Well I went nutting this morning.
Super sunny day, not a cloud in the sky, day off, leave pass issued..... what more could a bloke want.

Target locked on 526.... on its way... where to go...  Eltham...

Arrive... sort out a posi.... take a test shot... sweet light!! Loving it....

I hear a horn.... I can hear the DC's......

and then....

CRAP!!!
I cant believe it.... the ONLY damn cloud in the sky and it has to cross my path right at this moment....
*sigh*

A quick snap to plan B..... no time to change lenses... the fastest ever settings change and....

Not too bad for a quick save I guess...
A quick side on snap with the mountain in the background, and then off up the road..

Stopped in at Stratford scouting out a couple of options, but nothing took my fancy so I carried on further north, eventually stopping beside the Browns intermediate board  just north of Tariki.

yessir!! Sweet sweet light..... nice posi that I have not tried before.... all good....

I hear a toot..... I can hear the DC's.....

You wouldnt friggin believe it!!!!!! 
PLOP... another dirty filthy mongrel cloud stole my sweet light!!!!  

Geez if you thought the last settings change was fast, then this time was greased lightning!!! Your not stealing my shot again you naughty little cumulus!!
Meh, despite best efforts it all turned out very mediocre...

So, I have come home to repent, pray for forgiveness, do a silly dance and whatever else it takes to appease the Gods and lift my curse.

I have every intention of testing my luck again this arvo with a shot of 544 going over the Manawapo Viaduct.... fingers crossed!

AH

Seeing as though we never do anything as cool as the Canadians, I have stolen the above photo from "that" rail picture website to share with ya'll......

Be great if we could do something similar here...

I must offer many thanks to all those who have contributed, or bothered to read the posts here at SR, and for you continued support over the last year.

I do sorta get the feeling that this blog has really run its course though, and question the need to keep updating you all with my mindless ramblings and same old photos..... perhaps its time to wrap things up???

I hope you all have a safe a merry Christmas with friends and family, and I wish you all the best for 2012.
Stay safe out there! :-)

AH

Got called out for an extra shift the other day to run the late 52 shunt, and then bring 523 down to Stratford from New Plymouth.
First mission was to head out to Kapuni in the ute and relieve the morning crew who had run out there earlier on with empty gas wagons for loading.
To be fair, its not actually at Kapuni per se but rather Palmer Road where the S.T.O.S gas plant is located. It is however located inside the modern day "Kapuni" station limits and for all intents and purposes, the real Kapuni is located another 2 km west of here.
I always thought that the gas plant was located on the site of the well that supplies gas to the plant (and the nation) but in fact the plant is in the middle of a feild of several wells that supply the natural gas plant. As well as the natural gas, oil condensate is also treated onsite and then piped to the Moturoa tank farms in New Plymouth.

For some strange reason S.T.O.S are pretty anal about people just prowling about their worksite willy nilly, so once the wagons were pushed inside the loading facility, we were kicked out and the gate was shut. With the prospect of having nothing to do for the next 3 hours or so, I wandered off for a poke about in the places that I was allowed to be.

I spent some time examining the interior of the Palmer Road station building. This hut  used to manned by a shunter based out here untill the mid 90's when some changes were made and shunt crews from stratford started running out here.
Once filled with all the mod-cons such as a desk, fax, chair and hotplate, the hut now sadly reflects the years its stood unoccupied. Pleasingly all the windows are still intact and its well off the beaten path so the only trespassers around to violate it have been railway workers and the occasional disgruntled gas pumper. 
Lying on the floor are dozens of old railway booking forms, partial train lists and "Dangerous Goods" cards. Sifting through the old T15's was interesting to a throwback like me, most of which were dated 1994 but were sadly missing the real juicy bits like what locos were on the shunt and train consists. There was the odd page of "attach" wagons for trains and one I found showed DC4507 and a whole lot of L wagons being attached to a southbound freight train...... 

For some inane reason I have a real "thing" for round roof buildings such as the maintenance building located at the other end of the gas siding, or the former loco shed at Cross Creek etc. 
This shed was once used to perform regular maintenance on the UCG wagons and other gas containers "back in the day" by the specialized staff needed to do such work. As times changed the work was moved off site and now the neat looking building is nothing more than a big garage for the behemoth of a tractor that they use to shift wagons around when the shunt is not onsite. 

The weather cleared some more and another hour or so on our gas wagons were finally ready to pulled from the siding. We pull out two UCG's, each loaded with 42,000 liters of LPG (!!) and a UK with two 20' gas pods, lock up the siding, get a warrant and make our way back to Te Roti...

