We are having a major flood in Maitland, NSW, Australia. A trainspotter friend sent me a number of pictures from our local station. I didn't know railway flood gates existed and I've never seen them in a book, on a video or a layout. What else is out there like this?





Compare this to 1955 before levee banks and flood gates were built. I was born in the middle of this flood.



More images of the 1955 Maitland flood can be found on the link below - including several of the effect on the railway.

https://www.maitlandmerc...od-in-maitland/#slide=26

Thanks Alsterstreek, very interesting.

I even found a couple of small layout designs with flood gates.

https://www.dtlw.org/en-gb/freebies

Hi here is the correct address

https://www.markenburg.n...oupures%20H0%201op87.pdf

Hi Kimball,

Long time no chat. How's the restoration of that 5" loco going?

Some of the most ancient members of our little antisocial club can remember operations during the time. Slide 29 of the collection shows locos pushing a long line of trucks in the hope that it would give the driver's some confidence that the track was intact. I can't imagine our OH&S rules allowing that today - it seems you need to do a risk evaluation, safety matrix and risk treatment plan just to watch TV these days.

Wallangarra must have been an interesting place with the change of gauge - have visited the site and it must have been very busy in its day.

The Hunter and Northern lines seem like they are almost closed more often than they are open with floods up and down the coast the last two years. Same slow, winding route from when it was built and not a penny spent on improvements since then. Climate change or just bad weather - take your pick.

The river level here has now dropped by about 5 metres but the New England Highway still has a detour around the area and it is very strange not having heard a train go past for a week - on what I guess could be the busiest coal line in the World?

Cheers,

Mark