NSW Rail - Sydney Suburban 1992

Shot in 1992, this is a brief compilation of shots from just a few locations in and around Sydney covering a variety of subjects that typified the era.

[@TheGadgetPanda]

“… typical of the era” So the early 90s are a bygone era now. I feel so old.

[@RGC198]

Interesting video. Thanks for sharing. I missed seeing the 1990s in Sydney, as my family and I moved from Sydney to Melbourne in mid 1981. I do remember seeing many of these types of trains in Sydney back in the early 1980s and even prior to that. I used to live at Marrickville and traveled to work every weekday by train.

[@ANShackle]

An excellent snapshot of a fantastic variety of shots, expertly compiled from around a real railway! Thanks for uploading.

[@G516R700]

Fantastic video from years gone by of the old Sydney suburbans and the old locos as well. Funny seeing the trains traveling with the doors open and passengers hanging out and standing in the doorways. Great video again and thanks for taking the footage back in the day and of course uploading it.

[@thesausage351]

Reminds me of the old double deckers, the doors wouldn’t close properly so schoolkids pried them apart and stood in the open doorway hanging out holding onto the pole lol.

[@AustNRail]

Seeing Chatswood from then to now was a trip down memory lane.

[@sp4ceinv4derz22]

Look at those beautiful Rattlers and not a single working door amongst them lol

[@zanelindsay1267]

Interesting and nostalgic with the variety of train action, mixed consists, different angles and perspectives, scenes with two or three moving trains, cab views, signal boxes, personal touches, great variety with artful editing. Also nice work with the sound track, a mix of ambient sounds and cool music !

[@tedbear4243]

Thx Zane. Even though I made a fair effort over the years to capture a variety of material from around the country, looking back now I wish I had of tried even harder. I always like to have workers in shots where I can, whether its still photography or video - the human element is so important.

[@patricktongs9766]

The red rattlers nostalgic but bloody nasty to work on as a guard especially platform 16 at central,had a few close calls there with people running up the stairs and trying to jump on even had women with strollers pushing them on first while the trains leaving, ahh life on the freight trains was bliss..cheers for the vid.

[@Christopher3Bishop]

loved riding them open door in the tunnels, dad worked at milsons point station in 89.

[@slepper98]

thanks Ted, great shots.

[@nswrailvideos7113]

loving the Sydney Suburbans footage. Thank You. Great capture of Tulloch T4799 approx 8:50 mark.

[@tedbear4243]

Cheers :-)

[@Match2100]

Really enjoyed that, a good variety of shots there!

[@cjod33]

As school kids we would often knock on the window and ask the driver if we could ride with them. I learnt how to drive one by watch the driver. One day a really cool driver let me drive from Roseville to Warrawee. He put his jacket and sunnies on me and dropped the blind down so on coming train drivers wouldn't notice . I over shot Lindfield by a carriage but got the rest. What an afternoon ride home for a twelve year old that was.

[@paulyjones3966]

They were awesome. Then oh&s got involved

[@cjod33]

Trolley with the dicky wheel. Iconic.

[@robertmcfadyen9156]

I have a lot of photos like the scenes in this video set as I grew up in Auburn . Saw 44 class , red terrors , yellow ended schemes and new 86 class , new K and Chopper sets .

[@676sifaa]

Yeah I was trying to figure out if that shot at 8:13 was in Auburn. Did you happen to know?

[@robertmcfadyen9156]

​@@676sifaaGood to see you here . I am 52 years old and grew up in Berala . The chopper set was seen at the Olympic Drive and Church Street bridge in Lidcombe . I worked as an electrical fitter for City Rail in the early 1990's .

[@peterkirgan2921]

Great video thanks ! I saw footage of a train stopping @ Sydneham?? I thought it was Shannahan ??? 😆 lol

[@cjod33]

Hot summer days, red rattler doors open. Great times.😊

[@jasonthedogcatcher]

Great video mate. I grew up riding the Red Rattlers. I recall when going through City Circle the noise of the train as it echoed through the underground. It was great. And, things havent changed, the problem is still the humans ;-)

[@tedbear4243]

The humans are definitely still the problem haha. Glad you picked up on that and saw it for what it was, and didnt complain about it! Some people have no sense of humour it seems. A few of us went to Sydney just to experience the last of the wonderful old 'Reds' and I grabbed a bit of VHS footage along the way, and did my best to get some of that traction motor noise. Cheers Jason

[@dieseldavetrains8988]

Just love that whine of the red rattler power car traction motors, was that the old Strathfield signal box? Nice collection Ted, back in the days when we actually had a railway, brought some memories back that lot. You should knock up three hours of that and give it to SBS-TV...

[@tedbear4243]

Hi again Dave. Yeah, cant beat that TM sound! The signal box was at Hornsby, and they were doing some maintenance. Thx for the comments :-)- it takes quite a bit of time to edit these from scratch - which recent uploadings have been, and I tend to squeeze this stuff in amongst all the other things Ive got going on, plus work, so its nice that its appreciated.

[@dieseldavetrains8988]

@@tedbear4243 Should have picked Hornsby Box, been in there a few times, although similar to the old Strathfield Box near the station, not the new complex. I done three videos on Lithgow Yard Box if you are interested, on my site.

[@firstfreeone]

A great time capsule.

[@thesausage351]

It’s crazy to think we were still using red rattlers into the 90’s. I actually piloted for one last night being moved from Broadmeadow to another warehouse. It was funny seeing one in the flesh last night and then this video coming up for me.

[@tedbear4243]

They have so much character about them

[@thesausage351]

@@tedbear4243 it would be nice to see a handful restored with some new windows, AC and then used with an heritage loco and run on public holidays and stuff to different tourist locations. Surely there’s enough stock that we could have a nice heritage fleet running on a semi regular basis and generate some money for the museums and stuff to restore more older iron.