Trundling along the branch at the prescribed 30km/h, the rhythmic "clickty clack" of wheels over the old school short rail length joints causes my mind to wander. 
The hum of the 645 barely ticking over makes me wish I had been around to see the branch line in action in earlier days, when it  was worked by Db's, Da's and later on when DBR's 1239 and 1267, which were based out of the Stratford loco depot would run #2 shunt out here....

Anyway... back to the story...
We get off the branch and back onto the MNPL at Te Roti. Once the wagons are clear of the junction the throttle goes round to N8 and we sit back for the climb to Eltham.

We enter the loop from the south end and pull up alongside the portacom so my shunter can talk to TranzLink dude (who drives the Tr, the forklift and the local container truck) and see what he wants done.
We head up the north end, leave the gas on the loop and head into the yard, eventually lifting 6 loaded container wagons.
After putting our train together and doing the brakes we head for Stratford.

At Stratford a quick shunt soon has the wagons in the correct marshaling order and we run the DC down to the south end ready to be picked up by 523.
With my work done at this end I extract a company fleet car from the new razorwire ringed vehicle compound and make my merry way to New Plymouth.

At New Plymouth the weather was utter crap, so while my DXB was waking up (5120) I bailed out and bagged a couple of quick'n'dirty snaps of the track evaluation car. With only 2 axles it is without doubt the single most uncomfortable machine I have ever had the pleasure to drive on the rail network. This thing almost quite literally shakes the S**T out of you.
Dont be fooled by the the EM80 on the front, as its only allowed to do 60km/h when recording, so in essence is only an EM60....

My day finishes with a slow trip back to Stratford on 523. The weather has made the rails extra greasy and poor ol 5120 struggled to keep her feet and keep the 600 odd ton train rolling.
Back at Stratford we shunt the yard, lift the DC and all the wagons we bought in on the shunt earlier, put the train back together and do a brake test. 
The driver for 523 wont book on for another couple of hours so everything is shut down and tied down,  to appease the disgruntled neighbors, (who chose to live beside a railway yard!!) and I call it a day....

Was a nice break from the norm shuffling milk tanks around all day.

AH

Extreme closeup.... woahhhhhhh

I have been flat out recently, at work almost every day as we barrel head long into the peak of the milk season, but there has not been much chance to go nutting, not that there has really been much to foam about - just the same locos, same trains, same locations as always...

That said I have picked up and extra shift and am now on 52 shunt this afternoon and then have to go to New Plymouth and bring 523 down. This should yield the chance to get some shots of the loco depot today, weather permitting.

I have attached a few photos below for your viewing pleasure.

AH

Lost deep in dream land in an alternative universe I was rather abruptly bought back to the real world by a shrill chirping noise....
I lay there for a moment lying in limbo between the real and sureal.....
"chirp chirp" 
"hmm..." I thought to myself "there it is again..."
"chirp chirp"
"Oh, I know that noise".... "its the phone.... the phone is ringing...."


"Bugger...."

Through one blurry eye I try and read the time on my clock..... 4:45am....




"Bugger!"

I fall out of bed and shuffle in my best zombie fashion out to the lounge and pick up the phone..
"hello??"
"bro, your late for work!"
"no im not... its my day off"

"yes you are, ops just rang looking for you....."
"whatever!?? (im getting a bit grumpy and puzzled)
"Nah... just joking!"
"F*#K!!!"

(laughter from down the phone)
Its my charming mate in rosters......

"What do you want??"
"Come to work please bro, starting at 6(am)???"
(the cheek of it!! lol)

"doin what?"
"work train"

Hmmmm christmas is coming... bills to pay....

"Uhhh ok..."
"Awesome, thank you bro.... taxi is on its way - go to stratford and take Rob with you to New Plymouth...."

And that is how my day started today!

After a very relaxing trip to New Plymouth in the local taxi company's 2 week old Ford Teritory (good times for taxis eh?) we arrived at Smart Road to find our train already together and ready to go courtesy of the driver off 520.
DC4507 will be our companion for the next 10 hours or so.

The track gang were milling about sorting out the welded rail wagons, preparing the machines and unchaining the rail.
Following a brief chat with the head ganger, a brake test and a long conversation with train control (we had to speak slowly so she could understand our intentions) we got lights out of the yard and trundled round the corner to our first discharge point.

For the uninitiated, unloading and picking up welded rail is a time consuming task. Each EWR wagon has a small crane fitted to the center of the wagon, powered by a small Honda engine, which does the lifting and lowering.
Each crane needs its own operator, and as a standard rake of EWR consists of 6 wagons, 6 lackeys are required to operate all the cranes to get one length of welded rail off the wagon.
This procedure is conducted in operatic fashion by the head ganger, as each man needs to liift, luff and drop at the same time. 
Once the rail is on the ground, the grabs are undone off the rail and the process repeats. 
So in orderly fashion, two lengths of rail would be off loaded, we would move forward one train length, and another two more lengths would be dropped off.... and so on and so forth. Once we reached Henwood Road, the gang bailed off, tied down the remaining rails and told us to meet them at Manutahi, where we would be dropping off some more.........

