The Semi-Retired Foamer has been a railfan since he was around 5 years old, oh yes a very young age, an age when one really should avoid being involved with the gunzel community to any great extent. A few rather unsavoury people bringing that fact home.
After a few decades of train chasing, one decided to break with protocol and get married, thus leading to a severe cut in railfan activity.
Subsequent dealings with hate breeders, lunatics, mental defectives and self-appointed preservation overlords lead to an even greater decrease in my hobby participation.
However things have changed thanks to our small group of trusted mates, interest has returned, and now I have become a bit more involved yet again.
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Over the years I have tried my best to further both the hobby, as well as the friendships that it brings. I have done this by setting up proactive groups both here in Australia, as well as the Philippines. It is with huge honour that I am often considered the founding father of the railfan hobby in the Philippines (my second home).
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I don't take the hobby too seriously and I am a friend to anyone who is good and genuine. But never forgive those who have used their hate to destroy my hobby or hurt the friends within it.

Let's Make The Hobby Great Again!
I aim to share the era that I considered mine, the 80s and 90s. I also like to help promote, and even raise funds for, the various heritage societies that keep the era alive
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**** LOCOMOTIVE/ PUBLICATIONS ****
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We occasionally publish information on the locomotives, and rollingstock, from railways in Australia and the Philippines.
All are available for
FREE at our ALR WEBSITE.




Please email me should you wish to use anything from this site !



Tuesday, July 3, 2007

Cudgewa Before Human Vermin Move In!


Back in 1988-89 I was at the peak of foamerdom and had joined the many others endeavouring to cover as much of the Flying Scotsman as possible. While I was unable to get the coverage of such gunzel icons as Mad Phil, I did get around to some of the more major occasions.

A extended trip of the Scotman from Melbourne to Alice Springs (I think) was the catalyst for a planned long weekend of gunzelling from Albury to Parkes. A trip subsequently caught short at Bethungra by a misbehaving fuel pump on the old Coronabox.

Despite a long overnight journey from Sydney to Albury (via Cootamundra) we decided to fill in a few hours before hotel check in (I had yet to discover the time passing benefits of Tanduay Rum) by following the old branchline from Wodonga to Cudgewa.

This was a rather hilly and extremely scenic line, virtually guaranteeing a railfan throsby back in the days when trains once travelled to and fro.
An initial stop was made at Huon to check out the rotting remains of the ill-fated museum that was to operate out of here. The project, lke so many others, did not reach fruition and the collection has been scattered elsewhere.

Unike NSW it was interesting to see all tracks had been removed but so many structures still remained, at least they did back then.

The terminus turned out to be a dribblers delight with most structures still intact with just the trackage removed. Many photos were taken prior to heading back the way we had come for a day of sleeping before chasing the Scotsman to Wagga and points north.

I've recently been told that this lovely station building has subsquently been destroyed along with most other structures along the line.


alcogoodwin

2 comments:

Huggies said...

Human Vermin = Railcorp ??

alcogoodwin said...

It certainly sounds like a Railcorp doing but alas this is Victoria so we can't actually blame them this time.