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Johnny's Pages
Old S.A.R. Shunter's Memories
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Page last
updated: June 05, 2013
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MOUNT GAMBIER MARSHALLING YARDS
IN
THE 1970 and 80's
Another trip down memory lane.
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Mount Gambier
Railway station 1953.
Tiled
roof later replaced with Iron roof right > |
Mount Gambier
Railway Station 1983.
With
iron roof. |
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All
these pictures below are of the 3 separate yards that went to make up the
Mount Gambier Railways in the 1980's.
They are all still there, but
getting very overgrown now and lot worse for wear.
The
3 yards were
Old
Station marshalling yard
New marshalling yard and Loco area
Mt Gambier Junction, Sheep,
Cattle, Storage yard.
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Mount Gambier had two main shunt
yards and also sheep and cattle yards past the White Avenue
Junction.
One yard was called the Station Old yard, which had an interlocked main Signal
Cabin that controlled the whole of the station yard.
The other marshalling yard called the "New yard" where
the crew barracks and loco sheds and turntable were, was situated between Bertha
Streets and White Avenue. Another Signal cabin was situated at White
Avenue called the Junction cabin. This Junction Signal cabin
controlled all train movements into the New yard and main line to Mt
Gambier station from Millicent and from
Adelaide, also into the sheep, cattle and storage yards.
The Main line to the Mount
Gambier Station from the Mount Gambier Junction Cabin ran alongside the New
marshalling yard to the Mount Gambier station in the old yard.
The station yard, was for the passenger trains and the loading and unloading of merchandise, also for the making
up of the daily roadside trains to Mile End (in Adelaide)
and Portland (Victoria). Also the arrival and departure of Victorian trains to and
from Heywood, plus our overnight mixed express trains. The New marshalling yard was built in
the 1960's for the marshalling and breaking up the bigger, longer freight trains only.
Shunting the loading between
the New yard and Old yard was at MOST times an acrobatic feat
in itself, as this led to blocking of two main rail crossings
at the same time, Bertha Street and Wehl Streets. This was much to
the dismay of the local residents, who had to wait at times 5 -10 minutes during these
shunting movements. A lot of times
people were late for work, unless they used their head and traveled
via Bay Road and the shunters and engine crews would cop plenty of abuse over
the years, but it could never be helped, as it was just a fact of
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Drawing of New marshalling yard
Loco area and Junction |
Drawings of old station
yard as at present 2003
Dotted lines show tracks removed in late 1980's.
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(Pic: Morris Broad)
Mount Gambier Station Yard in 1981 looking
towards Bay Road, from atop signal Wehl street end.
Shunt
engine 838 breaking up overnight jet ex Adelaide is on B
road.
The 930 class jet loco can be seen on other end of C
road.
Some empty wagons can be seen on what was called Pole road.
Pole road mainly held spare trucks and Vic loading.
The 152 roadside train is seen on A Road, to the
right all marshalled ready to depart 9am.
Names of tracks from left to right of station platform:- Main
line, C road, B road, Pole
road, A road, Shed road.
Never knew why or how Pole road
got its name.
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(Pic: Morris Broad)
Gambier Station Yard
from atop Bay Road signal looking toward Wehl Street in 1981
Twin
Victorian "T" class locos ready for departure to Portland in Victoria. To the left is the loading yard for
timber and K&S slide-on, slide-off wagons. This
train is seen made up on C
road out onto the main line, just short of the Bay road signal and
road crossing.
To right (not in picture) other side of roadway was the
Administrative building known as "The White House"
now Kmart car park.
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Some of the AN
Employees.
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Admin employees in 1984 in front of the
railway
administration building, now demolished and become Kmart car park.
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Shunt crew on 831 shunt loco
Felix Micalski, Ziggy Lucas, David Phillips. |
Train Controller.
Jim Dempsey. |
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Loco Fitters
Left: P Noonan,
Right: ?? Lamming.
