This is why we must still watch carefully over any Liberal Governments we have in the future as they are not intent on proving the city and the state with good infrastructure for the masses. Could you imagine Perth with no Freo line now.... without the insight of the Labor Government.
One of the things I often note about Perth and Fremantle from these times... which I remember with fondness, is the stark lack of tree's in many places. The whole metropolitan area has grown so much greener and nicer over the years.... this type of video certainly certainly reminds us of how many places were if we are honest, quite bare and ugly.... but we still loved our home.
Great footage. In the mid 1970’s I caught the train from Fremantle to Perth on a Saturday morning and the young fella in front of me was excitedly telling the chap beside him that he was going to Perth and he had only ever been to Perth 3 times in his life! My great grandfather was killed by a goods train at about 10.30pm near the Burswood station and the paper said he was mangled beyond recognition. It was New Year’s Eve and he worked in a woodyard in Stirling Street,North Perth. The family has it that he was walking along the line (including across the river) to get home in Victoria Park. My grandfather and his two brothers worked their whole working lives for the WAGR as did my father and aunt in their early days. At one time the WAGR was the State’s biggest employer.
I remember traveling as a very young child on what must have been an ADG as I recall it changing gears. We'd all be taken on a train ride a treat and we'd go from Perth down to Fremantle. The carriages were green, from memory, old rattlers. It was great to see the old trains and what Perth was like back in 1979, brought back some good memories.
Those stainless steel sets were supposed to be narrow gauge versions of the NSWGR U class trains but they never got the chance to run under their own power.
Thanks Terry , bring back alot of memories , 1972 - 1976 , I used to travel everyday from Fremantle to East Perth in the morning and Claisebrook to Fremantle in the afternoon , I did My apprenticeship at PWD - MPE at Jewell St (another place long gone) . Used to walk along side the track to and from the respective stations to get to work , it seems to be the done thing back the , no one said or stopped Us , couldn,t do that today . The Midland workshop had a special train which ran especially for their workers , from Perth - Midland morning and afternoon .... Cheers ....
An amazing video,many thanks for putting it all together. I lived in the Pilbara for 20 years from 1976 to 1996 regular trips to Perth meant I got to know the Perth suburban system.Great shots of W945 on the R&I special,this was my introduction to the Hotham Valley Railway.There then followed about 15 years volunteering on the HVTR mostly at the Pinjarra depot.Lots of loco cleaning and getting the locos ready for service on passenger specials.I learnt a lot about steam locos with instruction from some great people.Happy memories.
I’m from Victoria, I remember watching an orange railcar in 1986, it burbled to itself and then the engine accelerated for a few minutes before going back to a burble. I guessed it was recharging the air cylinders for the brake system. Am I right? A few days later I rode The Australind which was loco hauled wooden cars. You can probably date it as the train arrived at the new Bunbury station and they were demolishing the old brick Bunbury station. I wondered why as I had a lenghty walk to the central part of Bunbury.
Terry, hello from Ireland - thanks so much for the videos, they are fascinating, especially as you went to the trouble to get sound. Amazing to see and HEAR the XA class, a close cousin of some early Irish diesels!
That was amazing to see that old video clip there off the old train back in the days there it was great to watch it to the end there an keep up the amazing video clip there 👍👍👍
Great video, except maybe for that repetitive bird sound! I started school at St Joseph's in Queens Park in 1968 the year after they retired the old steam locos and there were still some lying dormant about the suburban network. I remember the spur lines in busy Welshpool and the level crossings before boom gates were installed and the lines fenced off. The railways always seemed to be so quiet back then, certainly nowhere as busy as they are today. I only used the old trains a few times but they were very relaxing.
Thanks for your reflections. Sorry about those birds. They are the Singing Honeyeater, endemic to Western Australia. Quite prolific where I live at the moment, I get that chorus every morning.
Oh my goodness, this is from my childhood, I used to stand on the Eric St Bridge on my way to North Cottesloe primary school and watch the steam train pass underneath. The music in this treasure of a video is wonderful.
I remember there use to be a rail siding out the back of bibra lake dad use to take us and we would clamber through the old wooden carriages. Years ago on a road trip out east i saw a adg rail car dumped in a paddock
Good stuff. As a Fremantle-ite, it was a total disgrace when they closed down the Perth to Freo line. Now we are nearly at an excellent rail system around the metro area.
the orange cars were never supercharged,the 760 AEC motors had extremely large TURBOCHARGERS fitted,they were parked near midland when the midland railway workshop was taken over by the police communications centre,i personally saw them,as well as an incedent with allan brinkworth and his idiot mates who left a live engine on the line in the carpark and lost their minds when i had a look over it,going so far as to lie to police and have me charged but they had to be dropped LOL,the museam has been very arrogant about it,not even giving me an apology
I had just finished watching part 1 and had to watch part 2 as well. The stations on this line are full of nostalgia such as the Showgrounds for the show, Leighton and Cott for the beaches, Claremont and Subi for footy and to the city for shopping, movies and concerts. It was lucky the tracks weren't ripped up as one of the plans was to build a highway on the railway reserve. Fast forward a few more years and Freo was bustling again. The passenger service was temporarily extended to South Beach during the Americas Cup but never used again.
Brilliant footage and thanks for sharing. I love seeing the railcars where the doors were still open while the train was moving. Unthinkable these days. I'd forgotten what a state of disrepair the railways had fallen into by the time the Freo line was closed. By the late 1970's, the car was king and the railways were almost consigned to history. Thankfully, the tide turned when the lines were eventually electrified and Perth has a decent metro railway system
Thanks for the trip down Memory Lane Terry. I used to catch the steam train from Subi to Swanbourne every day for school, beginning 1952 - aged 7 I still remember the excitement of waiting for that first diesel with the yellow and black hatching. Nothing can match the smell of fired coal and that gorgeous blast of warm, humid steam as the train pulled in on a cold winter day. Your hobby has turned into a wonderful, historical legacy. Well done mate.
Great old photo of the footbridge. I've never seen that before. I thought there was pipe line from East Perth power station to Burswood to carry ash slurry at one stage.
Great work here Terry and side fact at time index 12:32 those are the very 1st set of traffic lights installed ever in Western Australia. The proof is shown as you look at its control box with the number’0001’
Well spotted. I'm a traffic signal SCATS engineer (Sydney Coordinated Adaptive Traffic System) and have visited No. 0001 in Sydney at Market St & Kent St, installed in October 1933, and of course modernised many times since with the march of technology as has happened in Perth. I live in Perth these days, so I guess I'll have to visit West Perth, and those signals better be working OK when I get there? LoL!
Well done Terry. i watch a lot of RU-vid vids from all corners of the world - way too many in fact - and yours are amongst the best; best made, best produced and always interesting.
gee thanks for the old footage its so facinating and i wanted to see what stokely station looked like since i can only find 1 picture of it online :) have you got and footage of bayswater station before it was rebuilt in 1969? bit of a shame theres was no footage of it :(
I remember the switch to what we as kids called "The Bendy Bus" quite well. It was the done thing to stand in the middle section while it turned. Looking at the footage everything about the railway line looked a bit tired and outdated so I can seee how they thought a modern bus fleet would be better. Lucky they didn't get to ripping out the tracks. I grew up in Mosman Park but rarely used the train apart from probably the show as we were very close to a bus stop that would take us to Perth or Fremantle.
This takes me back to the early 70's; was studying at Wembley Tech at the time and took the train daily from Stokely into the City. So many fond memories came flooding back from that time. Thank you for that 🙂
