For my 100th post on this blog I thought I would do something a bit different - thank people. I seem to be forever the lucky recipient of information, things and advice. And it is no different with this blog and my endeavours to record a few things about the Coonamble line (and to model it).
Not sure where I'll start with the thank yous, but an early one probably should be the bloke who has hosted my/our HO version of Eumungerie for the better part of 5 years in his garage (with once mentioning the rent) - thanks Dad.
Then there are the family and friends who send stuff my way, or who don't mind being pestered by my questions.
There are a special breed of people, known as readers of this blog. Looking back at the comments and advice I have received over 99 blog posts, I think you can see a pattern of people very patiently explaining to me what I had failed to observe or adding to the story. These comments are like gold.
And then sometimes it goes to a whole different level. A mate of Dad's who is no longer with us handed over his Roundhouse version of 2103. It is always good to see a 21 in action at Eumungerie, about a century after the prototypes plied those rails.
And then we get to the most recent piece of generosity. Here is a shot of the nerve centre of Eumungerie, around 1985.
Overlooking all the fancy levers was a diagram, sadly somewhat damaged by the local hoons.
A second sign was affixed to the wall inside what became the safeworking hut at Eumungerie. I never photographed it because it never occurred to me it wouldn't be there. But then it was gone.
But now it is back, thanks to a loyal reader. A call came out of the blue. Would I be interested? Oh, yes, indeed. Bob, thank you once more, you are a gentleman and a scholar!
Soon the sign will be back doing what it does best - assisting safeworking through the perils of the (HO scale) yard at Eumungerie.
So, thanks for sticking with me on 100 posts and thank you all once again for participating in my great folly.
Cheers,
Don
I have accidentally just rediscovered a slew of newspaper clippings I have downloaded from Trove over the years. They show that a quiet country town can have its fair share of tragedy, natural disasters and entertaining moments over the years. Lets see if I can cover off a few of the rail-related ones.
The first noteworthy incident occurred prior to the official opening of the railway when, on 11 February 1902, a Mr William Carroll was struck by a train from Eumungerie. The two reports (from the Sydney Morning Herald and Broken Hill's Barrier Miner respectively) differ in the circumstances of the accident. Unfortunately for Mr Carroll, the outcome was his demise later that day. Apologies for the gruesome reporting - it leaves little to the imagination.
In May of the same year drama occurred closer to Eumungerie when the special train returning patrons from the Dubbo show broke down. The entire train returned to Dubbo to obtain another locomotive.
In 1915 a rail-related death in most unfortunate circumstances occurred when a telegraph linesman fell to his death after the pole he had climbed snapped. The telegraph line ran adjacent to the railway, and through the railway yard. Mr Prince went out in a seriously unlucky way.
It wasn't all death but gloom was no doubt widespread throughout the village in early June 1931 on the morning after the Eumungerie Hotel was destroyed by fire.
Perhaps gloom returned a couple of years later when the local church was also destroyed by fire. I do think that perhaps the correspondent was having a lend of us by offering the only 'reasonable explanation' for the fire. I personally can't think of a less reasonable explanation than the one proffered.
Getting back to the railway stuff, Mother Nature played havoc with the line's operation at times. On at least five occasions it resulted in the Sydney Morning Herald reporting washaways along the line - in March 1914, December 1920, December 1929, November 1950 and August 1952. All five reports are reproduced below. I think the people impacted by the 1929 washaway, who were put up overnight in the Eumungerie Hotel, probably got the roughest deal!
1914...
1920...
1929...
1950...
1952...
And now for the other dramas... it must have been a slow news day on 9 December 1933 as a minor derailment in Eumungerie yard was reported.
A potentially serious situation for the people involved in the following report in July 1935 has a fairly humourous backstory - the shadowy criminals at the centre of the story were most likely looking to tap beer barrels stored in Eumungerie yard.
The 'Mr Jones' in the preceding story is one of my paternal great-grandfathers. The other, 'Mr Hewitt', made the news for another effort in September of the next year.
I'll wrap up this post where it started - Dubbo - this time with a collision in Dubbo yard. Hopefully the typeface is sufficiently legible to convey the circumstances of the accident, which caused another 'Mr Jones' to suffer a head injury. Yes, another relative of your blogger, in this instance, a grandfather.
Until next time!