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The Per Way gang L to R: Johnny Jalonka,
Bill Harrison, xxxxxxxxxxxxx, Bill Ryan,
Joe Baker, Ron Bettie, Jack Holsinga,
Johnny Jozkow. Front: Jerry Flier.
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Goods shed unloading.
Kevin Smith, Alan Pettingill
Roy Neale.
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Mount Gambier station and car park. July 1983
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Afternoon Bluebirds just in from Adelaide
at Mount Gambier platform. December 1989
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Bluebirds. December 1989.
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Bluebirds. December 1989.
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SE
Tickets: Wayne Morris
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Last night mixed freight to leave Mt Gambier.
October
1985.
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Last night mixed freight to leave Mt Gambier.
October
1985.
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Mount
Gambier Main line.
Night jet brake van at station for parcel
loading.
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Sleeping and
Passenger cars for the mixed freight
for the 8:30pm overnight train to
Adelaide.
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The Adelaide ( Tailem
Bend crew ) over-night mixed passenger (Mon - Wed - Fri) and overnight
fast freight train crews
(Tues and Thurs) would rest all day in the Crew's rest
house or barracks, then of an evening leave for Tailem Bend thence Adelaide.
This over-night mixed goods and passenger train
was known as "The Blue Lake", most times had two passenger
cars and two overnight sleeping carriages attached on the rear of the fast
freight. This train would leave the Mount Gambier station at 8:30pm for
Adelaide and arrive in the Adelaide Railway Station at 8am next
morning.
It was a rather slow trip for passengers on account this train was
what was called a MIXED freight train and had to travel at freight
train speeds, 80kph because of the freight cars. This limited goods
train would also pickup other through loading along the way and later all
the front freight loading would be uncoupled at a place called
Mitcham (an outer suburb of Adelaide) and then the front portion of
the goods train would continue on to the Mile End freight yards.
Another locomotive would then be attached to the passenger cars and
then continue on into the Adelaide Railway Station. It was quite a
good trip, as you did not loose a day in travelling in daylight.
Many people would travel on this train, as it provided a place to
sleep overnight cheaply, as it saved a two night Hotel stay while
visiting Adelaide. You could catch this train at 8-30pm, sleep
all night on the train, arrive at 8am next morning and have a good
breakfast at the Railway Station Cafeteria (they had the best
excellent Aussie pies, these were my favourite) do some shopping
in the very heart of Adelaide, go to your appointments, take in a
movie, then head off later to the Adelaide Railway Station have
another good meal again at the railway station cafeteria.
While at the Adelaide
Railway Station one would quite often run into people you knew, then
grab some reading matterand get onto the overnight Blue
Lake train back to Mount Gambier leaving at 8pm another mixed goods
and arrive back in Mount Gambier at 7am or there abouts next morning, go home
and have a shower, have breakfast and off to workand all it cost
you in actual time was 1 day off. It use to be quite popular
because of this,
but as usual, old father time ruins everything. ( I mean rather
short sighted humans beans, er sorry I mean beings ).
The S.A.R. Adelaide
Railway Station and rail yards were once a romantic type railway station, had a lot of great character as it did have real STYLE and it was special for anyone
arriving by train into the Adelaide Railway Station from the
country, or from interstate. Ask any elderly person who traveled by
train. The station had long dead end platforms in the open air where all Country,
Inter-capital cityand suburban trains arrived and departed. And
not forgetting the Man in Blue announcing train arrivals.
It was a fantastic experience for anyone to arrive or
depart from there. Now has been built over with a yucky hotel and
the rest of the station turned into a Casino. They have absolutely
ruined a once beautiful and enjoyable station, it was an icon.
The Countryand Inter-capital railway station is now at Keswick, close
to the old Mile End freight yards, a good three miles or so from the
old/new Adelaide Railway Station, (now no where near the city itself) it is like arriving in Adelaide and being dumped in a 40 acre
windy cow paddock, the only thing missing is the cattle and sheep grazing, at
least that be nice to see and is very draughty, cold and very un-inviting, definitely not a
welcoming sight, or a good invitation to visitors to come again in my
view.
