OZ day 7:48 Class on the wheat; the staff system in action; stuck in the mud

Early success: quad 48s bring a grain train into Narrabri. . .
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Friday, April 17: Another clear morning leaving the motel in Narrabri. Supposed to be a number of trains between here and Moree: a PacNational grain shuttle at Edgeroi; an El Zorro at Bellata; another PacNat coming back from Moree; still one more loading at Moree. . .so shouldn't want for trains this morning.

We're just short of Edgeroi when we round a curve on the highway and are surprised by a southbound haulin' ass--four 48 class and a rake of NGTY wagons. He's smokin' and quite a sight! We wheel around and photograph him off the overbridge on the north side of Narrabri, and head into town to watch him depart the station after exchanging the staff. He sits for a while doing the safeworking, giving us all a chance to get out pruning shears and snip, snip, snip the weeds and grass which have encroached the right of way.

I'm in all my snippin' glory trimmin' the bush at Narrabri (photo by Lance Lassen). . .


. . .the grain train departs Narrabri in smoky Alco glory. . .

He departs in a moderate-Vesuvius of Alco smoke, sounding good. The crew says they're only going a few miles south of Narrabri Jct. to be relieved by a new crew that'll take the train into Werris Creek.

We've got a few more trains up north still to play with, so we head back north. First train: PacNat at Edgeroi, a ho-hum pair of 81 Class. We aren't going to waste too much time on something this mundane. Up at Bellata, a bit better: the El Zorro train loading a new string of blue Australian Wheat Board wagons with a nicely matched set of EL's. We stick around there for a bit, getting a few shots, and realize that the southbound Explorer passenger should be along shortly. Charlie hooks up the "magic box" for data and I call Joe at ARTC for a rundown: there's a northbound out of Werris headed for Moree with interesting power, a pair of 80 Class and a 48 Class, likely the same units we saw on the 15th. We decide to follow the Explorer back to Narrabri, intercept the northbound with the 80 Class, follow it back towards Moree, and then come back to Narrabri for some "infrastructure shots" for my modeling of the area.


Four leased CFCLA EL class on the El Zorro at Bellata. . .

SAFEWORKING: Staff and Ticket
We chase the Explorer back to Edgeroi, where it stops for safeworking. To the Yanks in the audience, safeworking describes the procedures and rules in place for authorizing movement on trackage without CTC--in this case, Staff and Ticket.

When only one train movement is expected on a segment of track, the train crew will carry the staff with them from staff box to staff box. Each staff is unique, both in shape of the "head" of the staff, and in the color of the staff (at least in the name of the color engraved on the staff, since they're mostly so old the paint has worn off). What happens when you have more than one train running in the same direction? Then the last train holds the staff, and prior movements operate using the ticket, a written authority. Before either taking the staff or getting the ticket, the crew will contact the controller for their movement authority. When the train arrives at the next safeworking section, they will contact the controller, mark their authority "fulfilled" and place the form in the staff box, and continue into the next section with either the staff or a new paper ticket.

The Edgeroi-Narrabri staff: specific to shape (round) and color (red, though the color is worn off), it allows access into the box containing authority tickets. . .



The staff rests below the ticket box. . .

Driver Heywood engages in "safeworking" at the Edgeroi staff box. . .

and talking to the controller, marks his ticket from Bellata to Edgeroi "fulfilled" and copies a new ticket from Edgeroi to Narrabri. . .

Heywood uses the staff to open the ticket box to write a new authority. . .

Countrylink driver D. Heywood was only too kind to allow this U.S. dispatcher to observe how it all worked in the staff hut at Edgeroi. The schedule allows 3 minutes for his train to do this procedure, but it was over 5 minutes before the controller answered the phone. After 9 minutes, the Explorer was back on the move--and move he did. We paced him at around 130kph--80mph--on what we'd consider to be a secondary mainline in the states, without signals, running strictly with a piece of paper in his hand.

