouble they
all got into afterwards. Well the Guard hangs out his GB to see
what all the whistling is about and sees the driver waving madly
and he just waves back, thinking they are just larking
around. With that, the driver says to his Fireman,
"Look, stay with the engine, I'll climb back over the
tender onto the ore trucks and start winding on some hand brakes,
we got to try and stop this before Caltowie". Climbing
over the ore wagons is easy enough but to try
and climb down between the rear of the engine tender, and the ore wagon to
open the air cock would have been very near suicidal to even
try, as
the air cocks especially on the ore wagons were well under the ore wagon a
little way, not like the modern ones today at the very end
of wagon. Note: If the couplings had been hook with
side chains, then it could be done but not with the auto
couplings.
So
while the driver was frantically climbing over ore wagons winding
hand brakes full on, the Fireman sees a farmer
plowing his paddock right alongside the track and screams out
and waves madly to him "We cannot stop", "We
cannot stop" What the farmer could have done is a
mystery. Well, normally it was a cross at Caltowie
with the Railcar, but a little luck would have it, the railcar
was running bit late and the cross was now to be at Yanga, a
siding towards Gladstone.
The Caltowie Station Master was standing on station platform with the electric
staff and train order in hand ready with a green flag for a "run through" to
cross the railcar down the track. As the train went past him
the fireman was frantically screaming out, "We
cannot stop", "We
cannot stop" The S.M. wonders what's going on and next thing
he sees the driver hanging on the side of an ore wagon still furiously winding hand brakes on
and the driver yelled out to the SM as he went past,
"Tell the Guard to pull the air", "Tell the
Guard to pull the air"
As the GB approached the
S.M. the guard was leaning out ready to grab the Train
Order, and the SM yells, "PULL THE AIR QUICK, the
driver says he cannot stop the train". With that, the
guard instantly pulls the air and the train finally comes to a stop half way
out the other end of the Caltowie yard. So all ended
well, except the "T" class engine was a bit worse
for wear, as the drive rods were a mess from having engine in
reverse at times trying to help slow the train.
So,
now one can see what CAN happen if ever you uncouple a
train, just make 100% sure you DO an air test before
departure, meaning the guard stands at his Guards Brake and gets the driver to apply brakes, and then
to release them to be
sure the air brakes are working right up to his GB. Standing
instructions anyway were that on every train where the train has
been uncouple, a least a continuity air test MUST be
done. The guard and driver did not do this before
Jamestown departure, so, the Guard was put back portering, the Fireman
put back as a cleaner, and Driver put back as a fireman for
a period of time. A considerable loss of pay
especially in those days as railway pay was not the best.
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Jamestown
Yard looking towards Belalie North
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1964.
Before yard lengthening. Note
crossovers
between up & down Main lines & 3rd road.
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1966.
Crossovers been removed
between Main lines & 3rd road.
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1969.
(new
standard
gauge track to left)
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The roads from left to
right were, Turntable road, Cattle road, Sheep
road, DOWN main, UP main, 3rd road
(reducing road),
4th road, the straight (you can see several
wagons on it, one the Broken Hill milk van), and wheat siding, which continued on
up over the top road crossing into the Vacuum oil Company for
rail fuel tankers.
Turntable, water tower, water column
and ash pit. Also can be seen in picture is a silver bogie
iced cool car wagon with X's, (one drop door) Y's,
(2 drop doors) and a YY all 4
wheel trucks next to it. This iced cool car wagon was loaded with
tetra paks of milk for Broken Hill, bought by road from the Clare
Golden North Dairies some 74 klms south of Jamestown. The milk would be
loaded Monday, Wednesday and Fridays
and picked up on 274 goods marshalled behind the empty ore wagons around 1:30pm to Peterborough,
thence onto Broken Hill.
Jamestown yard was unusual in as much it had an UP, and a DOWN main line which were both
interlocked with the switches and lower quadrant signals at each end
of the yard, and it was a pushbike job from one end of the yard to
the other to set-up the switches and signals for trains to enter the
yard. By the way signals could not be pulled off at both ends
at same time. Only one train at a time could be admitted
into yard.
The track nearest the sheep vans was the DOWN main, the
next line over where water column and ash pit is, was the UP main. The next line over
was the 3rd road for reducing loading because of the
Belalie North bank. In this picture I would say the 3rd road in the
1964 picture had
just been cleared out earlier in the morning as usually there was
nearly always reduced loading on it, mostly "on" empty ore wagons and/or
"y" pyrites empties. Nearly all up steam trains reduced loading at
Jamestown. Periodically a light engine and guards van would come from Peterborough and would clear
out any excess loading.
Once the twin diesels came fully
online, very rarely loading was reduce at Jamestown.
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Jamestown Yard entrance
looking east towards Belalie North end of yard.
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The road crossing is the Adelaide to
Orroroo - Peterborough highway. Picture was taken from top of Caltowie
"Home" signal. Note
the rodding to both these switchstand switches as both these
switches were interlocked with signal levers near road crossing. (like
a miniature open air signal cabin) The switches you see are set
at present for "Down main" for a train to leave Jamestown
yard for Caltowie later on. The Signal levers (also had an annex key
that locked the signal levers in the stop position to get the derail
off for the 3rd or 4th roads) for the Caltowie entrance signals.
