08 October 2018

50 years ago it did rain

Was just searching through a whole pile of railway photographs and was struck by the number from 1966 to 1975 taken in gloomy, rainy weather. Maybe photographers were tougher then, or the equipment was more susceptible to reflecting the local conditions.  I don't think it was the former because the photographer in this case couldn't be tempted off the front verandah of his grandmother's home.  

I have tried to lighten the photograph a little and clean it up a bit.  But it was a wet and soggy afternoon when this 49 (thought to be 08) trudged through Eumungerie on an up stocky.


Cheers,
Don


 

 

22 May 2018

Candy abounds!

It has been several days since the Modelling the Railways of NSW 35th Convention, where I had the opportunity to co-present (read, evangelise) about the Coonamble branch.  If you were at the Convention and attended one of my sessions, thank you for not throwing anything at me, including hard questions. I frankly had a ball; listening to myself speak has always been one of my favourite past-times.  But now life will return to normal, which means blogging!

One of the drawbacks of presenting (perhaps the only drawback) is the reduced opportunity you have to attend other sessions.  I only got to one other session and it was on a subject which perplexes me to this day - signalling.  It was a beaut session and I can now confidently say that the signal in the photo below is a short one.


I think I promised to post a larger version of the photograph above showing the silo complex just too intimidating to climb or model.  And here is a going away shot of the same train...




Its late so I will wrap things here but before I do I will try to redress the dominance of Indian red locos on this blog - a fair comment by a patron last weekend.  Here's two photos, both from around 1985, of candy-liveried locos heading north through Eumungerie. First up, a pretty 4844 on a pretty standard empty wheatie.






I haven't shown enough photos of shy locos on this blog... so here's one of 4874 hiding behind a pole.

Cheers!
Don

20 February 2018

Something to look forward to...

Folks, time for an announcement of sorts.

I haven't been totally lax about things Eumungerie. After taking stock of how this blog is travelling, I decided about 4 months ago additional measures are necessary in order to spread the gospel of the Coonamble line.  So, I did something I rarely do - volunteered for something.

And so it has come to pass that I will be one of the presenters at this year's Modelling the Railways of NSW Convention at Loftus TAFE on 19 May 2018.  The Convention is always a great day out and this year there are some brilliant topics listed (including Coonamble line) and some seriously august and knowledgeable presenters (excluding yours truly). 

As I was worried that I wouldn't have enough information to make a reasonable presentation, I have put together a few slides.  So far it works out to be a 138 slides over a 3 and a half hour presentation - excluding pauses for applause, of course. So I think I will have to cut things down a bit!

Anyway, details about the Convention are starting to be made public at: http://www.mrnsw.org.au/ - I hope that my many readers of this blog (including the Russians and Chinese government officials) will attend the Convention and say g'day to me, even if you choose other sessions. Just come to help me empty my wallet at the trade stands perhaps?  Several readers will have to be there as they seem to be on the speaker list.

I will endeavour to drop a few tasty morsels onto this blog as the Convention draws near.

Cheers,
Don



26 January 2018

The Mail arrives!

Apologies, its been nearly a year without an update.  I do have a sense that this blog will be much more active this year though - probably in a couple of months after several things fall in place.

Your scribe's interest in this location is yet to wane - in fact its getting more intense. The best evidence of this is that there is a fabulously expensive house reno on the cars this year just so I can re-establish a HO layout covering Eumungerie in the garage... that will be more of a 2019 project however the layout is now reassembled and being upgraded.  This means that at some stage I will be posting a few snaps about the recreated Eumungerie, as well as few of bloody fingers from half-blunt Exacto knives etc.

In the meantime, here is a photo of Eumungerie which has only recently surfaced from our family photo collection.  I don't know who took it or when and its a bit over-exposed, but its a rich mine for anyone wishing to model Eumungerie (ie me):
  • The location of the station lamp is shown and its not where I thought it would be (near to the door).  
  • The colour of the weighing scales is not the one I remember or you see typically these days (red, not black).
  • The pub has done good business - the kilns and gas cylinder testify to the thirstiness of the town.
  • The woman on the platform is the local post-mistress (that was their title in those days) waiting to hand the guard some late mail as the train arrives. 
So, enjoy the arrival of the up Far West Express at Eumungerie!


Regards,
Don