Explorer beat us to Narrabri, but we watched Heywood give up his paper ticket and get a new authority to proceed south. Staff and Ticket safeworking is becoming a thing of the past in New South Wales. CTC has extended now almost to Boggabri, and will eventually reach Narrabri. Elsewhere in the state, much of the former staff territory has converted to Train Order working.

Explorer, a smooth ride at 80mph north of Narrabri. . .

In the staff hut at Narrabri, Heywood get his Authority to proceed beyond Narrabri. . .

Matched Helgas on a northbound IRA move north of Baan Baa. . .
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STUCK IN THE MUD
We shot a surprise northbound IRA train behind the usual pair of Helgas north of Baan Baa, a nice composition cutting through the brush. Then we headed down to set up for the northbound PacNat train going by the elevator at Baan Baa.

A convienent pile of old sleepers next to the track provided a nice platform for the shot. We wanted to blast away back to the location of the IRA train to shoot him again, so rather than leave the car by the highway, we suggested to Lance that it'd be a quicker get-away to drive it right to where we were. The access road looked a little muddy. Lance wasn't so sure it was the right move. "Jesus Christ, Lance, you could drive a Coupe de Ville into here!" He finally caved to our pressure and negotiated a path around the worst of the mud to our location, making a hard bump at one point in a small mud hole.

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Even a Coupe de Ville could drive in here. . .

Two 80 class and a 48 class lead the northbound past the silos. . .

We got the shot of the northbound grain train, "yellow nosed" 80 class up front, and jumped into the car. We moved around 30 feet before BOOM! Down went the front-end of the car, right into a mud hole. A deep one.

We were frame deep up front, and even having a 4 X 4 SUV, the bald tires on the rental car weren't much for traction. We scavenged ballast, scraps of ties and such and attempted to magically levitate the car to no avail. I finally flagged down a passing landscape contractor with a suitable 4 X 4 (amazing how in the Aussie bush how few folks drive burly Texas-style pickup trucks!), and after 40 minutes, were were extricated. The northbound was long-gone.

after this, Lance learned to listen to me less. And I learned to keep my mouth shut!

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We bagged the idea of heading north, it now being almost noon. We had a long drive ahead of us to get to Bathurst for the night, so word of a train coming off the Binnaway-Werris Creek line behind an 81 and 48s sounded like the best bet. We highballed to the scenic location called "The Gap," a narrow defile in the hills where both the Narrabri and Binnaway lines come together and join up for the few final miles into Werris Creek. We waited out a brief light shower and several clouds for around 20 minutes before the train arrived, looking nice moving through an s-curve to the junction. We shot him again nearing Werris Creek, then headed off for the long drive ahead.

Nice composition: 81 class leads 3 "pups" through "The Gap" bound for Werris Creek off the Binnaway line. . .

. . .and a nice broadside view entering Werris Creek. . .

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Only 30 miles into the drive after leaving Werris, Paul's two-way railroad radio, which he'd left on by accident, came to life as we entered the small town of Spring Creek. Something had to be close, and indeed it was: yet another El Zorro train, with the same set of power we squandered our chances with two days ago, was finishing picking up a train at the silo off the highway, hidden by thick trees. If Paul's radio hadn't been on, we never would've seen him. The power was the set with the SCT-painted G class and three CFCLA's: a T, an EL, and a VL. He wouldn't be leaving for another hour, and the sun was setting fast, so we got a shot of him at the staff hut and pushed on.

It's 382 kilometers from Werris Creek to Bathurst, thru Premer, Gulgong and Mudgee--not fast miles, but two-lane miles on hilly roads in the Bush. Oncoming road trains who don't yield for nothing as well as the always-trecherous "Skippy" and rock-hard wombats are constant hazards. But it's a beautiful drive in the late afternoon sunlight, curving around over golden hills in fall light, across paddocks. . .it's pretty much unspoiled countryside.