We would have to set the road (switches) first, then go back to
crossing to pull the "Distant" signal off first,
then the "Home" signal. Then a train from Caltowie would
come straight into the yard. (the railway term for signal, was
"stick") If
sticks were off, (45 deg) then the Garratts and T's would come
straight into yard and pull up to water column and start taking on
water. Once the 830 class diesels appeared, quite often the up
trains would
get a "run through" (green flag by day and green hand
light by night) exchange the electric staff on the fly, then it was
full bore through and out the yard for the run up to the Belalie
bank. On a "run through" you better be sure the
switches are set correctly at the Belalie North end of yard, or there
would be a pair of smashed up interlocked switches as the freight
train could not stop in time if found not set correctly. Bust a pair
of these switches one was in serious trouble usually was "a caution" placed
on your record, so one always double checked all
the time.
|
|
|
From
top of wheat silo looking west towards Caltowie
| Building at
bottom of picture is top of Jamestown freight shed. An "X" a four wheel wagon can be seen in the subway dead
end, just off the shed road. In this dead end was also used for the
railway "Baby Health car" when it visited
Jamestown. At end of that dead end was the pedestrian path that goes through a subway under the yard rail
tracks. You can just see the path that leads to the subway. The
vacant block otherside of pathway use to have run down
per-way houses from early days, but were all bulldozed down
and removed when the Housing trust built new prefab homes in
Jamestown in the 50's well before I came there. |
From
top of "Home" entrance signal looking towards Caltowie 1964
|
Note
the railway dams and pump house near trees, there were two
dams that were once used for supplying water for the steam
engines. Once the Murray River pipeline water came to
Jamestown these dams were made redundant. When the Standard
Gauge earthworks came along these dams were filled in and
the Standard gauge track was built right through the very
middle of them. In the distance the hill to right of tree
was called Slattery's hill on other side was all downhill
into Caltowie.
NOTE:
Amount
of water held in each dam.
Jamestown No 1 dam: 17' 2" =
8,385,000 gallons.
Jamestown No 2 dam: 17' 0" =
3,720,000 gallons.
*20' 11" 5,614,000 gallons.
*Above 17 ft the capacity includes water in the channel
between dams. |
Here
you can see "Home" entrance signal in this derailment in
1969.
Also in left picture the new Sydney - Perth Standard Gauge track.
In this shot
note the two dams are filled in and the Standard Gauge earth works.
1969.
Derailment story......
On the Peterborough Narrow Gauge Division, all trains the automatic
couplings were up next to engine and all hook loading was behind the
Auto couplings with use of an adapter. See
adapters further down.
So only ore bogie wagons were up front and all other hook
rollingstock was on rear of all trains. This always meant shunting
with huge strings up hill out around curves. Pushing back with big
strings downhill into the station yard could be a very hairy
experience if engineman and shunter were not being very attentive,
meaning, right on the ball exactly.
This day the station porter decided to shunt from the rear of the
train. I always preferred to pull the big strings from front (was
quicker, but as I said was much more hairy with big tonnage)
Anyway, the Garratt was run around and an adapter used to couple to
GB to pick up 5 loaded Hoppers in No3 road that had been reduced
from off a previous up train. The consist was Engine, GB, empty
Pyrites "Y" (4) wheel empties, at this point no problem,
till they picked up the loaded hoppers off No 3 and reversed out
over the crossing and down the Caltowie hill and the engineman made
a VERY bad mistake.
He used the engine brake, and not the train brake, and of course
with all those empty (5.7 ton) wagons in the middle with Garratt
engine with full brakes on and with 5 loaded hoppers pushing, (no
brakes applied) the "Y's" just rose up off the
track spilling the Y trucks both sides of the track.
As I said could easily happen to anyone not thinking. BTW that
Garratt in picture was from next down train to help re-rail it all.
The "Y's" that could not be easily re-railed were pushed
over and retrieved later. Did not take long to clear the track. No
track damage.
|
|
|
NARROW
GAUGE WORKING TIME TABLE STEAM DAYS
August
27th 1961
DOWN
PETERBOROUGH AND PORT PIRIE LINE |
UP
PORT PIRIE AND PETERBOROUGH LINE |
|
|
Fireman on
Garratt 409
taking water on down main behind 275.
NOTE: 409
is now a static display at the National Rail Museum
at Port Adelaide.
Click
HERE
to
see her at National Rail Museum.
Normally
the Garratt
was detached took loco and returned light engine to Peterborough.
| In
steam days till about 1964 (before 830 diesels started to
take over) ore trains would work into Jamestown double
headed as a "T" and Garratt. The "T" was
always leading and would stop short of stock siding -
turntable and detach the "T" towards turntable.
