Trains, Transport & Infrastructure

[Midfielder]

 

[marron]

ooh baby 

[marron]

oaky park btw is ******* amazing, as is the little strip of lithgow over browns gap. love it. just a slice of suburbia that doesn't really seem to have changed in about a hundred years. small houses, small yards, no development. surrounded by hills. 

[Smoggy]

55 minutes ago, marron said:

oaky park btw is ******* amazing, as is the little strip of lithgow over browns gap. love it. just a slice of suburbia that doesn't really seem to have changed in about a hundred years. small houses, small yards, no development. surrounded by hills. 

It’s Lithgow...’the hills have eyes’....

[Smoggy]

Speaking of Lithgow..wonder if the zig zag will ever reopen. Poor buggers spent ages fixing it up only for a bushfire to take it out again.

 

edit....due to reopen later in 2021....good.

Edited February 15, 2021 by Smoggy

[Wanderboy]

53 minutes ago, Smoggy said:

It’s Lithgow...’the hills have eyes’....

And they are alive "with the sound of music".

[Smoggy]

25 minutes ago, Wanderboy said:

And they are alive "with the sound of music".

Shotguns and screams I think....

[marron]

3 hours ago, Smoggy said:

Speaking of Lithgow..wonder if the zig zag will ever reopen. Poor buggers spent ages fixing it up only for a bushfire to take it out again.

 

edit....due to reopen later in 2021....good.

it has said "later this year" every year since 2017, at least.

[Wanderboy]

I think the State Govt again pumped some money into it, didn't they?

[wendybr]

15 hours ago, Midfielder said:

 

Wow!

[Smoggy]

3 hours ago, wendybr said:

Wow!

See..knew you would get into train stuff 

[Smoggy]

9 hours ago, Wanderboy said:

I think the State Govt again pumped some money into it, didn't they?

This is where national lottery grants saved many preserved railways in the UK.

[pseudonym]

Shameless plug: "Coming up on SBS tonight at 7:30 - Michael embarks on a scenic thousand-mile rail journey from the Swedish capital, Stockholm, to Abisko in the northern reaches of the Arctic Circle."

[Midfielder]

Purple seats and a guided tour of an inner city V set just upgraded... quite a detailed look at a V set.... at Central off to the mountains...

 

[Midfielder]

Marron

Watch ....

 

 

[marron]

A hundred bucks for a trip I do 10 times a week, nah don't think so haha.

Which ones were the C-Sets? the blue hard fixed moulded seats yeah? especially not!

(all trains are judged by their seats)

 

 

 

[Smoggy]

3 hours ago, Midfielder said:

Marron

Watch ....

 

 

Or errrr ‘chopper to the summit’ eh...sounds like a dodgy 1970’s porn film...

[MathyouWSW]

$100! That's a hard pass.
It will be a bit sad to see those C set trains go though.

[Midfielder]

Looks cold

 

 

[Midfielder]

Very interesting..

 

 

[Midfielder]

 

[Smoggy]

On 25/02/2021 at 7:23 PM, Midfielder said:

Very interesting..

 

 

I have done a few small wanders around the old Lapstone viaduct and up to Glenbrook..plenty of brown snakes around those areas...wouldn't do in early summer...

[Midfielder]

Its gone now with the new light rail project but I remember this crossing...

 

[MartinTyler]

Used it regularly when I worked in Auburn 

[Smoggy]

6 hours ago, Midfielder said:

Its gone now with the new light rail project but I remember this crossing...

 

yeah, that's the old carlo line level crossing right? Used to cross that 5 days a week for a good few years.

[Wanderboy]

46 minutes ago, Smoggy said:

yeah, that's the old carlo line level crossing right? Used to cross that 5 days a week for a good few years.

Yep. I used to cross it in the train all the time. When I was a teenager. Either going to dental appointments at Burwood (don't ask - for braces) or Parramatta Eels games across Sydney. 

Would either walk to Telopea or Dundas stations to access the Carlo line. It was a 50/50 walk time wise. 

[Midfielder]

Share your train stories…. I have a few, like the guy we knew at Yenora who kept snakes and one day brought this massive snake to prove he had won… it cleared the front part of our Red Rattle and we got seats that day another the guy that swapped trains, the young girls on the wrong train a card game that led to a fight, the guy wanting the loo and went between two carriages in a red rattler as we crossed the Ashfield line switches and in polite terms he lost control of were his willy was pointing and he peed all over himself so so so many more.