We reached Mudgee around 6pm and ordered a Pizza, eating it from a table outside the shop in Mudgee's very busy small-down business district. No WalMart or Target here: it's a vibrant little town, and it seemed like the whole populace was out and about. No wonder: it was just another holiday weekend in NSW (what's with that? Three holiday weekends in a row--Easter, a school holiday, and Anzac day). Paul and Charlie figured that with the holiday it'd be a good idea to call ahead to Bathurst to get a room. Good call on their part: the place was fully booked, even the pubs. Same thing in Blayney. The idea was to get down to the Main West in time to chase the Patrick 1871 train to Dubbo west in the morning. Staying in Mudgee now looked to be perhaps our best option, and the last room in town--actually, a three-bedroom rental house--was found for rent a block away. It was $160 a night, but split four ways was very reasonable and quite comfortable. We set the alarms for 5am so we could get down to Bathurst by seven.

El Zorro does his air test at Spring Creek--a bonus train we didn't expect. . .

OZ Day 6: Werris by Daylight, and Ardglen Bankers

A nice, clean, freshly painted 81 leads 28-car grain empty at Willow Tree. . .

Thursday, April 16: From the hotel in Quirindi, Charlie consulted the "magic box" and discovered three north bounds were headed towards Willow Tree from the south: a grain train, an IRA container train, and a coal train.

We intercepted the first, a 28-car PacNat grain empty led by two 81 Class, including 8164 brilliant in fresh yellow-nose paint, just north of Willow Tree; right on his heels was the IRA train led by a pair of "Helga" MZ class (had I mentioned these were constructed by Swedish builder NoHAB for the Danish National Railways and were purchased in 2005 by IRA?) with a lackluster loading of a dozen or so containers ahead of empty flats. We followed this one into town and photographed it pulling by the restored Werris Creek station heading for Tamworth. These MZ, by the way, are essentially Swedish SD45's, powered by an EMD 645-block V20. They don't have dynamic braking, however, and have been less than stellar performers for IRA. I liked the idea of calling them "Eurotrash."



Helga 1440 leads IRA train for Tamworth past Werris Creek's magnificent restored station. . .

We headed back to the PacNat offices at Werris Creek, and I introduced myself to PacNational's terminal manager, Marc Sobbel, a sharp guy in his mid-30s who was quite busy in his small office handling phone calls, dispatching vans, and sending crews out the door to their trains. I explained our encounter with his graveyard shift predecessor and apologized for any misunderstanding that might have happened. I fully expected him to just remind us that this was a busy terminal and he couldn't have unauthorized folks on the property, but Marc understood that as a group of professional railroaders ourselves--two from the U.S. and two from Sydney--we were probably okay to have on the property.

Marc arranged for one of his assistants to accompany us wherever we wanted to go for the next 45 minutes or so, a courtesy he didn't have to extend to us. We did a walking inspection of the power arranged around the turntable and shops area before heading back to the yard office. Marc came out and joined us for the last 15 minutes of our tour, and we compared notes about how railroading--crews, operations, management, you name it--differs in Australia than in the states. He also wondered how the U.S. railroads kept their locomotives so clean, an image he got from reading U.S. railfan magazines. Clearly, he wasn't reading the same magazines WE do! We thanked him again for his time and again were renewed in our belief that if local managers are empowered and allowed to make decisions as simple as allowing guests on the property to take photographs in a safe manner, they're probably going to do a better job for the company than those who follow strict company-line-at-all-costs. He'd be a great front-line manager on a U.S. railroad, if he decided to move abroad. Thanks again, Marc!



48 class everywhere around the turntable at Werris Creek. . .