Once the Garratt left for Port Pirie, the "T"
would be turned, take loco (water etc) and if no up
train to attach it to from Pt Pirie, it would return light
engine to Peterborough. Often we would remove the
Garratt and the "T" would pull the loading onto
Port Pirie. The Garratt returned light engine, often having
to leave reduced loading on the 3rd road. Jamestown
was a reducing station for Belalie Bank, reason it was a
busy place for train working. |
|
|
This day
was a very special day
NOTE: 402
at right is now a static display at the Zig Zag Railway.
Lithgow, N.S.W.
Click
HERE
to
see her at Zig Zag Railway. Nov 2004.
All 400 class Garratts were cut up with exception of 402 and
409
.
Beyer
Garratts 400 class
|
Here
Garratt 402 (now light engine) sitting on DOWN main was taken off a previous down
train 275 and a "T" class engine took the train onto
Port Pirie. Garratt 401 on train 274 sitting on UP main has just
come from Port Pirie heading onto Peterborough and has just
finished taking water.
A story
about what happened with these Garratts after this shot was taken, is next.
|
|
|
The
first coupling and working of two Bayer Garratts was at
Jamestown.
|
I often wondered why two Garratts could not be coupled
and worked together, and this bought about it actually
happening. At Jamestown we use to detach a Garratt from a down
train that had helped a "T" class (the "T" always headed
first) to pull loading over the Belalie Bank into Jamestown
and the Garratt would after detaching return light engine
back to Peterborough. All UP trains had preference over any light
engines, and they would have to wait till the UP freight cleared the
Jamestown - Yongala section. When the Garratts were sitting there side by side
and I often wondered why they could not be coupled together, as I
could see no visual reason as to why not.
This
particular day in the late 60's we had taken a Garratt off 275 Down
train, the "T" class took the train onto Port Pirie on its own. The
Garratt took water on down main as 274 UP train (from Pirie) its arrival was
not that far away, so normally had to stay at Jamestown till 274
cleared the Jamestown - Yongala section. 274 arrived and took water and both Garratts were
sitting side by side, as in picture above. There was another DOWN
(extra) train on its way over
from Yongala still some 45 minutes away, so 274 and the light engine had to wait
for the cross. Normally the Garratt on down main would have been
shifted over onto the 3rd road to clear the down main. I was talking to the drivers of both engines
about coupling the two Garratts together and was told that two
Garratts cannot be coupled together, something to do with the cow
catchers and air hoses, they said. So I asked, "has this ever been
actually tried out before", the answer was, "not to their
knowledge".
After some more
discussion finally I convinced the light engine driver and crew of
274 maybe we could at least give this a try, as we had
plenty of time till the extra down train's arrival, even they had to admit
they could not see why not. The
engineman of the light engine said, "okay, we will give it a go and
see if it can be done". So we coupled the engines
together and immediately one could see it looked okay. The
driver of the light engine pulled forward to stretch the couplings to see
and sure enough it was fine, then reversed back
hard to squeeze the couplings up tight and "Bingo" still no problem. Only
slight difference was that the air hoses rested nicely on the cow
catchers, no problem.
I then
asked both crews if I speak to Train Control and if I can get
permission would you take the train out and was told by
crews
permission from the Loco Forman was needed, not the Train Controller,
so I jumped on my old trusty railway pushbike headed back to the station like
there was no tomorrow, spoke to Train Control about this and he
said "You cannot couple two Garratts together" Well, I said, "we
have got both engines already coupled together now". Oh, he said,
"well hang on, I'll ring the Loco Forman". I heard him telling him
what I said and his immediate reaction was "You cannot couple two
Garratts together" I interrupted and said, "but we have them already
coupled together right now, and both crews say they are quite happy
about this". The loco Forman then said, "get the drivers to speak to
me will you" At which on the pushbike like a rocket back up to the
engines and both engineman walked actually quite quickly to the
station and spoke to the Loco Foreman, and the Loco
Foreman then said, "Okay, if your both happy about this, then is okay to
bring them back working together".
Well, the drivers and I were all excited about this
happening, (a first) and after the down train came in and changed the electric staff over and took the Yongala
staff up and gave it to the leading engineman. The most
spectacular sight was soon to beheld, Twin Garratts roaring out the
Jamestown yard straight off the pit heading up the notorious Belalie
bank, that was the fastest I ever saw an UP train leave the
yard with not one, but, two GARRATTS heading out the Jamestown
yard, with the guard was hanging onto his hat for dear life and was actually
laughing as his guard's van whizzed past. Man that was one
incredible sight and SOUND, and only I got pictures of it, though
only on a "mickey mouse" camera, but a picture anyway.
Explanation maybe why this twin
GARRATT working never
happened before
When the 400 class Garratts were first in service in 1953 they had hook couplings and side chains and could
not be coupled together because of the cow catchers and air hoses, later
around 1962 the Garratts were converted over to automatic couplings as was all the ore bogie wagons.
For some reason, no one had ever tried to couple and
work two
Garratts together. Probably because before Belalie North
station was closed down, a Garratt
when detached at Belalie North would then return to Peterborough light
engine, so their was no need to ever double head from Belalie North
downhill back to Peterborough.
