Residents of Troy Junction

Its certainly time for a few photographs of the wonderful Troy Junction.  

This first one shows the only two motorised vehicles ever to call Troy Junction 'home', lurking amongst the long grass during the 1985 October Long Weekend. 

These CPH rail motros were owned and operated by the all too short-lived Macquarie Valley Railmotor Society.  The Society also possessed an interesting and eclectic range of rolling stock, as evidenced in the following photographs.

In this next photograph we have HFL 422, which spent most of its working life trawling the eastern seaboard, servicing travellers in the area bordered by Newcastle, Lithgow, Goulburn and the Illawarra/South Coast.  Sure, carriages of this type would have made it out west, particularly on relief (extra) trains operated during peak holiday periods.  Though I very much suspect that Troy Junction as just about as far along the Coonamble branch that any L car managed to get. 

Next up is an LFX-type carriage, wearing a livery which suggests that it spent its last years in the service of the 'Perway Branch' - most likely providing shelter to weary rail workers.  In a former period this carriage may have trundled along the Coonamble branchline at some stage, perhaps on those occasions when passenger loadings exceeded a rail car.

The next few photograps are somewhat blurred, having been shot using a telephoto lens without a tripod.  Yes I could have got closer, but I wasn't.  It was October remember, that time of the year when the snakes of the west get a bit territorial and frisky.

Here we have a KP mail van.  Whilst in service these made it all the way to Dubbo routinely.  However, the only time that such carriages travelled on the Coonamble branch was to be turned using the Dubbo triangle (see earlier post).

 Next in the blurred crusade, we have a line composed by a 4 wheel S wagon, a bogie water ginty, a former suburban FO-type carriage and a much faded rose, a Pullman-variant CBC-type carriage.  The last two pieces of rolling stock were also retirees from the Perway collection.  If they were in service together, I am sure that there would have been stiff competition to get the bunks in the Pullman car, over the alternative!

Now, for the final blurred delight - a real motley collection.  Here we have another LFX/BX carriage, followed by another commuter special - an R car - then a high-roofed KB mail van, followed by an S wagon with some semi-permanent structure on it, then a bogie water ginty.

Now, I am not one to criticise the efforts of those who seek to preserve NSW's railway heritage, but what were these people thinking? They deserve great kudos for securing the CPH railmotors, but unless they intended establishing an operation to rival Australia Post, there was little to commend the remainder of the collection.  Sadly, the Society did not survive, going into abeyance in the late 1980s as new operating requirements proved too difficult to meet.