Worked as a young Station Assistant (Sydney) in 1986 - seems like another lifetime ago. ... Loved the open doors of the Red Rattlers in summer ( wouldn't pass OH&S these days).
Grew up along the North Shore and South West line through the 80s and 90s so this really hit home. Miss those days. Life was simpler back then. Country went south after 2000!
3:55 guys just casually getting off while the train is still moving fast fwd to the 2020's the train is stopped 5 seconds before the guard bothers opening the doors
The Sydney of today is much different, heads down looking at mobile phones, rudeness and push-shove and being jostled at peak hour at Town Hall, bone heads who hog the escalators and not keep to the left. The old days were much better, more relaxed and friendlier, school children used to stand for adults in the peak. Nothing like getting a lung full of asbestos dust from the red rattlers Hardie-Ferodo brake shoes! The unique smell and humidity of Town Hall station in the summer, not to mention looking over the platform at the thousands of cigarette bumpers lying in the four foot. Like the Tait sets in Melbourne, the Sydney "rattlers" served us well.
I remember these red combo sets (single deck motor cars with double deck Tulloch trailers) well when I was going to high school. I wish we had camera phones back then, because having a new Tangara beside one at the station most mornings was a mind-blowing look at technology advances. I wish I was able to take photos, but we never imagined the red sets would be wiped out just a year or 2 later. Mind you, 15 years after that I would often end up sitting in a grey-painted Tulloch trailer…. I always thought the red rattler name came about from the wooden sash windows that rattled incessantly in their frames, especially when open all the way.
4:30 The bloke casually walking across the tracks. That's an emergency call these days 😂 Simpler times where common sense prevailed. Open windows and doors on the trains. Starion attendants didn't wear hi vis vests, no tactiles on the coping, no signs every where you look. No incessant safety announcements blasting at you every 30 seconds. No changing the company name every few years. The fence between the tracks and the footpath at Milsons Point as you head over the Harbour Bridge was so short. Adults and kids alike could be trusted to use the network without getting a Darwin award. Those days are long gone.
Unfortunately you're mistaken, all those things were put in place because of idiots who died. Most people could have been trusted not to get a Darwin award, but a small number couldn't, and so steps were taken to prevent such deaths. Yes, someone on the tracks would warrant an emergency call, but this is because of the shocking number of people who are killed on train tracks each year, to this day.
Seems odd now that we would stand there with the doors open while the trains moving. Did that plenty of times and never once considered the possibility of someone pushing me out onto the tracks. Of course today wouldn’t be surprised if it happened and was filmed, upload to social media.
Old red rattlers are my fav train and them old psi omg this video is so good thanks for sharing as someone who does Trainspotting in Sydney this is off the chain the v sets and k sets are the last of my childhood
`Looks like a lot of this footage was ripped off from a VHS commemorating the end of the red rattlers from a video production company based in Tasmania.
What a shame I couldn't get to experience these days that will never exist again, so long before I was born, grew up with Tangaras, S sets, C sets and now K sets. Once the silvers go it'll be a downhill roller coaster with all Tangaras and 4GT. Would be good if the Tangaras return to the city circle frequently instead of most weekends.
The motors on those red sets sound interesting. Over the decades the most common trains you were most likely to catch when waiting at the station was the red sets “red rattlers”, the S sets, Tangara trains and then the latest Waratah trains, with the K sets, C sets and Millennium (M sets)” being less common but still plenty of them. Will be a shame when the Tangara trains are retired.
I applied for and was accepted into the old T.I.B(train cops).Minister Pickering disbanded them under the Greiner government. Installed a well known security firm with absolutely no arresting powers. Then came the Greys with no detaining powers, then handed over to NSW Police.Should have just overhauled the T.I.B