In the mid 60's
that section Yongala - Belalie North was now Yongala -
Jamestown,
now a 1 hour section
instead of two sections of near 30 minutes. This at times left a
"T" or Garratt engine sitting at Jamestown after pulling a
full load over Belalie North. Also mid 60's the
830 class diesels were doing most of the work till the standard gauge was being built and
then the 830's were slowly being withdrawn from off the narrow gauge and the
Beyer Garratts were now being bought back into play doing the full work
again till the very end of the narrow gauge over a year away in
1970. Often we had three 830's work out of Jamestown back over
Belalie to Peterborough, so there was never any reducing done then. Engine
changes with the 830 diesels still took place with most down trains
at Jamestown or Caltowie, occasionally Gladstone. Twins that worked over Belalie were taken off
and placed on the Up train to take the loading back over
Belalie North.
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|
|
Garratt Action: 402 leading and 401
ready to depart Jamestown for Peterborough in 1968.
Here is first time
ever, twin Garratts were put together and worked out of
Jamestown back to Peterborough. This was done a few times
afterwards, but only out of Jamestown. So this picture above is
first time double heading SAR Garratts were used.
Only other time twin
Garratts (400 and 401) worked together was on the last through trip by
Garratts from Port Pirie to Peterborough travelling in reverse on 554 on 9th
January 1970, when the narrow gauge track was finally closed down
forever.
|
Twin Garratts heading out of
Jamestown to Belalie North.
|
Oh!....... what a sight to behold and
what a sound that was, the roar was just fantastic. Can
still hear it.
Now gone forever,
except on my computer to re-live those wonderful steam Garratt sounds.
|
|
|
Bayer Garratt leaving Jamestown with full
load up the Belalie North bank.
Note the very high Home signal with a white
background board to make the signal clearer from a longer distance.
Both the Belalie North "home absolute" and "distant permissive"
signals were very high, so train crews could easily see them, as the
Belalie Bank was very steep and plenty of warning was needed to stop
a train coming down the Belalie North bank. The grade was 1 in 60 virtually
off the Jamestown ash pit and water
column.
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Y
class engine 97 on Jamestown turntable and at station October 1967.
This
engine in the 1960's was only seen on historical runs.
The main fleet was Beyer Garratts (400 class) "T"
class and 830 diesel engines. The "Y's" were the
small workhorse of older days.
This engine is only Y to survive and is now in the Port Dock
Museum. This engine ran more than 832,000 miles, was used in
and around the Peterborough Loco sheds, even at close of the
narrow gauge in 1970.
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|
75
class Railcar is seen here on a Saturday morning returning from Pt
Pirie.
Saturdays the railcar would leave
Peterborough and arrive through Jamestown at 6:10am proceed to Port
Pirie and return back through Jamestown around 11am. But Monday to
Friday would see the Railcar through Jamestown at 6:10am and would
return back through Jamestown at 10pm that evening. Excellent
passenger service, also road bus departed station at 5:30am for
Riverton, thence to Adelaide by train ex Terowie.
It was a real
challenge to keep 482 through freight train ahead of the railcar
departing not later than 9pm through Jamestown as the trip from
Jamestown to Yongala was about an hour, would just clear the section
in time for the railcar. So if we could not keep 482 ahead, then, it
stayed here with 513 wayside freight and the railcar crossed 513 and
passed 482 and for whoever was on duty it was one hell of a very
busy night splitting these trains, plus parcels in and out all on your
own. Also at 10:10pm the road bus from Riverton via Clare (picked up
passengers from off the Adelaide - Terowie line) would arrive at
Jamestown with all the trains as well. At times it was a near
nightmare, so was a good incentive to do your utmost to keep the
trains on schedule, plus to keep the Train Controller very
happy.
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|
Here on
another Saturday Morning at 11am is the old and the latest.
Railcar
& 830 class diesel.
This 830 was the new kid on the
block, was taken off 275 down goods for Port Pirie and this engine
returned to Peterborough light engine once the railcar had cleared
Yongala.
This was bit unusual, must have needed the power back in
Peterborough urgently as 274 up goods to Peterborough. Last
train on Saturday's usually came through Jamestown around 2 to
3pm.
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|
Motor Inspection Car, or in railway
terms, an MIC. December 1968.
The MIC was used by
the railway heads to travel the track, also was used for the
fortnightly Pay car. Note the turntable
disk under MIC. In early days I heard the MIC referred to as "The Dort car"
do not know why.
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Here shows how
hook couplings were coupled to automatic couplings.
Now
you see why all hook loading was behind auto couplings. Also it was
a real juggling job to get hook drag pin out and back in
again, as at times the drag pin would get burred over and a
pickaxe from off the engine was needed, which was usually a
walk of some equal 60 wagons plus up to the engine, get the
pickaxe from front of engine and return, meanwhile the clock
is ticking against you all the time. So at times you were
running.
Also while fitting the adapter you had to be careful that
the engine driver has not released the train air brakes and
the roller bearing wagons do not start to gently roll back
onto you as you had your back to the auto coupling.
