Canterbury happenings 7/2/00

[Scott Martin <semartin@idx.com.au>]

Aus loco discussion mailing list

Aus.loco'ers
             Having had a day off today, and being keen to follow Stuart 
Ellis' tip on EL58/62 on 4168 freight (thanks Stuart), I trooped down to 
my favourite local photo spot just out of Canterbury Station and settled 
down for an afternoon stakeout of the two EL's. 
Just minutes after I arrived, 4884/8044 came through on the up goods 
track at 13:53 with a train consisting of 15-odd conflats, unusually 
loaded with steel products (rods, bars, rolls, etc). 
13:58 - 8017/8039 came by with a down loaded 'Stonie' behind. Very dusty 
train that left a visible trace of its passing.
14:05 - 8004/8015 with an up empty coal 
14:10 - 8153 as a down light engine
14:30 - Consectively numbered units 48117/48118 roared through with a 
long, heavily loaded trip train
14:36 - 8143 as an up light engine
14:55 - 8044/4884 returned with its train of steel products, having 
looked like it had take on some more cargo at Cooks River or Botany (?). 
I am intrigued by this unusual bulk train of steel. Can anyone explain 
what this train is and where it originates/terminates ?.
15:13 - 8121 made light work of three louvre vans on the up goods
15:25 - EL58/EL62 (or is it the other way 'round - those numbers are too 
small) came through with their well loaded up freight, at a significantly 
higher speed than most trains today.
15:35 - NR73 running long end leading, light engine on the up goods .
15:48 - 8046/8021 were running light on the up goods. The driver (bless 
his cotton socks) saw me and 'made smoke', which gave me a great photo.
16:14 - 8031 (very scruffy, with numbers almost faded out) came by on the 
down goods with a trip train.
 Some interesting things noted during this afternoon:
1) Intense flurries of activity (13:53 - 14:10; 15:13 - 15:35) were 
followed by lulls where nothing but suburban services came by, with 
monotonous regularity;
2) The near-total dominance of Goodwin-Alco 48 and 80 class units for the 
intra-city freight tasks, such as the trip trains and the White Bay-St 
Marys stone traffic, and;
3) That just under 2 and a half hours was all it took to use up a 24 
exposure roll of film photographing trains at an economical (1-2 shots 
per train) level.
All in all, a very productive day off, I may even look forward to 
returning to work tomorrow.

I hope this sighting report has been of interest 

Scott


______________________________________________________________________
To unsubscribe, write to Ausloco-unsubscribe@listbot.com
______________________________________________________________________
Start Your Own FREE Email List at http://www.listbot.com