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Mount Gambier Station yard Signal
Cabin.
June 1983.
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Signalman Morris Broad putting electric staff in
cane hoop. July 1983
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| This Signal cabin serviced the whole of the Old Station
Yardand was a very busy job. All shunting movements could not take place
without this cabin, as it was interlocked with all switches to the
yard,
which controlled the entrance and exit to this what was
called the Old Yard. This cabin was in total control of
all train movements in and around the Old yard at all times.
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The 40 Signal levers that
controlled the Mount Gambier Station Yard.
..Red..
levers
were for pulling the signals OFF (45deg).
Red levers in the
frame as above, showed ALL signals were at the STOP or ON (90
degree)
position.
..Black.. levers
were for turning the switches.
..Blue..
levers then
locked these switches through rodding that ran from the cabin
to all the interlocked switches each end of the yard.
..White..
levers were spares.
Pulling these levers during a eight hour shift was a back
breaking job and very busy with two or three engines shunting at
once. The buttons above the Black and Blue levers are the Push
Buttons that had to be pressed and held in before operating any
of the switch levers. If there was a train on the circuit anywhere,
there was no way the cabin operator could operate those switches,
everything was interlocked. The button was pushed or held in, if
hear a click then
the switches can to be set upand then locked before a signal could be
pulled OFF to allow a train or engine to exit, or be admitted to
that track, yard or station. All this is for safety reasons. So the
signalman had to know exactly in what sequence the cabin levers had
to be placed in, before any train movements could begin. The Signalman's job was also incurred
other train working duties. Electric
staffs, Train ordersand Victorian staff & ticket working.
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| Looking out of Signal Cabin door
towards Mount Gambier Station and the Bay Road railway crossing
which is the entrance to this yard from Heywood Victoria.
The Victorian Border is about 7 miles from here. January 1990
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From
cabin looking South East.
Looking east towards Victorian border from
station cabin. July 1983.
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From Cabin looking North West.
Looking West towards Wehl Street crossing from
station cabin. November 1983. Note the Victorian Y class engine, Dynometer car
and sleeping
car are stabled on far right.
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Victorian Jet departing for Heywood.
1991.
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T342, T393, 966 New Yard. Oct-1983.
Yardmaster Michael Bukalca on his push bike.
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830
reversing passengers cars for Blue Lake.
October 1983.
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Shunter
entering old yard from New yard.
January 1990. Note: "A" and
"pole" roads been removed.
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Bowmans passenger car and Finniss sleeping car.
Mt
Gambier October 1985
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Finniss sleeper car in
front of station cabin.
October 1983
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| K & S slide-on-off trays loading in old
yard, near Bay Road. July (left) and Nov (right) 1983
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From slide-on to crane-lift. Dec 1989.
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830 shunting K&S flats. Jan 1990.
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Adelaide Bottle Co loading empty return bottles into Dwfs.
Looking from Wehl Street Nth. March 1980. (Pic
by Nipper)
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Less than Car Load vans been unloaded at Goods shed
Goods shed office starts where windows are at right.
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Left:
Inside Mount Gambier goods shed.... July
1983.
Right:
Freight office. Michael Hattam front desk. At rear desk Mark Moffat
on phone. July 1983.
(All now demolished, only bare goods platform left)
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A.N.
in mid to late 1980's started chasing clients away who used
LCL (Less than Car Load) consignments,
A.N. only wanted full truck loads. This was a godsend to
road transport as after that all intermediate stations
started to die and roadside wagons became less and less and
stations were being closed down. This was the down turn of railways as
we all knew it. A.N. was only interested in Mt Gambier to
Adelaide and beyond as one consignment. (especially only
inter-capital city traffic) So shunting became less and
it was then A.N. started playing the employees against each
other, to shed staff till the line was closed down in 1995. Same
thing happened to the Bluebird passenger service, A.N. just
ran them down, no maintenance on them was done, the
Bluebirds became unreliable, then that was a part good excuse to
stop the passenger service for good. The old railways that
put the regional areas on the map, were now all dying. I
guess it's called progress, but which way, in my own personal
view regression is more like it. For those who experience
the older railway days, at least we all have pleasant
memories of a great S.A.R. rail era.