This was scary stuff as a few employees had been caught this
way, one I knew was killed. Roller bearing wagons were very
hard to hear when starting to roll, especially loaded with
ore, no creaking sounds. Realise too, this was all done
mostly during the night with only a kerosene hand signal
lamp as the only form of lighting. Was great fun, worse part
was you would usually have the "Train Controller"
on the phone wanting you to hurry up to get that train out
quick to make a cross elsewhere. So was fun for one
and all. A crook hook drag pin could very well make, or
break your shift from relatively easy night, to a real
absolute near nightmare. On stations like Jamestown you were
literally on your own, with some help at times from the
guard. You needed to be well organised for the whole shift,
and yes most important, leave nothing to chance.
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First
830's to appear on narrow gauge around 1964.
Here the Jamestown yard had just been extended out over the crossing
to cater for longer trains account diesels introduction.
First
twin
Diesels to appear on Narrow gauge seen here taken off 275 (down) and
will work 274 (up) back to Peterborough.
Part of the 274's GB can be seen in picture on the up main. In this
picture a Garratt would have worked from Port Pirie to
Jamestown to the cross and the Garratt would have been
changed over from 274 to 275 and then worked back to Pirie
as the twin 830's would have been needed back at
Peterborough for next train to work over Belalie North, till
other 830's came online. Not often twin 830 diesels
worked right through to Port Pirie, we still use to do
engine changes with 830's at Jamestown, Caltowie or
Gladstone depending where the cross was to take place. (because
twins were needed for loading over the Belalie bank)
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Three 830's pulling 274 out of Jamestown
towards Belalie North, then onto Peterborough in October 1968.
This day they
were taking spare carriages back to Peterborough from a Port Pirie
Smelters Picnic train the day before. The Port Pirie smelters picnic
was a yearly big excursion.
Interesting note here: The sheep ramp as you can see
here is a side loader ramp and a dirt dead end. All hook loading and
sheep and cattle vans were all had hook couplings with side chains and
all hook loading was always marshalled behind the automatic couplings.
So this meant we were always shunting with huge strings and trying
to place these sheep vans to the side loading sheep ramp sorely
tested the most patient enginemen, especially those
when shunting with the Bayer Garratts. If you overshot the
sheep vans too much the vans could possibly go up the dirt mound and then
topple over onto the main line. (big trouble then) To my knowledge this never
happened, although I did see once (not me
by the way) a four wheel sheep van half way up the mound,
with a slight lean towards main line, now that was a close
call in my view. Also realise, most shunting was done at
night as the two roadside trains, 513 down at about
8:30pm, and 554 up at 2am, so all night shunting was done with
kerosene hand signal lamps, (red and green shades) that had its terrifying
times if the wick blew out, but that went with the
interesting job, it was never boring. Quite testing at times, sure was.
NOTE: Often three 830 diesels worked through or
out of Jamestown back to Peterborough. Not often did twin
830's would work through to Port Pirie. They would work out
of Peterborough as twins to get the 1,750 tons loading over
Belalie North into Jamestown, then one 830 could take the
1750 ton train onto Port Pirie. These twins would only work
mostly to the cross of the UP goods from Port Pirie to get
any excess loading back over Belalie North. No need to
reduce at Jamestown anymore.
As example. 275 DOWN train to Port Pirie would work
out of Peterborough with twin 830's and work to the cross of
274 UP from Port Pirie. The cross could be at Gladstone,
Caltowie or Jamestown, although most times the cross took
place at Caltowie. The Port Pirie train most times would be
a single 830 and when it met the 275 DOWN with twin 830's,
the twin 830's would be changed over with 274 and returned
to Peterborough, the single 830 returned to Port Pirie on
275. It wasn't long this move was found to be not according
to SAR rule book at an unattended station, as technically
the UP and DOWN trains showed on a Train Order to have
crossed themselves (Caltowie being an unattended station)
This move was okay at Gladstone and Jamestown as these were
attended stations (no train orders needed for the cross)
it then got complicated where the rear 830 on the DOWN
had to be placed behind the engine on the UP. This then
showed officially that both leading engines crossed each
other according to the issued Train Order.
This is then what would happen at Caltowie. It depended
which train arrived first of course, but basically the twins
would be detached and placed on next track, (main line or
passing siding) then the single 830 would back onto the
twin 830's. The crews would then detach the lead DOWN engine
and the other crew would attach the (now middle) 830,
then change over engines, the Port Pirie crew on the DOWN
and Peterborough crew on the now UP twins. The now UP twin
830's would be put back onto the UP train and the single 830
put back on the DOWN train, then a continuity air test and
both trains now ready to do a legal Rule Book cross
according to the issued Train Order and both crews return to
their own depots. The single 830 to Port Pirie and twins to
Peterborough. Most crews preferred the cross to take place at Jamestown or Gladstone as
the station staff then helped with this engine
manoeuvre.
At times odd twins did work right through to Port Pirie, this was
not often. When this did happen the next DOWN train from
Peterborough with twin 830's crossed the UP with twins out
from Port Pirie, one 830 was removed from DOWN train
and then placed on the UP train with the twins, thus
resulting in three 830's working back to Peterborough. (See
picture above of three 830's heading out of Jamestown
towards Peterborough).
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(
This photo of 404 courtesy of Peter Knife. Sydney. NSW.)