Two coal loads were nearing town from Gunnedah, and they'd need a push over Ardglen summit, around 30 miles to the south, so we headed off towards Willow Tree, where the banker engines would be added. In the crossing loop for the first coal train at Quirindi was an El Zorro grain empty powered by a nice matched set of four EL class CFCLA leasers. El Zorro had landed several contracts from Australian Wheat Board once handled by PacNat, and they were running four train between North-West points and Newcastle.

Three 82 class head up 72-car coal load at Chilcott's Creek. . .


. . on the rear banking, 80 Class 8012/8003 (in original
1980 Indian Red paint). . .


. . .8045 and 81 Class EMD 8181. . .

After quick take-away lunch at Willow Tree--I had a burger with "the works," which in Australian parlance means everything you get in the States plus egg, a slice of pineapple, and beet root--we photographed the first coal load gather momentum out of Willow Tree and curve into the sag over Chilcott's Creek before bearing down for the slog to Ardglen. Three 82 class are standard power on the 72 car, 5500T train, with power around 3900'--quite a bit smaller than the standard Powder River Basin coalie Lance and I were used to. But even with 9000 hp up front, another 9000 was required on the rear--three 80 Class Alcos and an EMD 81 class--to surmount the 2.5% grade (1 in 40, in Australian parlance).

Beat to hell, but at least they're in service! 8003 and 8045 at Ardglen. . .

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The bankers drop off on the fly--they're merely nudged against the rear coupler of the coalie with the cut-lever in the open position--and dropped down the hill to Kankool to meet the southbound Explorer passenger train for Sydney. The next coal load was waiting at Willow Tree when we arrived, and we followed this one up the hill also, photographing it from atop the new road overbridge built at Ardglen quarry. One thing struck us about the very loud trio of 80 Class Alcos: they were perhaps the cleanest running trio of 251-powered locomotives we'd ever seen. Still, after seeing this video, we were sorry we missed the days of solid Alco power by just a decade or so (turn up volume!)--those 82 Class, while no doubt efficent, are pretty soul-less in the sound department.

Up to Ardglen comes another coal train on the 2.5% grade: 3 82's up fron on the 5500T train. . .

and our bankers, bringing up the rear, ready to drop off. . .

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We wanted to make Narrabri by sunset, hoping for a train or two on the way, but the rails were quiet the 100-miles or so from Willow tree. Signal crews were extending the CTC all the way to Boggabi, and solar-powered lower-quadrant semaphores there seemed to be on borrowed time.

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Crashed out on the station bench at Willow Tree: he even slept through thrashing Alcos pushing past on the coal train. . .

Advancing CTC will soon doom the home signal at Boggabri. . .

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A fireball sunset was nearing as we drove into Narrabri Junction, where the branch west of Walgett diverges from the mainline to Moree; just west of the junction was the small container yard at Narrabri West. I gave Lance directions into the place--even though I'd never been there before--based on looking the place over on Google Earth several times. This is the section of the railways in NSW I'm modeling, so I'm pretty familiar with at least what used to be at Narrabri.

El Zorro leased EL's prepare to depart Northwest Producers at Narrabri West. . .

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PacNational still uses the old chargeman's office at Narrabri West, the last surviving structure of the old locomotive depot. Stored next to the mainline were four 48 Class, glinting magnificently in the setting sunlight and reflected in a puddle of water from recent rains. I took a moment to ask the railroaders milling around on the office's front porch what we might expect to see the next morning, and they alerted us to an El Zorro train just west of town pulling container loads off a siding track. We blasted west to where the four EL class from earlier in the day were preparing to depart after picking up their train. The light--pure golden glow glint with a setting sun--was magnificent, a great way to end a day of photography in the northwest.

Dusk at the soutbound Home signal at Narrabri. . .

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We found a motel room on the north side of town and stopped by the passenger station area after a mediocre Chinese dinner (we were the only diners in the place; the waitress didn't speak a word to us; the mood music was one Chinese song. . .over. . .and over. . .and over. . .) I made a few exposures of the southbound stop semaphore under the spinning stars overhead, and we called it another day.

