Featuring B61 on the Stony Point passenger service, G's and C's (with an S class) on Long Island steel trains and a bit of K class steam action. Shot on Betacam SP (broadcast quality at the time)
Brilliant video. I recall doing work experience as a 16 year old in the same year down at Geelong Railway Station. I travelled in the cab of an A class on a Warrnambool passenger train between Geelong and Camperdown. I was in heaven, the crew were excellent, let me ride in the fireman's seat and blow the horn as we rattled along. I recall it was a rough ride, not unlike this line!
Thx Dustin. I shot that footage all those years ago thinking the B's would be all gone soon. Its amazing a few are still around. Those A's were notoriously rough.
I love how you can see the McMahons Road crossing before it was upgraded with traffic, and this also would've been right after the Beach Street, Frankston was removed and replaced with the pedestrian crossing (while the road crossing was re-routed to the overpass just north of the former crossing site) ' Also, 0:41 Goodbye, Old Yeller.....That gunshot sounded like it was REALLY close to where you were standing!!
Thanks Patrick. Ive had all this material stored away for all these years as my interest moved from video work to other things. Ive now returned to my video interest!
Fantastic footage on the Stony Point line back in the loco hauled days. Love the cabride footage too. Also funny seeing the doors wide open and people hanging out, a normal every day occurance back then.
Cheers. I managed to get it on Betacam SP, which was a real bonus. I just should have done a bit of colour correction and enhancing when I edited, but its easy to spend days going down that path! And remember the days of W class trams with people hopping on and off at random and hanging out? They were the days!
also an interesting point is S307 & C501 are now both preserved at Seymour at the Seymour Rail Heritage Centre (as from April 22nd this year) & C507 is with SSR running freight trains most of the time these days
Thx Justin. Ive had all this material just sitting off to the side for years, almost forgotten about. Got some Leongatha footage (also shot on Betacam SP) just digitised and waiting to be edited. I will get to it in a few weeks.
It's been over 15 years since any steam ran on this line, a real shame. I remember the old orange powered railcar's, always needing to be rescued by a locomotive as they constantly broke down, the line has fallen into disrepair over recent years with many rotten redgum sleepers needing urgent replacement. I have lived beside this line for 35 years, back when BHP had massive freight laden trains sometimes with 4 loco's hauling, and seeing it become what it is today, same route, most of the lovely little rail sidings are gone especially in Somerville and Crib point.
Thanks for the comments Cliff. I'm so pleased I had the opportunity to capture a fair bit of video (and pics) over time as recording history is a really important thing. Just wish I had of got more signal box internal shots around the country.
Thx Rob, tho you might be over rating it a tad! The amazing thing is that some B and S class are actually still in service all this time later. I shot that footage on Betacam SP way back then thinking they were likely soon to all be withdrawn!
Brilliant footage Ted, I grew up On the back of this line. Thanks heaps for sharing. Please upload the Leongatha footage when you can, looking forward to it! Cheers ! 🙂
Thanks Travis. I'm pleased I didnt leave it any longer to digitise the Betacam SP tapes, as they have deteriorated a fair bit, unlike the VHS tapes. One would have thought a pro format would be more stable, however the metal oxide is dislodging from the tapes. I will post something from NSW next, then probably something non rail, then Leongatha.
Hi Jack, just wish I had covered even more than I did now, looking back. Ive got some more material of the line from Cranbourne to Leongatha to work thru at some stage. It was all shot on Betacam SP but some of the camera tapes have gone missing and ive only got a VHS copy of those missing tapes, and worse still, it has a time code window at the top of frame. Ive put it in the too hard basket for now.
Great clip, charming scenery, at 0.42 is sounded like the train ran over a detonator, but didn't sound the horn? Or maybe someone shot the yapping dog! Never got to Stony Point by train despite spending a lot of time at Mount Eliza and Frankston visiting friends in the early 1980's. Great cab ride in the B61, looks like the driver giving his mate a go, teaching him the finer things (good dynamic braking in conjunction with the air).
Yeah Dave, it was a gun shot sound effect. Thought I'd throw it in and see if anyone noticed! The very annoying yapping dog was real tho. From memory, the driver was not a regular down there (maybe he was from South Dynon?) on this service where as the other guy was. Very grateful to both of them for having myself and the camera on board.
What a gem of a vid, god! Jaws* (C-501) on the Stony Point line!!! must lie down..... *(It all started with a Filipino woman I heard who pronounced a child named George as Jaws LOL)
Great footage and history! She moves away quickly at 5:40. Without HEP on the B, what did the H sets do for lights/aircon? Or did they have their own generators?
That is the Up end of the Cerberus Naval Base triangle. By then this leg was out of use, but in the days of the Navy trains it was regularly used. The other leg goes into Crib Point station and is seen just before the level crossing.
Theres quite a few things we cant do any more. It will be cotton wool around soon! Not sure about the dogs condition, tho things arent always as they seem ;-)
Hi Ben. That is a train staff (of which there are several different versions/types) and it is a traditional form of 'safeworking' (as its known in the industry) for single lines. The concept is to, under normal operating circumstances, prevent more than one train being in a single line section between stations at any one time. Some versions of staffs are also used to unlock intermediate points in the sections to allow access to sidings.
Just fix up the line make it longer to go to langwarrin and other neglected areas.speed things up a bit.people need to get to melbourne in an efficient manner.its not the 1900s.the government needs to spend more money on bloody railways.
