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I had a run in with an inspector from Parkes a tall thin young bloke. I'd cleaned the cab of an 80 class and this inspector walked up the four foot where all the oil was and then walked into the cab putting oily footprints on the cleaned floor. He told me to clean it again and I told him if he wanted it clean then he could bl**dy well do it himself. He asked for my name and then reported me to the chargeman who was Chubby Perry and still alive today at 72 now. Whilst the inspector walked to the chargeman's office I quickly mopped the floor again. Eventually Chubby called me on the PA system and told me to clean the cab floor again and I refused and said it was clean and if he didn't believe me go and have a look for himself. As we walked across the shed with the inspector close behind Chubb said in a low voice "you've already redone it haven't you". With the inspector so close behind I didn't answer and so Chubby and the inspector went out to the loco and Chubb climbed into the cab to take a look. He then climbed down and tore a strip off the inspector who's face went from smugness to absolute horror with Chubby yelling at him telling him to get out of loco or be booked out late the reason being wasting shed staff members time. Chubby had his back to me berating the inspector who was facing me. I gave the inspector the "finger" and he quickly climbed into the locos and they whistled out. On walking back Chubby said to me "I knew you'd redone it and did you see the look on his face". I replied "yeah sure did, you could have put a turd in his hand but you wouldn't have gotten a better look". I know it was lousy thing to do but sometimes smug people full of their own self importance need to be taken down a peg or two. As a side note Chubby taught me how to drive the locos at LMC from electrics to diesel a 46 class being the first electric I drove and a 49 class being the first diesel. He taught me the hand signals to coupling and uncoupling locos and connecting and disconnecting air hoses. Changing ends, starting and shutting down diesels and how to operate the turntable and safely stow locos in the paddock. When they had that collision a Delec that bent 8029 some bloke from Sydney came to LMC to tell us how to drive locos and so I had to play the role of I've never done this before as Chubby teaching me was not legal. He just said one night on back shift "your a railway enthusiast mate have you driven an engine yet?". When I said no he said "well it's about bl**dy time you did!".

Nice vid! Nice to see something historic and streamlined! Sounds so good as it powers up

I miss those audible chimes

My son is special needs and he loves trains 🚆🚞🚝🚉🚈🚇🚅🚄🚃🚂🛤🚊🚋 especially railmotors like those. He thinks they are highly underrated rail transportation vehicles and all should be preserved, restored, and put back into service carrying passengers and mail on lines that are not used anymore or don't get passenger service. He also thinks that Siemens, Progress Rail, or any other company that builds railroad equipment should build full size working replicas of antique railmotors and the departments of transportation should restore and rebuild railroad lines that were abandoned and removed and run these on them.

I worked at The Risk in the 70's . We used both the cane slings and the smaller ones for the auto exchangers . With the staff instruments, suppose to be on manual but kept them on auto , until you heard a vehicle pull up , in case it was an inspector. At which time they were quickly switched to manual . Only got caught once and got a bung for it

Great video, any ideas what the chimes at the start are?

A lovely little video thanks for the memories yes the vidgo how many places and do you remember the his and hers ?

Used work at moolabin at this time frame snd used put all trains to Townsville in no order and send them north must have been hard on them Marshall them on. Later on put them in blocks make easy for all.

Another great video Steve

How much money do you get pay to be a train driver in Sydney

Hi Steve! Great to see you back Sir! I hope you're doing well and getting out there trackside now and then. I hopefull start the move to Lofty late this year ?? Fingers crossed. Take care mate,\ Cheers Gregg.

Great video Steve, brings back memories of travelling up the Mountains to Lithgow. Mt Vic in winter was cold and the wind used to cut through you when you had to wait for the examiner to finish the brakes.

It's so easy to exploit this system by a malicious actor to create an accident on purpose.. Frightening. All they have to do is to copy the token.

Cool thanks mate

How can you call that a baby Garratt? There were certainly larger ones but there were also many smaller Garratts that were a fraction of this size.

My first West Coast Train ride was in 1999.

0:45 running away from cops

love this train how did it handle when driving it was the brakes hard to get it right to stop the train in the right spot at the station

Wow sweet footage. This line still active? Unbelievable. Love the night scenes too

Before I did broken shifts I had to do the straight shifts, one week of earlies and one week of lates. The bonus of the lates was if you got last Tram. That really moved with all the electricity of each sub station. Sometimes I swear we were airborne

I often drove the Express Tram. It was always packed and that added to the weight. I would just hold it flat. My friend that was driving too he hid behind the partition and when we got to Marion Road he asked me why I wasn't scared of derailing and hitting the Stobie Poles and I said "it'll be fine with that big lump of metal at the front".