[@travismitchell5398]

Very cool Ted , Leongatha next up? Enjoying the uploads 👏

[@tedbear4243]

Thanks again Travis. Hope to start work on Leongatha next week. Hope I havnt upsold it as I havnt even looked at the footage yet (well, last seen just after I shot it in about 1992 I think), so im not too sure exactly what I managed to get. Its probably going to be a bit bland compared to the Stony Point vid. Just wish I had footage of when freight was still running all the way down. From memory I think in its final years it used to run on a Saturday with maybe 4 T class?

[@travismitchell5398]

Correct Ted, the 4 Ts on the Barry beach goods. My friend Richard Norman lives around the corner and I mentioned I saw his name at the beginning of one of the videos and he told me about your trip together down sth gippy for a few days to film the leongatha footage!

[@tedbear4243]

@@travismitchell5398 I learnt a lot from Richard. He was one very sharp editor and he taught me a lot for which I have always been very grateful. The ABC has had many very skilled and dedicated employees over the years and I have been most fortunate to have known and learnt from some of them, including a couple of brilliant cameramen - Peter Curtis and Ron Ekkel. Sorry that we somehow kind of lost contact, not helped by myself moving and working around the country. Please say hi to him from me.

[@travismitchell5398]

Richard says hi 👋if you manage to find any footage at all of Koo wee rup on the tapes Ted that would be amazing if you could please fit it in. I had a campaign this year to restore the train to Koo wee. Still to this day have never seen the station on tape before it was burnt down in 94!! Thanks heaps Ted 🙏Travis

[@tedbear4243]

Ive got some bad news. I seem to have a betacam SP tape missing. a 60 minute one at that. Ive found some footage on another tape where I got a few basic in cab and forward facing shots on the Leongatha line. All isnt entirely 'lost' tho, as I have found a VHS tape that is a direct transfer that Richard did for me all those years ago of the missing SP tape, trouble is, it has a time code window. It was for shot listing to eventually do an edit. I suspect the missing tape is kicking around Melbourne somewhere, but clueless as to where :-( I'm also missing some good quality footage of a Melb Tramways rotary converter station and the control room in Carlton.

[@johnmaddox4403]

Grear shots, especially north shore, original chatswood station, my line. Whats the music track used? Jm

[@tedbear4243]

Cheers John. And the track is by a young guy from Azerbaijan who goes by the name ASADOV - www.youtube.com/@Asadov/videos He along with Roudeep, from the same part of the world produce some fine music. Jay Aliyev is another of my regular non-mainstream goto's for music 🙂

[@tedbear4243]

And the track is called Dark Sun

[@johnmaddox4403]

Thanks! Very suited the footage, especially on the north shore line, where i listened to similar stuff from enigma and others on my walkman on that line back in the day. Jm

[@thomashenderson8344]

❤ lovely old train country.

[@tedbear4243]

:-)

[@gregrudd6983]

What is there not to like! Near new DK series V sets and 46 class heading west, and trip workings.

[@tedbear4243]

I think it was just a nice little snap-shot of a few things around Sydney at the time.

[@gregrudd6983]

@@tedbear4243 There is no mega like button for this.

[@marcconyard5024]

If you have to have music to a video like this I can think of far worse genre to use. I think the music suits it, especially the scenes of the W/M sets performing their final acts before getting withdrawn. I got some shots of W3 as a four car set on the Carlingford line in December of 92 and also four car M40 around the same time. The W set was particularly rare as not being the most reliable of trains they generally operated at peak times as eight car sets. The driver featured is Lenny Gaut. I worked with him at Hornsby sheds way back in the eighties. Loved the shots of the 49s running long hood lead, the way hood units look best!

[@tedbear4243]

Thanks Marc. Yes, to me the music has a reflective tone, with a hint of sadness and was chosen for that reason as most of the scenes are now history, including the fact Len has retired which to me just doesnt compute as each time I watch it, it remains fresh and seemingly recent(ish) in my mind. A huge thanks to Lenny for his time, friendliness and getting access to Hornsby signal box for some shots.

[@marcconyard5024]

@@tedbear4243 thanks, you’re welcome. I thought Len might be retired now as he was a little older than me. I’m not far off retirement myself! As a spark shunter at Hornsby sheds I dealt with Hornsby box quite a lot, especially when relieving on Senior shunter shifts. I visited the box a few times and found those pistol grip levers quite interesting.

[@GG-ud8id]

So many trolleys around lol

[@tedbear4243]

They come in handy at times tho :-)

[@conepiecechronicles]

Open doors on a moving train. From a time when common sense was still common

[@tedbear4243]

Can you imagine the carnage that would happen today if we could still have open doors?!

[@cjod33]

​@@tedbear4243 and the trains guards or driver would be blamed.

[@andrewduffin9216]

Lol what's with the 3 randos standing against the wall at Town Hall? 16:27

[@tedbear4243]

Well spotted. From memory, I think they were actually picking up rubbish or something

[@t-bone9938]

15:32 is that Steve S and Len G?

[@tedbear4243]

Hi mate. I can confirm it is indeed Lenny G, who is also in the driver's seat in another shot, but I can't recall the other guys name unfortunately. Len also facilitated access to Hornsby signal box.

[@slyonme]

bankstown was a cool place before the abduls

[@jamesfrench7299]

But but diversity is much better yes? Give us a break.

[@robbo811]

I’m sure our First Nations peoples feel the same about you

[@slyonme]

@@robbo811 aboriginal people are good people,they don't try to destroy everything

[@Djr67]

Great video and good music

[@tedbear4243]

Thanks :-)