404
pushing empty ore wagons in clear on 3rd road at Jamestown 2nd
January 1970
A few days before the final closure.
Here
is Peter's own words sent with his photo.
Unfortunately
the day was getting pretty late in the day, and the sun had gone by then. It was
404 on 467, and from memory I think 404 was used simply to relocate the ore hoppers in the yard.
The hoppers certainly weren't on 467. We followed 467 from Peterborough through to Caltowie that day, then rode in the cab of 401 on 482 from Caltowie back to Peterborough. That was a memorable experience, with the Garratt running in reverse at night and the oil fire periodically flashing out the side of the firebox. Looked like lightning!
My notes say that 482 was at Jamestown from 8:50pm to 9:15pm, that we took water, and that a bogie gondola was added to the train.
Johnny's
bit.
Yes the time would be right, 482 leaving at 9:15pm. That would have been the deadline
to leave Jamestown ahead of the passenger railcar, as the run to Yongala was about an hour and the
railcar was due at Jamestown from Port Pirie at 10:10pm, so 482 would have just made it in time to clear the
Jamestown - Yongala section for the electric staff to be
drawn for the railcar to proceed to Yongala. That
movement would have made the Train Controller's day, he
would have been smiling.
From Peter's reply records of the cab trip.
Full timings for the trip that night: Caltowie dep.
8:26pm, Jamestown 8:50 - 9:15, Belalie North 9:44-9:47,
(take-outs)
Yongala 10:06-10:16, Peterborough arrive 10:38pm. That Yongala arrival (10:06) was just in time!
|
Last Down Garratt to Port Pirie 9th January
1970.
(pic unknown)
|
Here I'm handing the staff up to the Fireman of 404 on 291
down clearing out all wagons. This day we picked up a louver van from
the Goods shed for Gladstone and all that was left in the yard were the
reduced empty ore
wagons that can be seen on the 3rd road. Later that evening 554 headed by two
reversed Beyer Garratts number 400 and 401 after picking up the empty ore wagons on
the 3rd road. Was a long train. I road in the second
engine cab of 401 as we
literally roared out of Jamestown up the Belalie
Bank that evening, (fantastic memory) this was my last
goodbye to narrow gauge working and Garratt 401. My wife picked
me up at Belalie North.
|
|
Last Crew that worked 291,
the last down Garratt,
9th January 1970
Left:
The guard, Ron Harris.
Right: The
fireman.
|
Picking up louver van from shed road
|
Heading off to Caltowie from down main.
|
|
Impressive sight as she sidles past
|
Last Garratt on the down.... into history.
|
|
Garratt
404 in above pictures worked back to Peterborough from Port Pirie as
THE very last steam train 610. The Garratts are still to this day
are my very favourite engine. Two survived the cutter's torch, 402 is at Zig Zag
Railway in New South Wales, and 409 is in Adelaide as a museum
piece at Port Dock, now National Rail Museum. Rest were cut up for scrap. Very sad. These engines were only built in 1953 to 1970,
so not a lot of steam life, but did a massive job very
successfully.
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S.A.R Peterborough Guard, Lindsay
Millard
at rear of 274 at Jamestown in May
1967.
Lindsay in his brakevan heading back to Peterborough.
>>>>
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|
S.A.R Peterborough Guard,
a young Danny Vandernende
taking a run- through Jamestown on 274, Dec 1968. |
|
| I
met Danny at Peterborough on 4th May 2005 and
yes, he's still smiling. |
|
Guards
and engine crews from Peterborough and Port Pirie would work
to the cross of each other, then change over crews and return
to their home stations. Train crosses took place mostly at Caltowie. At times at either
Gladstone, or, here at Jamestown.
The guard and motorman of railcar would work through to Port
Pirie and return that same night on the return railcar.
|
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The OLD
Narrow Gauge left, and the NEW standard gauge right.
Jamestown
station mid 1969
Here progress is coming upon the old Narrow gauge. A standard gauge
830 class loco with ballast plough and ballast wagons on new
Standard Gauge track in front of station heading towards
Caltowie. Jamestown Bowling green in background and main road to Orroroo and
Peterborough. Also in this picture you can see the pedestrian subway
at end of station for the public to cross under the rail
yard to give easy access to the main street. The rail
yard actually cut the town in 2 parts.
Also worth noting the down main (track closest to station)
note how brown the ballast track is, that is rusting brake blocks
particles from the use of heavy braking applications of the heavy
down trains. Brake blocks on these trains would be red hot.
|
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So
ends the loved Narrow Gauge, and beginning of a new rail era.
New SG Jamestown Station Feb 1970 |
Jamestown SG Freight Shed Feb 1970 |
Once
the narrow gauge was finished on 9th January 1970, (sad day) we were
all shifted out to the new standard gauge Jamestown "dog box" station out the edge
of town, and yes it was literally out of the town and looked like a
whistle stop in a 40 acre paddock instead of a railway station. This was hard to take to
this after the narrow gauge. After a few weeks things were quiet,
bugger all shunting to do, so I agreed to go to
Peterborough working three shifts and travelling back and forward
each day (44 klms) to relieve while the Standard Gauge yard was getting sorted
out properly and spent most of the time admitting trains from Broken
Hill into marshalling yard, and piloting engines from
Peterborough loco through the Peterborough station yard out the
other side to the marshalling yard where the broad and standard
gauge bogie exchange was. At times crews would book on, prepare engines and by time
they got onto their train they were relieved by another crew before they got out the
yard, such was the mess of conversion. Here I saw the first CL from
Sydney arrive, and it looked huge compared to the usual 830's on narrow gauge
and 600's that were used on the ballast trains of the standard gauge as it was
being built.