RANGERS WIN THE PENNANT!

Well, not exactly. But this early in the season, it's a milesone: On Wednesday evening, May 6, 2009, the Texas Rangers moved into first place of the American League West when they defeated the Oakland Athletics, 3-2. The Seattle Mariners lost 9-1 to the Kaycee Royals to allow Texas to go 1/2 game up. In more good news, the LAAngels of Anaheim also lost, dropping them 2.5 games back.

Texas has won 5 straight; few of the road wins have been decisive victorys, but surprisingly good performances from Texas' starting rotation and bullpen have made the lack of road run production be much of an issue. Even so, Texas is averaging 5.88 runs per game this year, second only to Toronto, with a team batting average of .283, third behind Toronto and the Angels. The team is ERA of 5.23, only good enough for 10th in the AL. But they keep managing to win, despite a continuing slump by Chris Davis and David Murphy, hitting .198 and .167 respectively.

The Rangers come home to play Seattle next week; I'll be there with E. on Thursday for the afternoon game.

OZ Day 5(b):Midnight at Werris Creek

Under the milky way at Werris Creek. . .

Late Evening, Wednesday, April 15: Lance and I dragged Charlie and Paul along to Werris Creek to take some night shots. I'm sure they'd rather be back in the hotel getting some rest, but they were good sports about it, and Charlie even dragged his tripod out.

Werris Creek is the hub of rail operations in the North-West. From here, lines head north to Tamworth and Armidale, and to the north and west through Gunnedah to Narrabri and Moree; a branch extends from Narrabri to Walgett. A secondary line also runs west from Werris through Binnaway to Dubbo. During grain season, especially, this is a busy terminal. Shuttle trips originate from here north to smaller elevators, trains returning with grain for storage in the large Australian Wheat Board "sub-terminal" facility for eventual shipment for export. Coal trains from Gunnedah travel through here, too, and they are pushed over the Liverpool Range by banker engines maintained here. Locomotives are maintained here for Pacific National under contract by Downer/EDI Rail, mostly 48 class Alcos as well as the remaining 80 Class and the 81 Class also engaged in the grain haul.



PN DL531 48150 waits for an outbound crew at the EDI shops. ..

We wanted to photograph the 48 Class at night, and there were a couple of dozen of them, stored as well as alive, at the shops this evening. A Pacific National employee directed us to the shops, where I found the foreman and his assistant working in the machine shop. He gave us permission to photograph on the property as long as we were careful, watched for moving equipment, and didn't get ourselves killed.

We spent around an hour merrily snapping shots (actually, taking lengthy time exposures) before the local Pacific National terminal manager discovered that we were on the property, without his permission. We checked in at his office to clear up any misunderstandings, and while he was sympathetic, he certainly didn't want anyone injured on his shift and have to answer to his supervisors. Fair enough. He advised we check in the next day and we'd probably be allowed to photograph in the daylight.

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. . .the 48's will take a grain empty for loading towards Moree. . .


More 48 class are serviced in the shed. . .

Battered and abused, 48135 celebrates its 40th birthday this year.

Jason, left, and Thomas, of Downer/EDI: understanding of guys with cameras from 10,000 miles away. . .

80 Class 8022 and dead sisters: probably never to return to service for owners Coote Industrial.

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We headed into the deserted main-street (about the only street in town, actually) of Werris, which despite the big cuts in rail employment since privitization, still appears to be a viable little town: a post office, a butcher and grocery store, several clothing stores. One hotel, named for the railway. The grand station has been restored, and a retired 47 Class Goninan-Hitachi diesel is stuffed and mounted nearby.
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It was a looong day. We'd be up photographing since before 0700; we got back to our hotel room in Quirindi around 1am and fell fast asleep.

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Essential element of an Australian railway town: hotel, across the street from the station. . .

A clothing store, stocked with the latest hot Werris Creek fashions. . .

