Re: Sale - Stratford and beyond...

["Darren H." <locob67@hotmail.com>]

Okay, I've seen the photos. The RTL hauled 6 wagons to Stratford on Thu
4.11. and not "about 3" as I said earlier. I was told it will run daily to
Hillside for consolidating the track (or ballast?). This may in reality mean
5 days a week. Nothing seems to have happened on Saturday. Still, 5 days is
better than nothing. Already forecasts of running log trains 3 days a week
seem to have expanded to 5 days. And nothing is really running yet. I can
say that I see log trucks going past my Stratford shop every few minutes. So
there is plenty of traffic available. And a log truck overturned in
Stratford a few weeks ago. Right near the level crossing. Ahem!
It seems that no locomotive (RTL excepted) has been over the Avon river
bridge to date. A85, H4, T390 & H5 were seen coupled dead on No 3 road, Sale
Fri 5.11. T400 - 371 were on a siding a day earlier. A P-T combination was
apparently there on Wed. I'm told this is for crew familiarisation on the
Traralgon - Sale line though, not testing the bridge.
And as to that question of why I am on crutches - this is not too serious. I
just had an operation to remove a lovely titanium nail from my leg, which
was from a car accident nearly 2 years ago. And NO! I wasn't chasing trains
at the time. I should be back to normal in a few days. Difficult to climb
into a loco on crutches.

Darren Hodges.