Manutahi!!!! Good grief - this was going to be a long day!


After checking the gang was clear, we got the ok and headed out to Lepperton, where we would have to wait for 526.

And wait we did... a good 45 minutes in fact. Not too bad though as we were kept amused by the goings on over on the back road...

Turns out that this tamper machine had packed a real sad and had decided it was not going to turn another wheel... quite literally in fact!
We watched with amusement as a big crane lifted the ungainly looking machine onto a truck for transport back to Palmerston North for repairs.
(again, apparently)

The bloke who travels around the country with this particular machine was quite eager to give it away, putting on the hard sell, saying it really would make a fantastic mooring or boat anchor.....

We watched the disgraced tamper drive off into the sunrise before we too headed south after the arrival of 526 - next stop, Manutahi.
(via stratford and whareroa).

After successfully dodging 545 and 542, we are greeted at Manutahi by the same cartel of gangers that did the unloading in New Plymouth.
We rolled through Manutahi and discharged the last of the new rail around the curves before setting back to the north side of Manutahi where the gang wanted to pick up all the extra lengths of rail lying there.

Once the train was positioned we had nothing to do but sit back and watch and wait as the symphony of the cranes was conducted many times over.
A perfect chance to take a walk, grab a couple of shots and have a nosey at the surroundings.

All loading and unloading completed we waved farewell to the gang and trundled on south to Patea where we would run around our train and head back to Whareroa.

Back at Whareroa we tied our train down and headed for home. It was a busy day in ways, and slow in others, but all of a sudden, 10 1/2 hours had gone past and we were boardering on busting our hours.
They wanted us to run the train back to Stratford, but due to all the delays today, that just wasnt gonna happen.

We will leave todays broadcast with a quick snap of 547's power gleaming in the late afternoon light. 5080 was sent to the South Island not long ago, but promptly blew up and was sent back for repairs. It has since found its way onto the milk circuit, but for how long, who knows.....

AH

Well, its been a week of getting out of bed at 3am, and now its Friday afternoon I am just a bit cross eyed lol (probably to be expected.)
They say that no two days are ever the same with the railways, and true to form this week has provided a variety of things to keep me busy.

I have managed to snap a few shots this week, so below there is a fairly unimaginative photo "round up" of proceedings.

Monday : 
I got to work and ended up helping the Stratford shunter shunt 520. It was a huge 890m long and along with the 27 wagons we had to reduce, we also had to wrangle a DC out of 520's consist, and then down to the other end of the yard to put on the front of 543. As the DC (4398) was facing south, we just slapped it on the nut of 543 and I set sail. I ran 543 down to Waitotara and got on to 526, with its now rostered gaggle of 3 DC's. Todays train had 4507, 4191 and 4225. After the initial burst of mayhem the day turned into a fairly easy and straight forward morning, I ended up getting off at Stratford. Day done.

Tuesday: Tuesday started much like Monday - chaos trying to shunt a huge 520 and get the DC out of the consist and onto 543. Why? Cos that what "Loco Control" have decreed must happen. 520 Comes up with one big loco and two DC's, one coming off at Whareroa with a "return to sender" (543) and the other comes off at Stratford to run 52 Shunt. 
Shunt completed and I am on my way..... south.... and south I went!!!

In fact I went so far south I ended up in Marton to get a VERY late 526. 
Not that I am one to complain, but this train was big, long and an utter PIG to drive! One of the hazards of being blessed with a herd of worn out DC's is the fact that very few of them actually have working dynamic brakes, and today, NONE of my locos had working dynamic brakes. Not too much of a drama between Marton and Wanganui, but makes running the roller coaster between Wanganui and Waitotara hard work, especially when the "destress" gang is working 2/3 of the way down the Waitotara bank, they have the track held together with the bare minimum of fastenings and they want you to tiptoe over their work site at 10km/h!!! (OMG!!) Certainly tested the skills a tad there easing a 700m, 900t monster over that sans the help of dynamics!!!
All that aside,  the romance of running trains "old school" style with a trio of naturally aspirated 12 cylinder 645's certainly brings out the best of a bad situation... lol. 
I didnt get back to Whareroa untill after midday, where I was relieved. Day done.

