Some Selected Photos of Days Gone By

RailWA

Some Selected Photos of Days Gone By

A scene changed forever yet it was once a 6 days a week regular happening. X1023 "Kariera" stands at Bunbury Railway Station with the Australind Express bound for Perth on 15 December 1979. Today pedestrians walk through this area and the yard to the right has been replaced with a 4 lane road and the rails and the modern day Australind terminate in the Bunbury suburb of Wollaston.

X1028 "Meeraman" stands outside the now demolished Wagin Loco Depot on 8 December 1981. The X class was also been cut and the line West to Collie which the X would have worked on is also closed and lifted.

R1902 hauls a healthy load of sawn timber away from Manjimup in February 1983.

RA1912 on a sleeper distribution train at Subiaco station on 25 May 1983. The Fremantle line is as busy as ever with the EMU fleet serving an underground Subiaco station. The signal cabin has been preserved at the Bennett Brook Railway at Whiteman Park, RA1912 was not so lucky it was cut up.

A sunrise; Actual size=240 pixels wide

XB1020+XA1411 just west of Lake Grace on 17 February 1983 with a loaded grain train to Wagin

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XA1412+1403 shunt Kojunup yard on 2 April 1982

TA1808 shunts the eastern side of Narrogin Yard on 16 February 1983. Today this area is devoid of tracks and the Narrogin Link Road is being constructed through the former yard. The only loading at Narrogin today is from the CBH grain facility on the north side of town.

It's now hard to imagine that prior to the modern electrified Perth suburban system the previous operations involved loco hauled train consists at peak times of the day.

Here we see X1009 "Arnga" at the head of a suburban set at Perth station on 5 December 1979, shortly, the loco will notch up leaving clouds of diesel and oil smoke, together with some oil droplets. Those in the first coach would receive this fumigation for some time on their journey until the X burned off the residual oil that collected in its exhaust system after its prolonged idling at the station.

NB1872 (now in NSW) runs past CLP17 (now in ASR colours)after the NB had hauled the CLP and empty Indian Pacific stock from Forrestfield to the East Perth Rail Terminal on 11 April 1997. The NB was required as East Perth has no facility for turning the single ended CLP's.