The restored Werris Creek station and big palm tree. . .

Stuffed 4705, class of 1972. . .

Oz, Day 5(a): Maitland, The Ted, Dissapointment in the Hunter Valley. . .

Westbound coalie with 90 and 82 class from Pitnacree Road bridge. . .

Wednesday, April 15: Finally, a day that dawned clear-blue! We scarfed down a free Continental breakfast in the "kitchen" area upstairs in the Belmont (toast and jelly, with orange juice; we avoided the complimentary Vegemite spread) and Lance painstakingly packed the hire car for the next leg of our trip. We all had so goddamn much stuff that in order for it to fit, everything had to be loaded in a particular order. I wasn't much help--my big suitcase was weighing around 60 lbs or more, loaded down as it was with books from the ARHS bookstore at Sydney Central.

The morning was spent atop the Pitnacree Road overbridge at East Maitland--a "hack" location, per Charlie--that is perhaps the most popular place to photograph trains in the Lower Hunter Valley. Morning light on trains in both directions is good here owing to the sweeping curve on the four-track main (up and down main tracks for both freight and passenger). If you've seen shots from East Maitland, chances they were from here. The holes ripped in the chain-link fencing to accomodate camera attests to that.


Paul chats it up with Ted Rose, as much a fixture on the Pitnacree Road bridge as the holes in the chain-link for photography and the NSFW grafitti. .


Ted keeps track of every train seen in a series of notebooks. . .

We were there before 0700, but we weren't the first: Ausloco and HunterRail yahoo list Iron Man Ted Rose was already up and at it, keeping track of each and every train movement under the bridge--the train numbers, their loco consists, the time they passed. Nothing got by Ted, and he was constantly trading sightings and information with others via his Cell Phone. We've got a few "train spotters" in this traditional vein in the DFW area (see: Richard Whitenight), but in NSW, such devoted followers to a single location aren't rare. We each took turns chatting with Ted so the others could take in the stillness of the morning. But it was Paul who really "took one for the team." Good on ya, Mate!

Two Hunter Valley interurban servies meet in front of us. . .

Outside of the Sydney metro district, Newcastle-Maitland is one of the busiest stretches of railway in the country. Between 0700 and 0900, we saw ten freight trains and probably a dozen passenger trains, mostly two-car CityRail local services between Newcastle and Maitland using "Hunter Valley Cars" in the 2500, 2700 and 2800 series. Some of the trains continue as far as Scone and Dungog. There's also CountryLink Sydney-Moree/Armidale Endeavours and several XPT's up the North Coast towards Brisbane daily, but we left before seeing any of these. Most of the freight traffic we saw were coal trains with a mix of the usual Pacific National 82, 90 and new (but getting dirty) 92 class, with a few ex-Victorian G class tossed in as well. QRNational coal was headed by a pair of 5000-class GE's. We saw three Brisbane PN freights as well, NR's on the lead (oh joy!) and with a green AN in the middle of the consist. The best, of course, was a loaded Pelton train, its arrival announced well in advanced by its whistling-shithouse collection of a PL and three 48s.



Two 5000-class C40 GE's on QR National coal empties. . .

A pair of new 92 Class PacNational GE's bracket two ex-Victorian G class EMD's (still on old Freight Australia green paint). . .

One of three PacNat North Coast freight seen in a row, all led by NR class. This one had an AN-class EMD still in Australian National paint in the middle. . .

Less than a year old, but already grungy, PacNat 92 class on a coal empty. . .

Sounding great: Pelton loads behind the 4 alcos we'd photographed the day before. . .

