Demise of Eumungerie's station part 27...

Been doing a little bit of sleuthing, and of course the answer was under my nose all the time... well, in the attic anyway.

I think I have already mentioned on this blog that the whole world got a bit sadder on Monday, 22 September 1975, when passenger rail services were withdrawn from the Coonamble line.

Following that old saying, the trial separation worked and ended up in a divorce case, nine months after the cessation of rail services occurred the station at Eumungerie was formally closed. Along with 23 other similar stations across the state, the doors were closed on Monday, 24 June 1976.

What I was really after in my hunt was the disappearance of the main station building.  I had a clue, as the NSW Railway Digest recorded that on 24 May 1978 tenders closed for the purchase, demolition and removal of the station building (excluding the station manager's office, staff hut and lamp room) and the shortening of the platform to 16 metres at Eumungerie.

I will stop the story right here to explain that the 'station manager's office, staff hut and lamp room' was not some three-roomed, grand edifice. It was the 18 x 12 southern platform building, described in various publications since as a small windowless room.  This is incorrect too - there were two windows in the rear of the building where the station manager, staff polisher and lamp cleaner all took in the morning sun.  Actually, that is all made up, except for the window bit.  Here is a photo from 1980. Mighty fine windows.

Anyway, I knew the tender date but not the actual demolition date.  Then I rediscovered a pile of papers I had purchased from the ARHS Bookshop some time ago.  In it was an annotated diagram of the standard post-1926 Eumungerie layout.

Well dang me! Mr Observant had failed to read the scribble, which is blown up in the next photo.

Yep, it says 'Building demolished, Length platform reduced 12-7-78...'.  I have my answer. I can also now pin a trip I did to Eumungerie to a couple of days after 12 July 1978, as I picked through the still warm ashes and rubble of the building.  Missed it by that much!

Not sure what I would have done if I had been there on the day that the building was pushed over and torched.  As a hot headed 15 year old I would like to think I would have thrown myself in front of the dozer, but I doubt it.  Dozers are big.

It does clear up one thing though.  I had been troubled by a (false) memory that wheat trains were operating through Eumungerie without guards vans prior to the demolition of the station.  Don't know how I came up with it. Guards vans got the ' demolition and removal' order about seven years later. Sleuthing over and mystery resolved, file 154123 says so.

Cheers,

Don

More bits scattered to the wind

When a country railway station gets bulldozed and then torched, as was the case with Eumungerie's station, I guess you shoudn't expect too much of it to survive.  But thanks to the ingenuity of locals and a few others, some of Eumungerie's 'signature' pieces remain.

Previous posts have announced the existence of Eumungerie's signal diagram and station lamp.  The letters off the station nameboard now adorned the local school, at a height that would dissuade any souveniring.  I can also claim ownership of several paint swatches, literally lifted off the back wall of the station shortly prior to demolition. 

A family holiday to Dubbo's zoo last week provided the opportunity for a look around a very green and lush Eumungerie.  Here are a couple of shots taken for posterity from the north end of the yard, looking south and then north to Gilgandra. The most recent capital improvement can be seen in the first photograph - a single chain mesh fence running the length of the western side of the railway yard. 

The photos give a sense that after several years of drought, a good season may be on the way.  The tracks are rusted, but the permanent way is in good nick and the country looks green for winter.  There is even a pool of water to be seen.

But back to the story.  I jumped into the Dog (the Drover's Dog Hotel) just to test their wares, only to find the following lurking in a back room!

Oh happy days! I will admit to immediately testing out the timbers, using only my body weight and a schooner. It still works very well.

So, all we need is a set of platform scales and a fire bucket and we could probably rebuild the station in all of its finery. Add a DEB set and a mini dress and its 1969 all over again!

Cheers

Don

June 2020 update

This update is principally a salute to the good people who have authored the Autumn 2020 edition of the Roundhouse, which is published by the NSW Rail Museum.

I have had a bit of a mixed relationship with the Roundhouse over the years. In the early 1970s I would grab it eagerly to get the colourful inserts advertising steam tours, only to find that most have been run the previous weekend.  

In the late 1970s the Roundhouse hit its heyday, with a series of detailed and well-polished articles by Robert Booth and others, which ultimately became the Byways of Steam publication.

More recently, I stopped reading the Roundhouse when it became little more than an advertorial for a very misguided organisation, ignoring its failures and over-blowing its few successes.  More recently it seems to be taking a more thoughtful approach, and is certainly worth the $10 it costs.

When I saw the current edition's cover, I reasonably concluded it was all about a big green steam engine.

But no! Its really all about the painting of another big green steam engine, 3144T!  

Tucked down the back of the magazine is a ripping little article from Percy Suckling, retired Dubbo driver who turns out to be the Michelangelo of the West.

Percy's great article explains how the painting of 3144T and 3028T into green and blue respectively, all came about.  I am not going to regurgitate the article, which has some great insights about how it all went down.  

The information in the  article gives me my first opportunity to use the 'table' function in the latest version of blogger so here goes...

Locomotive	Arrived in Dubbo	Repainted	Left Dubbo
3028T	1966	29 Jan 1968 - 3 Feb 1968	10 April 1970
3144T	1964	19 - 23 January 1968	14 January 1969

So, a great read.  The magazine also has a good article on the 44 class fleet by John Casey and a terrific bit of news about J & A Brown's Mersey Tank No. 5 (The Major) by Bruce Saunders.  

On the modelling side, things are inching towards an operating layout.  The shed containing the layout was hooked up the grid this week, many of the boards have arrived in town, the Dubbo station kit has been finished as far as is possible, Talbragar Bridge is under construction and the facade of Dubbo's distinctive Railway Refreshment Room has been constructed. So progress!

Cheers, until there is more progress or news 

Don