Looking Back... Tasmania Feb 1974

["Melanie J. Dennis" <meld.asg@netspeed.com.au>]

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Looking Back:   A week's travelling around Tasmania  1st - 8th Feb. 1974. 

Part 3:   Wednesday 6th February - Hobart.

Low cloud that had set in late Tuesday persisted.  My trip south must have been uneventful as I took no photos nor made any notes re Launceston, Western Junction or even Conara Junction.  First photo of the day was at 13:27 when a pair of 1939 railcars, DP12 & 11 were espied crossing the Granton - Bridgewater causeway, heading for Bridgewater Junction as #52.  Nothing else took my photographic fancy for another three hours, but by then, I was in Hobart station yard watching yellow VA1 (0-6-0DM) shunt grover bogie van ERP15 into platform 1A at 16:16.

Down in loco, at 16:21, were Y8, 7 & 3 (all yellow), X31 (red) and XA4 (yellow), all awaiting next assignments either on subbies or freight turns north.  In the bottom goods yard, red V4 was shunting and was joined by VA1 at 16:30.  0-4-0DM U1 (red) was shed pilot, having been allocated to Hobart in 1971 for shunting locos and wagons into and out of the repair sections.  The 'U' class were rebuilt in 1958-60 from 3 foot gauge industrial construction contractors' locos - two were also rebuilt to metre gauge for shipment to Thailand as part of the Columbo Plan.  

Nothing was in steam - like Launceston, the days had gone of a steam loco on standby, more often than not being used on #78 to Bridgewater Jcn at 17:30 and #81 return(last steam on this service was MA2 on Wed. 31st March 1971).  Privately-owned red M6 was stored in the roundhouse along with Tas. Transport Museum's black Q5 - the last survivor of the class that 'won the war' for Tasmania.  Green M5 had been dumped outside some months previously, a victim of poor boiler condition (but nothing that the TTMS couldn't fix in the mid-1990's).  M5 was the only green loco to work during the Centenary Celebrations but was not in the original shade of green.

Choosing a spot on the embankment by Hobart Junction Signal Box (the title was grander than the installation), allowed me to watch the passing parade of evening subbies.  At 16:46, trailer PT6 led power car DP16 on #70 to the Risdon branch Zinc works.  Four minutes later, red Y4 (No1. end leading) arrived with the afternoon shift-workers train (61) from the Zinc works with a very mixed consist of SSD1 - AAL10 - AAR1 - SS4 - SP6.  At 17:11, yellow Y1 (again cab first) trundled into town with what I think was the remains of Derwent Valley freight #159 consisting of one bogie cattle wagon (empty), three vans and guards van DB35.

DP12 & 11 passed, outbound to the Cabury's Branch as #74, at 17:16.  At 17:32, red Y4 departed, following its long nose, with SP3 - SS1 as a very poor substitute to what was once one of the most regularly steam-hauled services, #78 passenger to Bridgewater and #81 freight return.  Even the number of coaches had dropped!  But Hobart subbies were on borrowed time - they wouldn't see the next twelve months out.

At 17:59, #69 arrived from Cadbury's hauled by red XA2 (long nose leading) with one of the very few sets sporting a consistent appearance:  SSS1 - SS2 - SS6 - SSD2.   These cars had new steel bodies built on recovered underframes during the 1950 - 60's and their body profile was the same as the "Tasman Ltd." cars.  XA2 returned to the roundhouse at 18:02, to prepare for a night's freight work.  Last sighting for the evening was the 18:07 arrival of #67 "Tasman Ltd." from Wynyard with the by now ubiquitous pair of X8 + x10 leading the same consist noted in part one.

Fading light and familial obligations then halted play for the evening.

I didn't make a note nor take a photo of whichever loco was doing Top Yard shunt - most likely one of the four 'V' class (VA1, V2, 4, 13) allocated to Hobart.  All Hobart station platforms were dead ends and train loco release was effected by the Top Yard Shunter pulling the cars out and then shunting them either:
a) to the adjacent carriage sidings or 
b) into another platform or
c) back into the same platform once the train loco had cleared the road.

Looking back, there were very few railcars in use during the evening peak and as the next two days would show, thoughout the days, compared with visits four and six years previous when railcar sets were in abundance.  All railcars had long been painted in the familiar red and cream - I saw my last green and cream railcar back in late 1968, just over a year before a collision with a semi-trailer gave DP21 an unscheduled workshops visit.

Also, the only wooden-bodied coaches still in use were a couple of 'AAL' and BBL12:  all side-door compartment stock and the two prototype 'SUB' cars were either withdrawn or painted red and confined to 'Vintage Train' use.

End of Part 3.

Melanie Dennis
Australian Steam Group


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