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Old Mount
Gambier Yard in 1936.
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Old turntable and loco sheds in 1949.
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These
picture were taken from atop Wehl Street looking east
towards Bay Road. |
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This
is the Old Station yard from the Wehl Street crossing,
looking east towards the Bay Road crossing in the 1980's.
The gauge is 5' 3" broad gauge track. Standardisation
4' 8½' and con job forced the closure of the Wolseley to Mt
Gambier line. The passenger railway station and Station
Signal Cabin on the leftand the goods shed and
loading yard on the right. The Middle part was for breaking up
and marshalling of trains.
Note:
in picture "taken
2006" the Goods shed
and Goods offices have been completely removed, only the platform remains now.
Also a couple of freight yard tracks have been
removed. On right Plumber & Painters sheds also gone.
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NOTE:
ALL
THIS RAIL LAND IN OLD
STATION YARD ABOVE HAS
BEEN GIVEN OVER
TO THE MOUNT GAMBIER
CITY COUNCIL FOR CITY
RE-DEVELOPMENT.
A 10 metre RAIL CORRIDOR
THROUGH THIS LAND MUST
BE LEFT
IF IN A FUTURE TIME
THE RAIL TRACK GETS
STANDARDISED TO 4' 8½".
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835 shunt engine
between New Yard (Bertha St)
and old yard (Wehl Street). July 1983. |
Shunter
Brian Murdock with 942 coming
over Wehl Street entering old
yard. Oct 1983 |
Two crossings Bertha Street and Wehl Streets separated the old
station yard and new marshalling yards. Was a worry shunting over these
crossings from one yard to the other, as it is all downhill and all
loading was pushed from new yard into the old yard. One had to be
very sure all loading was well coupled.
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Old yard
in distance. Here looking from new yard just past Betha
street and Wehl Street crossings.
December 1989
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| Looking down into the New yard towards
the Junction Cabin, with Main line on the right. Oct 1990.
Bertha Street railway crossing in foreground. Shunt track was to old
yard and crossover was being re-sleepered here.
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THE PER-WAY
GANG REPLACING THE CROSSOVER
BETWEEN THE TWO YARDS
October 1990
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Looking towards old Yard. |
Looking towards new Yard. |
Towards old Yard. |
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Next rail set being bought over.
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Rail set being put into place.
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Rail set now put in place.
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The lads bolting up.
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Now all done. Note: the LQ signal arms
and all interlocking has been removed.
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Looking towards old yard. All signalling
and
interlocking and 2 roads been removed.
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Mount Gambier New
Marshalling Yard
Bertha Street crossing gongs.
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Entrance to New Yard from Bertha Street railway
crossing, showing New Marshalling Yard and Loco Depot.
Train crew barracks at left of picture.
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Per
Way Gang
and Electrical fitter's sheds
alongside Bertha Street.
July 1983.
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MRP
Accident van and Y open wagon.
November 1983.
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Looking
towards Bertha Street you can see the
weighbridge and height test bar at left.
Electrical fitters and train control
pill box. To right
is the train crews rest barracks.
Early 1989.
Per-way gang shed now been removed.
New yard weighbridge and overhead wagon clearance bar.
Loco sheds on left. A.N. had already been altering and
reducing the
yard where cement tank is.
February 1992. |
Loco sheds early 1950's
Here
one can still see remnants of the old Narrow Gauge after Broad
Gauge widening in early 1950's. The coal loader for steam
engines is still standing here, as was the water tower. Both
were removed later.