Wednesday: Wednesday was probably the closest thing to a "normal" day on day shift, and I spent my hours puddling around the yard (after running 543 and coming back on 526) contemplating the future and thinking of ways to change the world and save the planet, create world peace etc.
For a change, 542 only had 12 oms, which were shepherded by a nice shiney bright pair of DFT's. I have not seen 7132 since its release into service from overhaul, and I must admit, her half life rebuild has dramatically improved cab comfort and reduced vibrations. Fabulous!

Thursday: Another mission south with 543, and returning on 526. 

These funny new points boards have been popping up all over the place like the mushrooms in my lawn! There is one at each end of Waverly identifying the points they stand beside, and one has been erected at Hawera too alongside the last remaining mainline point there, even though the "loop" points have been removed cutting off access to the siding...

Talking of loops... the new loop at Manutahi is all but finished now. The gangs have packed up and gone home, and new station boards have been erected on the outer extremities. The union had done a big haka drawing a line in the sand demanding that the loop be properly automated like the others on the line, with points motors and indicators and such, but the evidence clearly suggests that the demands have fallen on deaf ears. 
It will be interesting to see what procedures will be put in place for the crossing of trains here - should a milky actually fit in the loop in question....

And just to throw everything left field somewhat, 542 rocks up with a pair of snot rockets on the front - with a coal motor four stroke to boot!! Wow! 
Getting one green loco on a train is a rare thing round here these days, let alone two! 
5431 has had some work done to the radiator fan and drive, and is on loan to the milk circuit while she proves her reliability and suitability to head back to the coal route.

Friday: A swap with my offsider saw me run 526 through to New Plymouth today.
The usual gaggle of old chooks strapped to the front did a sterling job of keeping track speed, but not so flash slowing down. No drama though as the grades between Whareroa and New Plymouth are far less severe than those due south.

And the bush whacker has recently laid waste to the huge lineside gorse reserve on the strip of land between the yard and the fertiliser siding, now allowing unhindered views into their plant....

And that was my week..... fun and games on the job!
I will finish off with the below picture of a couple of old US wagons, stored "out the back", "out of sight out of mind" slowly rusting away, their usefullness all but done....

:-)

AH

More and more "Made In China" keeps showing up every day, and today was no exception. We had our first IAB come in, and while the paint looks familiar, the design is something very different from the more traditional locally made stuff. Below is a slideshow of snapshots taken today... 

And this post could not be complete without a couple of random photos...

Righto!!
I have worked 9 days straight, I have one more to go then 1 day off followed by 4 more and then I get a 4 day break!
Madness I tell ya!! (must be milk season)

After several attempts at writing a post following the tantrum that the computer threw last week, toys were thrown and sulk mode was activated in quick succession. 10 days on and the ol' PC seems as stable as a rock so I will strike while the goings good..... 

I guess there is a bit to catch up on, so I will start with the current power allocated to run 526..... 3 DC's!! 
Yes its true, as per the loco allocation sheet, 526 has run every day this week with a ratbag lashup of DC's 4231, 4041 and 4058. Last week 4064 was on the front prior to 4231.

I really couldnt believe it. I Got to Kai Iwi last Monday morning and lo and behold, not 1 or 2, but 3 old dungers gracing the front of my 526 ! Woot lol.
 
And seeing as tho I spend 90% of my time driving nice quiet (in the cab) DXB's, having to fight my way through the rust and cobwebs of the old girl on the pointy end was a bit of a shock. Gee did that DC feel OLD - 100% as rebuilt straight out of 1979 (apart from the radio).
 
It was all good though, as the sweet sound of three naturally aspirated 12 cylinder 645's reverberating off the hills was just music to the ears :-)

Long may it continue!

I also missed a primo chance to get a photo of freshly repainted DC 4692! It had been raining all night and was raining when I left the depot, so I thought it pointless taking my camera with me and left it behind. 
Well bugger me if the sun wasnt shining gloriously at Stratford, and there bathing in the sweet morning light was an eye burningly fresh 4692.... 
Bugger...

Also of note is progress on the new loop at Manutahi, or lack of it....
Internal politics have resulted in work all but ceasing in fast fashion following a site visit by union reps and company officials. 
Seems there is a "difference of opinion" on what should be happening and what actually is..... 
No doubt it will all come out in the wash.

And below are some random photos from the last couple of weeks.

And below, in pure randomness is a photo taken wayyyyy back in 2004 showing the then evolution of mainline freight loco paint schemes... red, blue, black, green..

And to close out this rather disjointed post is a photo of a silly little tank wagon, complete with semi sepia tone, taken at Westfeild some time in the mid 1990's - I think...
(it may also be the wellington ferry terminal too....)

:-)

AH

This is the 5th attempt at writing a blog post today so all you get is a picture....

Will try again tomorrow when karma or murphy has got bored with me..

(sodding program crashes and 2 blue screens of death!!! grrrrrr)