The
thing I remember the most about the Peterborough marshalling yard in
early 1970, was those persistent easterly cold winds, and at night it was
so darn freezing (wind chill) in the marshalling yard. Well Yongala
was only a few klms just down the road between Peterborough and
Jamestown and is said to be "THE" coldest place in South Australia.
After some time I could see the writing was on the wall, and coming
like an express train, and decided is better take a shift
to somewhere I would prefer to be, than get shifted to Peterborough,
as I could easily see Peterborough's days were well and truly numbered. I
never did like the city life, as I started my railway career in
Adelaide car sheds and once qualified enough, started working on the
suburban Red Hens, till fully qualified and took a country shift to
Jamestown, so the further away from the city for me, the
better.
I would have
preferred Port Lincoln as first choice, but to get shunter's jobs over there someone
had to retire, or push up daisies. An assistant shunter's job came
available at
Mount Gambier, so I took it and we shifted there late May 1970 and I
started work at Mount Gambier on June
1st 1970, and within 3 months was a supervising shunter. I've
never ever had any ideas of ever becoming a guard, the one thing I would
have hated the most, was those "tucker box" jobs. (stuck
in barracks) If I could have put up with doing tucker box jobs, I would have become a engineman, so shunting
suited me perfectly, and got paid for doing something I loved doing
the most.
Plus it sure kept me quite fit. Plenty of running around.
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Jamestown
Yard
in 1968 and now later in 2000.
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These two aerial pictures were taken while flying over Jamestown
in a Jabiru, January 2000.
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SOME
MEMORY BITS THAT HAVE COME TO MIND
SINCE.
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SOUND
RECORDIST GET SOME ACTION
When the 830's took over from steam in 1964-5, Belalie North
was still a staff station, so up till then there was no need
to double head back to Peterborough from Belalie as engines
would run light engine as it was only 2 sections to travel
home. But when Garratts came back into action was a
different scenario, no Belalie anymore, hence the
opportunity to see twin Garratts out of Jamestown to
Peterborough and most railfan folk sadly missed witnessing
this. For some reason railfans rarely came to Jamestown,
mostly Gladstone, Huddleston, or Crystal Brook, but they
failed to see THAT Jamestown was where the real steam action
was, as Jamestown was a reducing station, reason for an up
and down interlocked main lines, also hence this Jamestown
page to show some of what they all missed. Most of the
serious steam action at Jamestown granted was at night.
A little funny short story. Back in the late 1960's on
an afternoon shift, a couple of sound-fans wanted to catch
some Garratt sound action in the yard, obviously they knew
there was a Garratt on 467 down Pirie train out of
Peterborough. As luck would have it for them, normally 467
was a through freight, meaning it stopped only to change
position of the grade valves (10 minutes). But train control
decided at last minute to do the roadside shunt with 467 and
513 the normal roadside train would then be the through
train. So I said to these fellows, "your in luck
as you will get the best action your have ever heard".
I told them where to set up their sound recorder mics just
past the freight shed Caltowie end. I ran up to facing
switches threw the
sticks back at stop, as the
sticks were setup for 467 to enter the down main and then
setup the switches for the 4th (silo) road as we were going
to pick up some loaded wheat wagons for Pirie. Reason for
that movement down 4th road is a Garratt could only push
back 850 tons
back up into the Jamestown
yard from the down main Caltowie end. By using 4th road not
a lot of loading actually went down the hill out the yard.
All ore wagons were auto couplings and hook loading always
had to go behind the autos via an auto-hook adapter.
That would have meant splitting the train onto the
sheep siding off the down main before doing the shunt, thus
taking a lot of extra time. Point of interest here: an
830 could only push back 800 tons, not as good as a Garratt
of 850 tons.
Anyway, the Garratt stops at the home stick (signal). By the
way it can take awhile to admit a train account the grade valves
in the HP position had to release enough to move the train.
I admitted 467 to fourth road and the sound lads are quite
wide eyed as I adjusted the grade valves to the EX position
(pointing
down) to shunt with. I said to the guard what was about
to happen, he smiled. I uncouples and waved engine to pull
ahead with a string of ore trucks (loaded
auto couplers and lot of weight) We then pickup about
300 ton wheat, (hook couplings also an auto adapter change required)
now we have a lot of tonnage. We pull ahead to just past the
switches, set road for back onto rest of the train a good
way up the yard. The guard and I look to see the lads are
enjoying their sound recording position. Yes, looks fine, so
back over the other side and now for the action. I give
"big kickoff to the driver" Well,,,, all hell was
let loose as the Garratt really got stuck into it, there was
dust and steam flying and garratt roaring. Then gave a stop
and then eased up and coupled up nicely, did the air and
reset grade valves into IP position (horizontal) as I
walked up to the driver to give him the electric staff and a
train order for a cross at Caltowie, and the crew said,
"what was all that about". I explained and they
near fell out the engine laughing. They said they saw the
lads when coming in with sound gear near the track and
thought it might have something to do with it, reason we
give it a good go.