But let me share with you the story of Roughie …. I never knew his name but my in my head name for this guy was Roughie…. Why you ask TWAS 81 and long hair on boys while not uncommon was far less so, and Roughie had very thick, very long greasy hair never combed…. He was a big man very big and quite thick set like he had a physical job.

He wore green work pants and a green work shirt which always looked crushed and often had work stains. His shirt was rolled back to half way between his elbow and shoulder.

He always never shaved, and because of his greasy hair he always looked dirty.

What else was off putting about him was he was the first guy I ever saw with a pin through his nose and he had large ear studs in both ears. He also carried and old battered rail workers bag with him they were huge.. 

I worked on the corner of Market & Kent street in Sydney and started work 8:15 in fact we all did TWAS a weird starting time.

I lived at Marayong, and to get to Town Hall, get off the train and move with the mod to the exists and then on to Market & Kent street I needed to catch the 7:15 at Marayong it was a very quick express in fact it beat the 6:45 into Central.

Every day I caught this train for about four years. You get into habits and I used to stand on a crack in the platform where I knew the doors would open and go upstairs every day and sit behind Roughie.

The train was near empty at best 10% full and on the odd day someone further up the line sat in your seat you kinda felt that’s my seat.

The next stop was Blacktown and the train went from maybe 10% full to being so crowded people were standing in the ales.

Everyday Roughie got out at Blacktown.

This particular it was kinda misty, like a fog, and as we pulled into Blacktown Roughie seemed to be asleep. Normally I would have tapped him on the shoulder and said is this your stop. But Roughie had such a presence of menace I did not.

The Blacktown mob poured in and raced each other for a seat to the city. The mad rush for the seats woke Roughie up.

Suddenly jumped to his feet with his huge old battered bag and was making a valent attempt to get to the door I was looking out the window but did not see him emerge.

For the next bid you need to understand the Sydney trains lines are not standard. Most lines have trains leaving in alternative directions from the same platform. Whereas on the western & northern lines trains leave in the same direction from a platform.

Every day, we speed to Seven-Hills  were we met an even faster express to the city. My train stopped at Parramatta, Strathfield, Redfern, Central, the ultra-express from Penrith stopped at Redfern then Central.

Every day at Seven Hills many people changed trains, those off the ultra-express to get out at Parramatta or Strathfield, and those standing on my train would swap to stand on the ultra-express as it got em to the city quicker.

This day we pulled into Seven-Hills just after the ultra-express and the good folk off that train had the lead march on our mob. The doors opened and out sprang Roughie big old bad carried on his chest and I swear to  god if an Olympic talent scout had been their Roughie would have made the “hop, skip and jump team” he jumped the little green hedge, skipped over a station seat and made a huge leap at an open door. As he landed in the carriage he sorta sent people everywhere and he grabbed the metal poll and sung around with the huge grin of triumph.

The grin that said I won’t be late for work I am going straight back to Blacktown.

The two trains paced each other until Parramatta when we stopped the ultra-express sailed thu.

The look on Roughie’s face went the train headed towards Sydney and not Blacktown was priceless, as we sailed thu stop after stop and he began to realise his mistake his face grew longer. When the ultra-express speed thu Parramatta and he realised the depth of his mistake he looked like a broken man.

Remember back then stations had no phones so he had no way of contacting his work.

Next day I stood by the crack in the platform, when upstairs and sat behind Roughie, never said a word.

Edited March 3, 2021 by Midfielder
spelling

[Midfielder]

 

[Midfielder]

In the grand scheme of things governments sometimes make huge mistakes ... today lack of action on Climate Change by the current and recent Federal government in the future will be a case study in lost time and crazy decision making... best example is China, India, most of Europe, Japan do not plan to build ICE  [Internal Combustion Engines]  cars anymore from 2030. This is about 70% of world car making ability and market... all these nations are building stations to recharge vehicles ... but not us ... sad...

However in my grand scheme of things arguably the biggest stuff up was by the state government back in the 60's who decided to tear up all the Tram lines in Sydney & Newcastle... OMG if we had these back today... the vid below is what we have lost... and my call the biggest stuff up by any NSW gov ever...

 

 

Edited March 5, 2021 by Midfielder

[MathyouWSW]

On 04/03/2021 at 12:57 PM, Midfielder said:

 

Are they going to use the same one for the Parramatta light rail?