Camden Line Last Days

[@Dallas-Nyberg]

The end of "Pansy"..... To quote a line from an Iris Dement song... *"...and you know the sun's setting fast...* *It's just like they say...nothing good ever lasts"*

[@blastermaster2383]

Being from Camden myself & still living there , it’s unreal to think that Camden had a train back then & doesn’t today .You would think it would be the other way around . I’ve looked at all the Camden line rail history & quizzed old fellows I worked with in the local coal industry who lived the era of the Camden line & learned a lot about it . Fascinating stuff .

[@paulusintas8627]

This is absolutely precious footage. Thanks SO MUCH!!

[@jonathanparle8429]

Dad was a very keen amateur photographer and film maker and loved his trains and trams. Although his first love was trams, he was nevertheless just as keen on filming steam locomotives, the occasional diesel locomotive and on rarer occasions the Sydney ferries and even some aircraft thrown in for good measure (I got my lifetime aviation bug from the latter, not so much the trams stuff I'm afraid, though I do enjoy watching old steam trains (or "puffer trains" as Dad used to call them). Dad was especially productive in the 1970s when he would take us all on steam train trips all around NSW. On weekends (strictly after dinner of course) he would sit there at the kitchen table painstakingly editing his raw film footage with a film splicer, advancing later on to including home made title footage on his films as well adopting a new-fangled re-usable self adhesive titling system that had just come onto the consumer market. Thereafter would follow "film nights" where his prized creations were shown on the "big screen". This particular footage was taken a couple of years before I was thought of so to speak and both Dad and Mum travelled on the last service on that line. At 19:41 that is actually Mum waving at Dad and looking into the camera! I actually lived at Blair Athol for 17 years (between 2001 and 2018) and made a point to try and find as much of the old Camden line alignment as I could, since it effectively skirted the southern border of what later became the very same Blair Athol suburb. It became much easier to find when some earthworks were performed on that southern border (to facilitate construction of a community hall). You could then get a better look at where the line went - at least before Maryfields, the land of which is now private property.

[@drolup]

2029 can still be seen at Thirlmere rail museum

[@StephenPieri]

Fantastic to see that after all these years there is still great footage of this iconic line, thanks so much for sharing

[@phillipberger5919]

My mother used to take this train to work. Kenny Hill is the 1:19 grade. In winter, it could take a couple of goes to get over. Great filming. Camden was a great place to grow up.

[@jindera1]

That train took me to and from hospital a number of times. A family friend, Don Selby, was a fireman on that train for many years.

[@rotovelo_naut]

I was born in 1963 and lived at Kenny Hill.... such great memories. Brings life to the tales I was told as a kid 👍

[@dunxy]

Beautiful, great quality for the format. Old footage like this really makes me sad, not all progress is good...

[@jamesnicholaswest7036]

My now 73 year old heart is broken watching this. I travelled to Campbelltown on this train at the start and end of the school term when I was a boarder in what in those days was known as St.John's college. My parents also when they came to visit me. Dear train, Requiscat in Pacem 😢😢.

[@denisblades1375]

Love the double exposure at the end!

[@michaelhatton2477]

From what I've been told it was completely by accident. But it works so well as an artistic choice imo.

[@380130]

If it is supposed to be artistic, I found it more distracting and would rather of seen the raw footage underneath, but the rest is gold, thanks for posting@@michaelhatton2477

[@nicksheridan588]

Loved it!

[@tharakadamsarademattanpiti4012]

lovely video.another sad story

[@gregmorley1997]

Never got to ride it but my father worked for NSWGR at Campbelltown and had several rides on it ( including to last day) , now they're trying to hook a line to Campbelltown from the new airport line

[@josecarlospoggian149]

Beautiful thanks a lot 👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏

[@394824]

My parents had a VW beetle CPB631 and we were living in Cobbitty then. I remember seeing the last trip of the train from that car at Kenny Hill

[@jimmynswgr]

Excellent footage.

[@garyquelch888]

Excellent historical filming

[@Alan-zi4or]

Stunning and moving footage - thank you - such a shame we have lost so many rail lines

[@drolup]

Just imagine what a great tourist attraction that would have been today...

[@davidmason7765]

Amazing

[@KenR208]

Such a score thats been chosen to accompany this footage, it's like the Leonard Coen track for a by-gone 'steam' Very good image for 8mm also!

[@smitajky]

I was a little curious about the train. I knew of it but wasn't from NSW. Then I was captivated by the sombre piano. Looking further I saw so much more of what we have lost. People hanging out of open doors and windows. Photo stops. Jumping off the train when not at a platform. Even while still moving. Dressed up for the occasion. I recently went on a steam excursion and how different it is. Freedom is what we have lost. Not just the trains or the lines or the steam engines. Something so much more. I also noted wryly how the majority of those in this clip are now dead.

[@androidemulator6952]

Everyone responsible for their own safety...and having a whale of a time . Lost times ';)

[@PaulMagyar]

Just superb...

[@394824]

The stations of the cross are visible at the Franciscan monastery on the way down the hill to Campbelltown at 6.40

[@robertthomson1587]

Fascinating history!

[@Steven_Rowe]

It seems funny now that train photographers back in the day believed that somehow having a cine camera or 35mm camera was a passport to wander onto the tracks The good old daze(days)

[@andgate2000]

Theirs a house and big trees behind the smoke at 6.21-6.30...there still there.

[@Tracertme]

I assume this is Liverpool Australia based on Google algorithms…

[@michaelhatton2477]

Campbelltown - Camden

[@billking13]

I believe a section of this line had a 1 in 19 grade.

[@blastermaster2383]

It did mate , out at Kenny Hill .

[@davidminer7233]

@@blastermaster2383 At the time it was the steepest scetion in Australia & on occasions passengers had to get off as the train reversed back dow to have another go at the hill. All would then rejoin the carrage at the top of the hill.

[@ETALAL]

I can understand why they ended this line, Sharp curves that required tanker locos and .... Two locos and a banker and it was still struggling. Very expensive little line.

[@simonf8902]

Now all covered in urban sprawl.

[@MargaretCampbell583]

Was this taken in the fifties?

[@michaelhatton2477]

1963

[@ALITISA78]

To think there was a trainline there. Modern day we have no trains going to Narellan and Camden

[@davidminer7233]

The roads are crowded & getting worse month by month as more farms & greenfields are turned into 300 sq mtr blocks, each with a house & several cars parked in the street. Infrastructure is very thin on the ground with water & sewerage lagging behind. I don't look forward to the future crush.

[@ALITISA78]

@davidminer7233 damn and it was such a nice spread out area

[@bryanhardy3311]

Shame on the Authorities that closed these lines and the tram lines of Sydney. Boy ...do we need them now, in these days of "super-size-Sydney". Do we need to be so large. We could have a few cities each with a million people in them. Not ONE HUGE METROPOLOUS.

[@harrycallahan9069]

People in power with no foresight shutting everything down. Didn't they realise the population of Sydney would grow ???