I thought I'd start a new thread featuring scenes in and around Brisbane.

 First up is my favourite part of Brisbane.
 Shorncliffe is on Brisbane's northside, on the shores of Moreton Bay.
It has a sleepy and unassuming little terminus. There is a turning wye but it's probably never needed these days as the only traffic is electric passenger trains.  The wye traipses off through the adjoining golf course. You have to hit over it on one hole. True to form I failed to do so the only time I played there.
 In my youth I caught the old diesel-hauled train with wooden carriages and leather seats, shuttered windows and doors that jammed as often as they slammed   I used to walk from there to fish off the long jetty. I remember the quiet leafiness of the surroundings as the train pulled in. I'm grateful that Shorncliffe hasn't changed much in the thirty-eight or so years since I made those trips.













Lesley and I shared the camera.

 I'll have to get back for more some time.

Mike

Thanks, Mike.
Good pics.

From the modelling perspective, the platform surface and the rust on the out of use buffers are interesting.

Very interesting to see how similar the signals are to UK practice and one of them even appears to be made my ML Enigineering in Plymouth!

Here's a much older shot of Shorncliffe from pre-electrification days. It is scanned from a photo I took which has faded a bit. 1281 "Century" was one of two gold liveried locomotives and was a member of the English Electric 1270 class.

Very nice, Jeff!  You can get a model version of one of those gold locos.  Maybe I'll get my hands on one some day.

Mike

mike lovely Photos

those lilac coloured trees in the last photo look really lovely

cheers Brian

Yes Brian - Jacarandas, a South American native. They're in full bloom here now

This one was photographed today about 15 mins from home.
I hope to model Queensland Rail one day, and a jacaranda is a necessity.

[user=8]MikeC[/user] wrote:

I thought I'd start a new thread featuring scenes in and around Brisbane.

 First up is my favourite part of Brisbane.
 Shorncliffe is on Brisbane's northside, on the shores of Moreton Bay.
…………………………………………………….

I ate their "bugs" in a floating restaurant on the river in Brisbane 3 or 4 years ago - wonderful !!

Those photos certainly evoke the heat of Queensland Mike but also the sub-tropical climate.  Those jacarandas look really stunning in full flower.  They grew in Cyprus where we had a holiday house for many years but never flowered like that.  The difference was that Cyprus was very hot………. and dry - arrid really - not at all like Queensland.  When we were last there (Brisbane) - over Christmas and New Year,  the plants and flowers just took my breath away.  Nothing at all like it here in Europe.  They were all so lush and brightly coloured but then I think summer is your wet season :roll::roll::roll:

Oh yes - wonderful shots of the railway as well Mike -  :thumbs Shorncliffe certainly looks like a sleepy little place to relax in and watch the world go by.:cheers

While the jacarandas  are beautiful, when they drop the flowers, - MESSY as is - it was my job as the kid at home, to rake them up each Saturday morning even if windy. Bleedin' waste of time that was but could not use logic against my Mum.

In Queensland, Summer can be wet but down in the South- Summer can be & has been HOT & DRY.

I like the end shot of the chain mesh fence - makes mine look quite good.

Those Jacaranda flowers are also rather acidic when they land on your car's paintwork! I used to park at Auchenflower station sometimes, where it was almost impossible to avoid the jacaranda flower-drop when they were out.

We do have jacarandas in Melbourne too, but they don't lose their leaves like they do in Brisbane / Queensland / oop north, to have only the purple display. I believe they need a hot dry spell to drop their leaves whereas we generally don't have the right combination of conditions here during their flowering season.

And now back to things QR.

This is the first train to run through the third coal unloading station at the Dalrymple Bay Coal Terminal in late 2007 here in Mackay.

I was on the project as a commissioninng co-ordinator responsible for bringing the new plant into operation before handover.

 




John.

You kept it very clean, John.

A terrific view, John  :thumbs

Just a couple more of the coal unloading system at the Dalrymple Bay Coal Terminal.

Then a surprise.




This is the first ballast train just entering the shed.




Balast train passing through the shed.




How it looks now with a loaded train passing through.




The train does not stop during the unloading, coal falls out of doors in the bottom of the waggons.

Coal is unloaded at 7,500 tons per hour.

Now a look at QR,s pride and joy.




Yes it,s their Railmotor.

Look inside.















Looking over the drivers shoulder.

These pics were taken in 2006 when I was lucky enough to be part of an inspection tour of the Goonyella coal line.

John.

Some lovely and some fascinating pictures there gents.  I have to say there is a considerable forndness for things Queensland here, not least the lush vegetation.  It's been a couple of years since I came that far north but the Jacarandas and, farther north, the Ulysses butterfly, stay in mind as two of many outstanding examples of nature at her finest.

QR is also probably the best run rail network in Australia and with the possible exception of the isolated Pilbara operations it is in many places the most modern.

Here's one at the part-time terminus of Doomben



and the Diesel Tilt Train at a location in north Queensland which from memory is Innisfail though I don't have the database online at the moment to confirm.



 

 

Enjoying these - keep em coming guys!

Lots to like about these pictures.

Little things as well as big things.
Like the little drainage plates in the platform.

A contrast in front ends at Brisbane Roma Street station.  This is the hub of the Brisbane rail network though Central, the next station, serves the CBD better.  All country trains also leave from Roma Street, mostly from platform 10 which has the huge rounded canopy seen in the background.

EMU set 66, one of the first electric units built and which are still giving sterling service, is about to depart for Ipswich in the south west while Inter City electric set 153, one of a tiny class introduced for express workings to Rockhampton though now seeing very little use since replacement on those workings by the tilt trains, waits with the afternoon train to North Gympie north of Brisbane.   


Another view of an Inter City set, this time 152, on the mid-day train to Nambour.  Uniform shorts are normal attire in these sub-tropical latitudes.  The tilt train has arrived at platform 10 in the background.


Much farther north both the daily trains from Cairns are seen in Kuranda station having slogged up the tortuous climb into the rain forest mountains during the morning.  They will return later in the afternoon packed with day trippers.  Typical rain forest weather as well; the humidity is so high that it is impossible to stay dry.


Cairns depot keeps four of their 1720-class locos in unique Aboriginal-style artwork liveries for the Kuranda trains.  Three of the four are glimpsed here, with a fleet-liveried yellow and maroon one, awaiting the afternoon departures from Kuranda.  All four blue based liveries have different artwork.

Love those last locos!  Semaphore signals as well.