Thanks for sharing the video Tom.

I remember when the 60s, 59s and 50 classes dominated the freight railway scene around Maitland and Newcastle.
And managed plenty of photos then, as my grandfather had done in the 1930/40s.

When you listen to these videos you realise that the HO scale decoders/speakers just cannot replicate the true sounds of a steam locomotive.
Just another compromise in our miniature world ....


Kimball

John Its a lovely bit of countryside out there , virtually no farms or towns for most of the run from Wallerawang [ Wang ] to Kandos , subject to landslides , washaways & heaps of the larger type of wildlife . None of the coal mines are on line at present or the cement works at Kandos . either shut for good or on caretaker mode . Single track from Wang to Rydal & no sidings from cox's river to Bathurst. A&B still see some trains for export coal , Western Main & Wang collieries all gone also . I spent 20 yrs there as a driver at Lithgow & apart from the extremes of weather it was a good place to work .


Cheers Tom in Oz.

John, my mum sister in law had a brother working as a shunter around Lithgow in the 60s didn't see much of him myself but heard a few stories

His name was Jimmy Logue

John , Yes extremely dry for spring , virtually no rain since last Christmas . The whole state of NSW has been declared drought effected for over 6 months with no sight of rain in the foreseeable future . It will be a interesting summer with Bushfire season already in place which usually dosen't happen until early November .


Cheers Tom in Oz

John Yes very tempted for one of Eureka's items also but the 3 rail conversion may have problems with wheel arrangement for me . Ok Electrical but the mechanical is another question . If it is possible can you direct some of that rain over this way for the farmers , there is no water anywhere , no feed for the cattle & sheep or even the water tanks for the farmers .




Tom .