As soon as 467 had gone out the yard and I booked it out
with Train Control who was very happy with the quick shunt.
The sound lads were on the platform bright eyed and I asked
"Well how was that for real steam action" They
were beyond themselves and I would doubt if they would ever
forget that sound recording session being so up close to the
action. Only trouble was I have never heard that recording
they took. So if one of you out there now reading this and
can remember this action on that late afternoon in late 1960’s
at Jamestown with the mighty Garratt, I'd dearly love to
hear that recording. Yes,,, good ol days when one got paid
to enjoy what one so dearly loved doing. Working hands on
with steam trains. Sadly now gone forever. Though did
have good action times with 830 diesels.
Last
twin Garratts 400 and 401 on 554 Up to Belalie North 9th
January 1970.
A funny Garratt story about that
final narrow gauge night at Jamestown.
When the twin Garratts as 554 arrived at Jamestown it had to pick up a big string of ore empties off our 3rd road. My wife, her
younger sister and myself were waiting for the twin Garratts at the water column. I saw that the lead engine had a few fellows on board, so I asked the engineman of second engine which I preferred anyway for the trip up to Belalie. He said, 'sure, no problem' as he knew me. Just as the engines near ready to pickup the string of ore empties after taking water, I climb up into cab and the engineman said, 'what about the girls' (my wife and her younger sister) They were bit hesitant, but reluctantly said okay and there we were, 5 of us. Anyway was a jovial time and everyone was laughing the girls giggling as was certainly an unusual experience for them.
Time now to pickup the ore empties. I was looking out the driver's door as we proceeded out and over onto the 3rd road. The girls were standing in middle of engine. As we coming back onto the 3rd road empties I could see the Garratts had gathered a little extra speed as it was very downhill onto 3rd road. Next thing our engineman yells, 'hang on everyone' as I can see we were going a bit on the quick side so close to the empties. Next thing "bump" we hit the empties not overly that fast, more of a slight misjudgment. As soon as the engines coupled fairly hard, my wife gabbed me but her sister went backwards as nothing for her to hold onto and behind her was a ½ bucket of water and she sat in it fare and square perfectly. Never hurt her, but the embarrassment as everyone grabbed her to lift her out of the water bucket. Fortunately she did not got very wet. It was then a laugh all round. While they were pumping up the air the girls got off as they took our car to Belalie to pick me up, and we pulled the string out and coupled onto the train, an air test and away we went roaring up the Belalie bank into history.
My wife and her sister we still joke and laugh about that night 40 years later. I often wonder if the crew of that engine have any fond memories of that final shunt exercise. Great memories.
The Garratts rode better than "T's", but maybe not
a nice smooth ride with 1100 of tons of ore shoving the
engine around from behind. The T's were a bit of rock'n'roll,
but a great engine for its size.
The Garratts on wet cold nights were nice to be in (like
homely from a non driver's viewpoint) not so on hot
days, as the Garratts had a closed-in cab. When shunting I
use to feel sorry for the crews working the roadside
"T's". Roadside trains were always T's even when
the 830’s were in full swing. All the crews had for
protection from the elements on “T’s” was a piece of
canvas between cab roof and tender to keep some of the
weather out, not all that well either in my view.
But one thing I can say for NG steam crews from a ground
shunter's viewpoint. A steam train would pull up in the
yard, take water, and cross other trains or whatever
night or day. I or ground staff could go out virtually
anytime and give a hand signal, or wave the kero lantern to
start a shunt and 99% of the time, night or day, wet or dry,
the crew were right on the ball. When you worked with steam
you took all this for granted.
But as soon as NG became dieselised, it was almost like
someone flicked a switch. Crews now in their nice cumfy
closed-in cabs with electric heaters on, better seating and
cup of coffee on the console. This use to pee off the ground
staff as now near 99% of the time the ground staff would
have to walk, or run all the way up the train often equal
to, or near 100 (4 wheel wagons) to the engine, thump on
side of cab to wake them up. It was incredible how some
crews could even fall asleep, between moving the diesel's
reversing lever from forward to reverse, or vice versa. The
steam crews looking back now I do take my hat off to them
all. Yes, in my view steam was so alive and was like
family/caring, was a different attitude world. On other hand
when diesels came, they became like near dead and self
centered. Diesels did destroy the old steam engineman’s
ways, much like that old 70's song "video killed the radio star".
An attitude price I guess was paid for on-going technology.
When hand radios were instituted later in the 1980's to all
shunt staff, this solved that problem. Just press the radio
switch and yell "wakey, wakey, engine 503, go
ahead". So the tide then turned, and all that
un-necessary leg work and cursing saved. That was a plus,
also the boss could hear everything that was going on.
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