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We moved to High Street for a bit, photographing the XPT, some local passenger services and a westbound grain train with a 81 Class, then retired to the nearby Maccas where free wifi was available. Rumor had it that the northbound QRNational MB7 train that afternoon would be lead by a CLF/P class bulldog, so while we waited for some sort of confirmation that it might lead out of Broadmeadow, we had a delicious lunch. As it turned out, the CLF/P wouldn't lead, so we elected to press northward up the Hunter Valley in time to get to the mountain grade at Ardglen by the end of the day: four "up bound" (that's towards-Sydney in NSW rail-speak) trains were coming out of Werris Creek, and we should be able to intercept some of them. The light wouldn't be good on the nose for them, Charlie noted, but we should be able to find a place to photograph them anyway. And we needed to start heading that way regardless.

At High Street station, Maitland: Down XPT bound for the North Coast zips by without stopping. . .

Two 81 Class 3000hp EMD's on a loaded export grain train. . .

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We blasted north, detouring for a brief visit to the Hunter Valley Railway Trust in Branxton, the group responsible for the clapped-out and grafitti-covered fleet of 44 class Alco cabs leased to Independent Rail. HVRT is a well-hidden collection of tons of old rail equipment rusting away in the woods outside of town. Charlie and Paul shared "glory days" stories of the fluted-side commuter coaches they once drove moldering away there; Lance and I photographed 44 class 4472/4488 repainted in some wild silver/yellow scheme, as well as 73-class diesel-hydraulic shunting engine 7350, one of 50 of the class built in 1970 by Walkers. There wasn't much going on--a couple of young guys in their 20's hanging out on an old passenger car turned into a shop office, a dog lounging about, and inside the workshop, a South Maitland Railways tank engine and a Victorian Railways 4-6-2 slowly being returned to service. The amount of stuff there to restore was mind-boggling; it was clear they didn't have the resources to do so. We left convinced that many Heritage sites like this would do best to scrap most of the stuff they have to raise money to restore a few key pieces. You can't keep everything.

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At HVRT Branxton: 44 and 73 class (and their dog) slumber the afternoon away. . .

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We stopped briefly in Musswellbrook, junction with the Ulan coal line, so Lance could photograph the depot and switching tower, then headed towards Ardglen. Coming into Murrurundi (try pronouncing THAT), we encountered a southbound domestic grain train, with cool power--two 80 class and a 48 class on a short train of Freight Australia grain hoppers. We whipped the car around and got a nice "Motive Power vertical cover shot" off the overpass south of Murulla. We knew a second train was right behind him; as we approached the top of the Ardglen grade, we noted a coal train descending from the tunnel. We knew there was at least one more coming, so we blew off the coalie for the third train, which was meeting the banker engines at Ardglen loop--an El Zorro grain train led by an SCT-painted G class, and three CFCLA leasers, a T, EL, and VL classes. We tried to get into a spot short of Murrurundi for it but didn't get there in time; we got back on the highway and headed to Murulla loop, where the tracks swung around enough to get light on the nose, but afternoon shadows already crept into the cutting there and the shot sucked. We chased the swiftly-moving train back almost to Parkville and set up for one more shot, which also was no bueno. Our collective silence in the auto the rest of the way back across the mountains said it all: we blew that one!

80 Class on grainer at Murulla: a nice surprise!

Shadows in the cut ruined this view of an El Zorro grain train with leased power led by SCT G class EMD at Murulla. . .

Sunset at Kankool loop. . .

The evening had one more cruel twist in store. We got a room for the night in the only hotel in Quirindi that still had rooms (apparently workers had snagged all the rest of them) and headed to the RSL club (Returned Service League, sorta like the VFW or American Legion, but with nice restaurants and bars and often lots of slot machines) for dinner. Afterwards, while leaving the RSL, Lance looked across the street as a train approached for a cross in the siding. "Are those four portholes?" Surely not! But he was right--it was another upbound El Zorro grain train, led by, of all things, CFCLA S-class bulldog S300! That was a bit of a disappointment as well, but hopefully, a trip into Werris Creek for night photographs would make up for it. . . .

Four portholes outside the RSL? Oh no! Oh yes--CFCLA S300 at Quirindi.