Minor note: There is a dog in the
picture, can you see it? Photo
courtesy: Allan Lownsborough now deceased 2010. |
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Drawing of New
yard and Junction in 1980, not to scale.
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Mount Gambier
Loco
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July
1983
Loco
turntable.
Behind: Loco foreman's office and booking on room.
Building to right: Crib room
and showers.
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July
1983
Mt Gambier Loco sheds and turntable.
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31st
July 2012
Turntable mechanism. |
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LOCO SHEDS and NEW YARD
LATER
5th JUNE 2013
Two
Redhens 405, 424, wooden trailer car 820
and an old suburban steel (---) are still in Roundhouse.
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5th
June 2013
Roundhouse and Turntable with Redhens.
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5th
June 2013
Mt Gambier roundhouse and new yard.
Looking in Naracoorte direction.
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5th
June 2013
Loco Roundhouse, Turntable and Amenity blocks.
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5th
June 2013
New Yard looking east towards Betha Street.
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Mount Gambier
Junction
Looking from New yard toward the Junction
Cabin and White Avenue crossing. Sept 1988.
September
1989
Top
signal: for Main Line.
Bottom signal: for Marshalling Yard.
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September
1989
Junction Cabin from atop the signal mast.
Note: The switch/signal rodding/wires at bottom of cabin.
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Junction
Cabin looking east towards the New Yard September 1989.
White Avenue
railway crossing in the foreground. This signal Cabin is
also interlocked with all switches and signals into and out
of the New Yard, Sheep and Cattle and
Storage yard, also for the Junction of the Adelaide and
Millicent lines.
Note.
I also worked both the Junction and station signal
cabinsand I was to be the last employee to work in and
shut down both the Station Cabin and the Junction Cabins in
1990, two years before I took voluntary redundancy. These
lower quadrant signals were lit up by night with kerosene lamps that had to be filled
and cleaned twice a week. The signal with no arm was an
old Train Order signal, which had not been in use for years.
Once the Junction and Station cabins were closed down in
1990, all lower quadrant signalling and rodding were all
pulled out and all interlocking was removed from the
switches and was replaced with manually operated
switchstands. All movements over the White Avenue Junction
crossing needed a qualified employee who had to operate the
crossing gongsand then to pilot the train into and out of
both yards. Electric Staff was removed and Train Order
working was instituted. Trains ex New yard the Train Orders
for Adelaide and Millicent were from this cabin, by shunter
or his assistant. Train Order for Bluebirds was given from
Station which always used the main line.
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Junction Cabin frame
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Millicent 4625 leaving marshalling yard.
May 1990.
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May 1990.
Morning Bluebird to Adelaide passing
Mt Gambier Junction cabin. White Ave.
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September 1988.
Click
to see the Lower Quadrant signal meanings
Above
Left:- Here
goods 547 ex Mile End is being admitted on main line to the New Marshalling
Yard just past Junction cabin.
Above Right-
Showing the BlueBird
rail passenger cars on main line has passed the Junction
Cabin and heading
to Adelaide.
Note in right picture:-
The right hand side side signal
is off, showing the track is setup for the Adelaide line and
it is okay to proceed.
Also sheep vans can be seen at old cattle and sheep yards.
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Inside Mount Gambier Junction cabin. Sept 1989
On wall at right is the Train Control phone.
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Junction Cabin April 1995.
At time of the closure of Broad gauge track.
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Junction Storage
yard, also sheep and cattle yards. Sept 1989
Looking towards Millicent line straight ahead and the Adelaide line
turns to right.
At far right is the new Per Way Gang compound just been built where
old sheep yards once were.
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Cabin
later
in 2012.
Mount Gambier White Ave Junction
Cabin.
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Cabin
later
in 2012.
Mount
Gambier Junction Cabin. Looking West.
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Official
line Opening of Mount Gambier - Naracoorte line. 17th June 1887.
