NSW Rail - 1992 Nth Coast - Alco Heaven, part 1

Part 1 from 'New South Wales 1992', mainly of the NSW (Australia) north coast line but also a bit of coverage in the Tamworth and Werris Creek areas. Mostly 44, 48, 35 and 442 class locos, all long gone except for a few of the 48 class.
Shot on VHS and digitally edited.
Plenty more material still to be sorted, edited and uploaded.

[@slepper98]

Thanks Ted, top work. Nothing like the sound of those Alcos, wonderful. Cheers.

[@tedbear4243]

Indeed Mots, the Alcos are very missed by some of us

[@slepper98]

@@tedbear4243 Yes Ted they're special. Keep an eye on Dave's page. He often has a clip. Here's one from a few days ago. kzbin.info/www/bejne/qXOvooBrbZimnck&pp=wgIGCgQQAhgB

[@RangaTurk]

The first train being hauled by 4483 was during the days when National Rail superfreighters ran as two divisions between Grafton and Acacia Ridge due to loops like the one at Kyogle station being too short until they built the one to the north of the town under the One Nation rail infrastructure programme. 3:12 is the Nitrofil bulk fertilizer train from Kooragang Island Newcastle to Acacia Ridge. They would tranship the containers onto QR trains bound for farms in the north and west from there.

[@tedbear4243]

It always struck me as to just how short most of the loops (and trains) were up there at the time.

[@rsinclair6560]

Great work thanks. Albury yard and depot in early 1970's. Alcos stabled and left running all day and when four or five coupled up to a sheep train pulling out covering Albury Dean Street covered in thick grey smoke.

[@minicelica75]

good to see the XPT, I used to live in Junee I remember having a sticker XPT coming soon. I cannot remember what year that was maybe 1981.

[@jesstill7833]

Nice video old bangers working hard to earn its pay wonderfull cheers ❤️🙏👍🦘🇦🇺

[@G516R700]

Great video and a nice selection of scenery

[@aquarius3570]

Tem algumas partes que parece maquete, muito bonito.

[@NeathSpadge]

Truly brilliant stuff. I miss this era up north.

[@tedbear4243]

Thanks Mr Semi Retired! It is an era I'm very fond of too.

[@raybesserdin7542]

I'm something of a committed Alco*holic. This is just the hit I needed! Excellent footage. Beautiful scenery. You need to pay respect to the builders of these northern NSW lines when you watch these clips. A massive engineering undertaking with valleys to cross and cuttings. Thanks for sharing😃😃😃😃👍👍👍👍

[@dieseldavetrains8988]

A trip down memory lane that was, the 44 class are nearly gone, electric staff is gone, semaphore signals are gone, not allowed to wear shorts or short sleeved shirts anymore, now in vogue is stacks of PPE, track inspection trolleys are gone, smoking in the signal box is out, ripper of a video. Going to get my retired mate over on the weekend and watch it again on the 65 inch idiot box, he loved driving the 44 class. My preference was the 442 class, or better still a 45 class! Thanks Ted, well done.

[@tedbear4243]

Thanks Dave for the great comment, and observations - some of which had not actually occurred to me despite spending 3 days puting it together and tweaking the old VHS footage! Im just so pleased i was able to get out there back then with a decent tripod and get this material for the appreciation of others later on. Theres plenty more to come, but finding the time is a problem atm.

[@rsinclair6560]

Yep the 'shorts', how cool and comfortable. Turned up in the plant fitters truck at the Donald works depot during the Murray Basin regauge project. Average tempurature 42 degrees. Got out of the truck wearing shorts and was immediately surrounded by track workers. Staring at my bare legs. They ask; " Does your company allow wearing of shorts?" My reply thinking I'm in trouble here ; "No mate I put my overalls on track side". They looked disappointed and said damn it, they wish they could wear shorts it was so bloo.y HOT . ....OH&S and PPE 'carrot' wear gone mad. THOSE WHO MAKE THESE DECISIONS SIT IN AIR CONDITIONS OFFICES.

[@rsinclair6560]

Why the 45 class prefered?

[@dieseldavetrains8988]

@@rsinclair6560 Good pullers, and very roomy cab, plenty of space.

[@michaelholian6670]

This video is brilliant, the cinematography is just so good, fantastic stuff can’t wait to see more

[@tedbear4243]

Thanks Michael. As Ive said a few times, if only I had easier access to Betacam SP at the time, or better still, we had drones and 4k back then! But a good fluid head tripod, some shot planning and a bit of discipline works wonders!

[@allanmakkink8404]

awesome love it do you have any more footage of the candy 48 at Tamworth interested in the ballast trains as the video cuts then train is on the other side of the crossing and on the end of the train is the yellow NDPF ballast plough love to see more footage of her in the wild another idea would be a video on ballast trains!!!!!! thanks in advance

[@t-bone9938]

6:52 is that Bob P?

[@tedbear4243]

It sure is

[@t-bone9938]

Fantastic footage, I have great memories of this era. Thanks for sharing this magical video.

[@rossball647]

I worked on the mid north coast rail line between Grafton to Coffs harbor in the early to mid 1980s. back in those days they were all Alco rostered running. I don't know why. every locos in that area that I seen where all Alco's. 48s 44s 45s 442s and 80 class locos.

[@tedbear4243]

Hi Ross. Yeah, i'm not too sure as to what their loco rostering reasoning was at the time, but it certainly was the domain of the wonderful 4 stroke Alco units. What particular job did you do on the railway?

[@rossball647]

@@tedbear4243 laborer, CW2 welding gang Coffs harbor. we started and finished at Coffs, but our gang was officially based at glenreagh's old goods shed where our equipment was stored.

[@johnquirk7424]

Rostering north only Alco locos was due in part to spares and depot allocation at Broadmeadow of these. Early 81s (01-40) were allocated for hunter valley coal and later 81s (41-80) were DELEC allocation. I did some time in both depots as an apprentice fitter so worked on the ol girls a lot.

[@GrumsPlace]

Wow such an interesting video of days gone by and some wonderful scenery as well.

[@tedbear4243]

Cheers mate :-)

[@James504]

This was a great video! Loved the period correct music. Such variety back then in motive power and wagons, shame its all over now.

[@tedbear4243]

Thx James. its amazing how much has changed in the 30 years, as DieselDave pointed out. The music, well its a track that was only very recently released, but had that something about it that i was looking for when played against some of the pics. One of my passions has always been combining music with pics in different ways, so that in most cases it becomes a part of the 'story'. In this case, the music was the last thing i did - its often the first thing i do then edit to music - but i rushed it a bit and the mixing isnt always as smooth as it should be. But yes, its a very interesting track of music.

[@TransitTracker]

Where do you find these bro

[@tedbear4243]

It's all material I've recorded over the years. Still more to come plus i need to digitally re-edit the early posts that are only VHS to VHS edits and fix those that I erroneously transferred at 24fps

[@WAL_DC-6B]

I recall seeing similar Alco "covered wagon" units once on a railroad tour of Peru in 1987.