A considerate loco driver! And some Illawarra line questions....

["Bradley Torr" <btorr@bigpond.nospam.com>]

While waiting for an up train at North Wollongong station this
afternoon..... a FreightCorp loco 8157 hauling 5 coal wagons (Manildra
Group) and 10 piggyback wagons (is this the right terminology for a wagon
upon which containers are placed?) appraoched the station on the down line,
with the headlight on full beam. From at least a mile away all the
passengers on the station were blinded.......  it made looking north very
difficult :-(

Anyway, as 8157 came towards me at low speed (it was approaching a red
signal), a squinted and covered my eyes and gesticulated that the light was
blinding me. The loco driver then turned the main light off... I gave a
thumbs up and he waved :-)

Also, another question about North Wollongong - the northern third of the
platform looks like relatively new concrete..... the rest of the station is
1930's style asphalt with an enclosed brick base (the concrete part was
open). The station was obvioulsy extended at some point to accomodate 8-car
sets.... anyone have any idea when this happened?

And also.... there appears to be a disused siding between Bellambi and
Woonona (or perhaps Woonona and Bulli... pretty sure it's the former...) on
the up side... a very disused platform as well overgrown with grass, and
several hundred feet to the north, the scorched frame of what once was some
kind of maintenace shed or freight depot. What was this? 

Thanks in advance....

Regards,
Bradley.