Official opening of Mount - Naracoorte railway
17th June 1887.
Official Closing of Mt Gambier - Wolseley line
12th
April 1995.
Last
Broad Gauge train leaves Mount Gambier old yard for Tailem Bend.
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Sad
ending as progress catches up
again.
Gm43 and 852 hauling last train out of Mount Gambier's old yard
12th April 1995.
Right: Train examiner John Creek talking to driver.
Further down the train the number nicker is taking the wagon
numbers. |
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Gm43 and 852 hauling last freight train
heading past Junction cabin White Avenue 12th April 1995.
When this train went through Wolseley the dogs were pulled and broad
gauge track was closed to traffic.
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Picture above is yours
truly, John (Johnny) at age 51 in my Shunters gear the week before I
took voluntary redundancy in April 1992 with 30 years of
S.A.R, A.N.R, A.N. Railway service. I could well see the
writing was on the wall that this South East line would cease
soon. Just 3 years
later on 12th April 1995 the South East broad gauge line
rail services finally closed down for good after 108 years
rail service which was opened for traffic on 17th June
1887. The first rail was laid in 1886.
Rail as
I knew it was fast disappearing forever and times were
changing fast.
Behind me in the above picture is a Victorian X class Loco that came in
early in that morning and would leave Mt Gambier for Heywood - Hamilton
- Arrarat in
Victoria that evening at 6pm on its way to Melbourne. The Hamilton
crew would rest all day in the Crew's rest house or barracks
near Bertha
Street. A day time Victorian crew use to be stationed here in
the Mount and lived here in the town and would work to the cross of the Portland crew. Was a nice good day job for the older
Victorian
engineman in their twilight years.
Note the radio I am carrying on my hip, as they were only
introduced for shunters to use some 4 years previously.
Before that all shunting was done through and by hand
signals, quite often relayed by extra 1 or 2 persons besides
the shunters with long strings or around corners. Shunters always operated in pairs in S.A.R, a Supervising shunter and an Assistant shunter
who most times chased the wagons and applying hand brakes
and coupling up air hoses. Goods trains would be bled of
their air on arrival. Then the strings of wagons would be
pulled to top of yard, as slope of the yard ran back towards the
Junction and then each wagon(s) kicked off (this
is where it was nice using 930 class engines, plenty of
grunt and stopping power) onto the various roads for
marshalling other trains and separating out the local loading to
place in old yard for unloading, or in super siding and
sheep and cattle vans for placement at the Junction
stockyards. Was a
very busy and time consuming job, kept you fit and on the
ball.
There was 3 sets of shunters which worked the 2 marshalling
yards and stockyards, a morning shift 4:30am till 12:30pm,
day shift 6am till 2pm and afternoon shift 2pm till 10:30pm
or finish. At busy times which was most times on afternoon
shift, one of the assistant shunters would become an acting
Supervising shunter and have a qualified porter as his assistant and
make up an extra shunt set, one for each yard. Till the mid
1980's we shunted only with mainline engines including Mon,
Wed, Fri a 900 class engine after the overnight passenger
arrived. To fly shunt with a
900 class engine tested the skills of driver and shunter, but
I loved
doing it. One good thing was no night
shift, so no round the clock shift work like it was at
Jamestown on the narrow gauge.
On heavy rainy or foggy days we often had 2 extra employees to relay the hand signals to the engine
driver for us when shunting long strings of trucks (wagons) during
shunting and marshalling operations. This use to get quite dangerous at
times, especially when some of the fellows (mostly junior
porters new to the job) who were relaying
your hand signals for you to the engine driver, were a
little slack, OR, slow in relaying the hand signals in time. That use
to really upset me, as it was sometimes very hard to get
into the heads of the youngsters to truly understand just how
dangerous their inattentive actions could beand they MUST keep their eyes
on the shunter ALL the time.