Thanks Steve. I especially like the after dark footage. The cars made it interesting. I had seven collisions during my time driving and a few when I was a Conductor at the beginning. I was working broken shifts at this time so I was only driving coupled sets. I liked driving the Restaurant Tram the most. Mainly because you got paid to be in Glenelg. Couldn't go drinking in the Pub in your uniform but there was plenty to do at the Bay. They also gave you a meal but they stopped doing that, officially anyway. The main meal was either an Eye Fillet Steak or Macadamia and Apricot stuffed Quail and the Desert was a Chocolate H type Tram filled with Chocolate Mouse with a sliced Strawberry in one end

Nice coverage, I live along this line and can remember at around age 7 when these cars were replaced. This video was a great nostalgia hit!

Here in Brisbane city Australia 🇦🇺 we don't even have a circle service

I worked for the STA back then driving the H type Trams to Glenelg and back

Any shots of the original tail gondola had the wasp stripes and lamp on the back. Over time the they got lazy with the consist and any old gondala would act as the rear still great memories. The pinkish browns never quite had the pop of the yellow with the blue silver and white BHP LPD livery.

An interesting combination 😮😅😊

Impressive indeed 😅😊😮

Wow listen to the 567 roar. Great dusk video Steve

I like the way you define things Steve. Smog Hollow, to hoof, and now a new one to me - the dinky toys. I like it. Used to run quad 48/49 class loco's with loaded 3200T coalies from Tahmoor to Enfield. Blocking the crossing at Camden Rd. seemed hilarious to us at 25 odd kph, with traffic backed up on both sides as far as you could see. We didn't always have the full road, so not our fault.

Great video Steve. Looking forward to looking at the rest. I know I have a lot of these but great to see the highlights too.

Love the 48 had a passion with them since the 60s every time I see one I smile cheers ❤️❤️👍👍👍😀😀🦘🇦🇺

*Alco has Soot!*

It seemed like train driving was easy to get into back in your day, now it’s hard to try and get into these days

They need a red flashing light on the back of the sugar cane train

I spent a lot of my childhood sitting at that train station.

wonderful work there Steve love the sound of the EMD gunzel when the S Class departs

I saw the cane train travelling along Howard Street when I was visiting Nambour in 1988 as part of expo 88 in Brisbane. I was actually in a coach which was taking me and a group of fellow tourists to the Big pineapple. We had to stop for the cane train it was great seeing it at the time.

Hobart drivers doing day shift on the main. 🤯 Cmon Sarge 😬

Did the 46 class throttle have any notch’s? it looks like it just slides

Nice collection of videos there Steve. Especially like the 46 class video. Loved driving them especially on the Main North. Something I never thought to do was video my work.

0:26 blow the Whistle

Best to restore these engines and convert them to fuel oil or to burn Diesel fuel

Thank you for that, much appreciated. Way back in 1952, my father and I went to spend a week of the May school holidays with his aunt and uncle at Rylstone. The aunt was the last of the family still to live there. The trip out was to Wallerawang, with a change to a train of dog box carriages to take us on. The property started just on the outskirts of Rylstone adjoining the train line. A 5 year old me used to run up to the fence to watch each passing train. To my great pleasure, the return trip started with a rail motor, before the change - which I think was at Lithgow. Even greater pleasure was being able to sit at the very front, just across from the driver.

The Mill closed in 2003 so sadly no more cane trains there. 16 coaches on the Sunlander possibly won’t see that today.

I used to get on these exact trains in the early 90s. I would catch them at the Melton station to go to work in Melbourne. I miss the old coaches. Especially the old compartment ones with the sliding doors. I used to catch these up to Bendigo as well and I'd sit in the door way with the door wide open in the heat of summer. No one freaked out that the door was open. The brease was nice.

The 44 classes look very flash!

How nice to have this locomotive in Tasmania running shuttles between Lebrina and Wyena every day during the peak holiday season

woh computa and analogz stuff????? vewy kewl

Great video there Steve love the good old 48s one of nsw hardest working trains I reckon, its cool to see when you excelerat on the 48 class when all that smoke comes out they look like a bloody steam train, thanks for sharing the video Steve. Ted