G'day everyone, On the 6th of January I was able to take a few photo's while I was at work so I thought I would share them with you. Please excuse the poor quality as I'm lucky I'm a train driver for a living and not a photographer. The day starts with us travelling from Ipswich to Redbank to hop onto our Engines for the trip. The photo below is while we are sitting at Redbank waiting to depart. We then travel from Redbank heading West to a place called Wulkuraka, on the way we passed a suburban EMU, below. On our way to we also pass through Ipswich which is my Depot, below. Once we arrive a Wulkuraka we attach onto the rear of the Swanbank bound Coal train. These coal trains are unloaded at Swanbank Powerhouse and this is done in a push pull fashion, hence the need for the loco's on the rear of the train. The loco's on the rear of the train once it is unloaded then become the lead loco's for the trip to Toowoomba, below. We then head back through Ipswich and eventually out to Swanbank. The photo below was just a quick shot of the Bremer River from the Sadliers Crossing bridge.
After unloading the train we then head west again and encounter our first Range, The Little Liverpool Range. The next three photo's show us climbing the Little Liverpool from Gandchester to Yarongmulu, Looking form Yarongmulu down over the town of Laidley and descending the range into the town of Laidley. After going through Laidley we then travel along some reasonably flat and straight sections for a few miles this is just a quick shot of the loco's as we were going along. And finally as we climb the Toowoomba range we pass through a small station called Sping Bluff, this station has some wonderful gardens and I'm afraid my photo doesn't do it justice. Anyhow I hope you all enjoyed these photo's & with more practice I might be able to post some good ones for a change.
Shane- I'd like to follow a little more closely. I have an old Atlas here. But it shows very little detail of Australian towns and cities. Do you know of a map that would show your routes? Boxcab E50
G'day Boxcab E50, No worries mate just drop us a line with your email address & I'll send you a couple of more detailed maps out of my local atlas.
Shane, thank you for showing us some real railroading. In Australia, I assume you "drive" from the left hand seat? Very nice photos and narrative.
G'day Jim, In Queensland we actually drive from the right hand side, the same as in the US. This is rare for Australia as most of the other railways here do drive from the left hand side.
Wow! Terriffic! I would also love to see a detailed map of the area. Please post some more shots from your office, and if you get the chance, some of your locomotives and train from the outside, if you are stopped somewhere for a while
G'day Alan, I've tried to send you a couple of maps but I keep on recieving a Delivery Failure notification. I'm sorry about that mate but I will definitely grab some shots of my trains from outside the cab when I have the chance & post them for all to see.
hey shane, cool photos redbank is my local station. ive never seen the push pull operation to swanbank, does it run regularly? if so what days or times? i'd love to get some pics. i assume that the train is push/pull so that it dosent have to reverse down the line from bundamba to swanbank. its good to see some local stuff
G'day Steve, The Swanbank coalies usually run from Monday to Friday and generally between the hours of 0600 & 1200. This also depends on how much caol the powerhouse has ordered and what time it is to delivered and can change from day to day. I'll let you know in the future when they run & what time the crews will be signing on for them & this will give you a better Idea of what time they will be running. The train is also operated in a push pull fashion as there is no angle at Bundamba to reverse the train so once unloaded the loco's at the rear of the train then become the Lead loco's for the trains return trip to Toowoomba. The loco's that originally worked the train from Toowoomba are then detached at Bundamba & sent to either Acacia Ridge or Redbank for provisioning.
thanks shane, ill head out to bundamba one day, i think thatd be a good spot for some photos, roughly how long does it take to unload the train?