I always took my shunting very
seriously, as I've always loved shunting arena. 30 years of train
working and only one minor derailment on a miserable rainy
cold dark winter's morning at 5am at State Saw Mill siding when
local children had jammed stones in the spring lever points
leaving them half cocked. The
930 hit the skids but found it near impossible to stop as the
wheels sliding on the State Mill's greasy rails
and dropped the 930's leading bogie off the track into the
dirt. Fortunately no serious damage to 930 engine when the
Victorian engine pulled it back up onto the
rails and also very little damage was done to the points, just my pride hurt.
I can smile at this now, but certainly was not at the time. One mistake
could be your last in the shunting business.
As a
shunter speaking for myself, I still say to this day it was the best job in the world, now
all gone forever.
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Yours
truly on 830 class during shunting operations in new
Yard April 1992 |
Kicking
off
some empties
April 1992. |
Again
yours truly on rear of wagons during
shunt movements in New Yard April 1992. |
Heading
down transfer, on the run ready to clamber
aboard the 830 during a shunt movement. April 1992. |
Heading
back to pickup another rake of empty
wagons
for Snuggery. April 1992. |
Yours
truly on 830 class during shunting
operations
in new Yard April 1992. |
Yours
truly (JM) piloting a VLINE "X" class through
transfer new marshalling Yard. March 1991. |
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Piloting
a just arrived a Victorian Dyno train over Bay Road into Old
yard. March 1992. |
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GOODBYE GLENBURNIE
SALEYARDS SIDING
March 1992.
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Engine 831 with first load of salvaged rail sets.
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Yours
Truly at left as shunter, with ganger with
engine 838 loading last rail sets onto flat wagons. |
838 with
final rail sets from the Glenburnie saleyards
siding 1992. Glenburnie then was no more as a siding. |
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SOME OTHER IDLE RAIL MOMENTS
A SHUNTING FILM TAKEN AT DARLING
ISLAND N.S.W. 1977
Wmv movie 320 x 240. 520kbps.
File size: 50.8megs. Duration: 14 minutes.
This video footage does give some idea of those hectic shunting days back in the
1970's.
A shunter myself once, one can well relate to all this, it
was go, go, go.
Often working with a mixed bunch, it sure did have its ups,
downs, rows and good laughs too.
My
two bob's worth at an Aussie Forum between Gorgon and myself
on comments of the above shunting movie.
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Well,
Mount Gambier as a railway station may be long gone now
Being closed down in April 1995.
BUT
Thanks to
Allan Lowsborough from Adelaide who has built the excellent
"SAR Adelaide - South East" route
for
MSTS (Micro$oft Train Simulator).
Mount Gambier with both its Old and New marshalling yards and Junction
cabin are back again on computer. The South East track has come alive
again and I have for some
time now my old shunting days back again.
I not only shunt the trains, I also get to drive them now.
Best of both worlds now, thanks to the computer age. |
...
click on the small picture to view a larger picture ...
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500 class shunt engine about to shunt and
guess who's hanging on the side of VBBX wagon |
Yes,, it's yours truly back shunting and
I haven't aged either, still about 50. |
Jet
ready to head off to Mile End with twin 930's
Mt Gambier Station and cabin with twin 930's
941 and 942 |
Mount Gambier station.
Rear of train with old GB.
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Both cabviews of
930 class engine looking towards Wehl Street and at the Station Signal
Cabin. |
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Driver's view. Old
station yard.
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Right: Fireman's view. Old
station yard.
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Below
is the New Marshalling Yard with Snuggery train made
up on Transfer
with twin 930 class diesels 941 and 942. |
...
click on the small picture to view a larger picture ...
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New Marshalling Yard looking West |
New Marshalling Yard looking East |
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547 ex Mile End just passed Mount Junction Cabin
has got the low speed signal off about to enter
the New Marshalling Yard.
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MSTS
has derailments too, when switches left
set
into goods siding with
loading still on at Wandillo.
Track at left is old Glencoe NG, not yet pulled up.
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