Don
So, bag packed, cameras charged, tickets purchased, weather forecast appropriately predicting rain. One drive and one sleep to go. Barring a medical emergency, a mechanical breakdown, what could go wrong?
I thought I would post just a few photos in a premature celebration of being able to head up the Coonamble branch line behind a steam loco this weekend. Each poses a question?
Will the railway bridge be able to take the weight of the train like it did this day in 1963 when 3088T nimbly trotted across it? I am not concerned about the Garratt making it across, but I am worried for those in car A if one of their travellers has pigged out on sausage rolls for breakfast earlier that day.
Next question: will it be as wet on Saturday as it was when the following photo of the approach to Eumungerie's yard was taken? The answer is, yes, of course! Every time I ever head to the country to photograph train I make it bloody rain, without fail. I should be rewarded for this talent.
And finally, will we be as comfortable as these sheep seem to be when they were behind 3262 passing through Eumungerie? Answer: I hope so.
So folks, you may guess that I am fairly excited. Will hopefully update this blog by the end of this weekend with the results of this trek. By curious irony I won't get a photo of a Garratt at Eumungerie as we are there for a whole 4 minutes and (quite reasonably as there is no way to disembark), there will be no way to grab a couple of shots.
Cheers,
Don
New year, new resolutions. Thankfully one of them this year wasn't regular postings on this blog!
There has been some progress in the background since I last posted. A veritable trove of Trove articles have been read, which promises the uncovering of the minutiae of a small village in the mid-century years of last century. Not all of these are rail related, but there was an amazing number of washaways, derailments and reasons for late mail deliveries.
On the HO scene, I engaged a works contractor to re-establish a static version of Eumungerie station in his garage. Its up and replete with the basic buildings, but needs detailing. Much more. So to start I thought I would investigate the stock races - though I can only remember them being called sheep races.
The races were a favourite hangout of mine, slightly less so during snake season which seemed to go for 11 months of the year. They were great to climb on and to ride the swing gates. Though there was a 'pong' as we called it then which lives to this day. It just wasn't snakes you needed to be careful to watch out for when running around the races.
So I thought I would just grab a few photos and get into it this afternoon. Well, after a solid hour of hunting I have given up with the weakest collection of shots ever. This first one (which I have posted before) starts promising - it gives an idea of the actual races and the drovers' shed - pretty sure that is what it was - happy to be corrected. It was taken in 1965.
Then all I could muster is a distant shot of the yard taken around 1963 (two years earlier) which I have chosen to show as 'extra large' so I can pick out a few details which are missing from the 1965 shot. First, some things are in both shots - like the water column and the drovers' shed (though note the small water tank against the north wall obscured in the 1965 shot).
The major change is that the two signals in the 1963 shot below are gone from the 1965 shot. There is also a huge telegraph pole which seems to have disappeared from the landscape.
While I still know net to nothing about the races and yard from this photo, at least I have enough evidence to go out and but one of those lovely Austrains ways & works train packs. The wagon next to the LFX looks interesting - maybe an old D truck with a gangers' shed on top.
Now this last photo was in very bad shape when I scanned it. I have retouched it as best I can - with a lot of lightening and noise reducing. Itdoesn't show the sheep yard, races or even the shed, but it does give a bit more of a clue about the wagon attached to the LFX. Oh yeah, and there is a 30T with what seems to be an extremely large load of coal in the tender for one headed to Dubbo so it may have worked tender-first out from there to shunt the yard and possibly pick up the works vehicles.
Hope you enjoyed these fairly ordinary shots. I am off to build a red shed.
Cheers,
Don
A
gain, its been a while. Just to let those who watch this blog that its author is still kicking here are a couple of my favourite shots of Eumungerie.
The signal frame was always out in the elements at Eumungerie, although somewhat protected by being located between the two buildings on the platform.
In 1979 the remaining building needed a paint job, but the frame still looked very servicable and well-used.
While the frame only possessed seven signal levers, there was a very nice signalling diagram to assist staff.
Here's a view of the rear of the station building (again in 1979) sowing the rear of the frame.
Even after the demise of the final station building, the frame lived on. Here it is around 1995 when the NSW Railways were entering their minimalist phase.
The signal frame was gone at some stage in the following decade, leaving only the hut.
So there is another little piece of Eumungerie's railway history remembered.
Ciao for now!
Don
