BEWARE: Coming in April.

Over 200 photos of 44 class during 4 weeks.

Its 44 Class month on the Semi-Retired Foamer.

~~ RAILFANNING RAILFANS ~~

With nearly four decades of railfanning nunder the belt, it goes without saying that you meet many a fellow railfan during the course of your hobby. Some go on to be long term friends, some more short term, some you wouldn't wanna fall asleep around while alone.
The following selection of shots show a wide variety of these friends, from an equally wide variety to adventures we went on together. Some have sadly left us, but their memory lives on whenever these adventures are relived through photos.

A very young MrX who I still manage to go railfanning with today. Seen here in Brissie during the 90s.

MrX again, this time with Kevin Medley, Michael Stiles and John Auer at Brighton.

Michael passed away at Moss Vale some years ago, John has married and mostly disappeared, while Kevin is occasionally seen at the odd model exhibition or two.

John Solah at Kunkala and not just a little board stiff.


Frank Kirk's old layout in Fitzroy, Melbourne. Spent a few nights on this - actually had a few spectacular prangs on there as well.

Kevin Medley at Victor Harbor in South Australia.

Paskeville RSL - the throbbing heart of South Australia

The Gonzo (David Kirkland) hard at work at Sandown.

Steven Thomas and Scott (Scottgie) Harrison gunzelling the NSW Hunter Valley.

Frank Kirk at Spencer Street.

The sign don't lie.

Steven (KAK) Karas at the Mooney Mooney bridge lookout. I obviously collected stickers back then :-)

Stephen Miller!

God we were young. Think this was the late 80s at Cowra.David Henderson in the 42, me to the left and Peter Bubb to the right. Only just recently remade contact with Hendo, but no idea what has become of Peter Bubb.

The last train to leave Warwick Farm Racecourse.

T LtoR- ?, Glenn Ryan, Andrew Haviland, late Bruce Cook

B LtoR- Peter Bubb, David Kirkland, Roy Howarth, ?

One of the saddest losts to my part of the hobby was that of Bob Potts (yelling from the door) in a motor vehicle accident. A funny bloke, whos company was enjoyed many times either on trains or chasing the things around the countryside. He is seen here leaving Wongawilli in the Illawarra region of NSW.

~~~ MORE RANDOM SELECTIONS ~~~

The forthcoming need to extract ones buttocks from its home of around 15 years has lead to an even greater need to sort through the endless rubbish (term normally used by ones spouse) that forms ones monumentally sized archive.

While going through the seemingly endless supply of photos, books, articles, magazines and girlie publications, one is always faced with the ever present need to downsize before the big move. Of course this is a painful task for the Semi-Retired Foamer who, if forced to dump all he has collected, will actually be promoted to a fully retired foamer.

So it is, with heavy heart and a bottle of Bundy, one finds the need more urgent to share his memories with a world of railfans who, well quite frankly, don't give much of a dropping.

With this in mind - I present the following random selection.

No idea where we were headed when we found this mess under the south freeway overpass at Glenlee. I seem to think it was a work related trip, but can't think why, unless it was for that god awful Moreton Hire company who does the exhibitions.

Agggghhhhh Moreton Hire. what a awful chapter in ones life that was. Can't believe people still willingly work for that company. Seems more and more arent though.

From Glenlee we head numerous kilometres south to Glenalta in the beautiful Adelaide Hills..

Spent a lot of time around here in the 90s, photographing the last years of the broad gauge interstate freights, boring the hell out of the ex-fiancee and dealing with the endless spiders the Hills region has to offer.

Still, the local railfans had an entertaining soilution for said spiders that involved spraying them with a flammable liquid and igniting with a ciarette lighter.

Bituman wagons that sat isolated for many years on disused track at Sandown.

No idea what become of them, however they are not there any longer.

With no regular traffic over the Sandown line, od knows what the whole lines future is.

A British Airways 747 arriving in Sydney during the mid 90s.

The future of these beautiful craft seems a bit shakey, with the onslaught of many new types, including the ghastly looking Airbus A380.

Boeing has come forth with a 747-800 in answer to it, but delays and orders have, sadly, been less than inspiring.

Ariah Park, a lovely looking station on the Cootamundra to Griffith line.

Twas once a regular haunt for me back in the days of 44s, 421s, 48s and the Griffith Speedfreight to Botany.

No idea what it looks like today, but this was the mid 90s.

Remember Ansett and their sponsorship of the 2000 Olympics in Sydney?

RIP Ansett

Albury signalbox before the yard was violently raped and violated by progress.

Air New Zealand at Smogney Airport

600ZD in Victoria

18BV 32AV 40ABV at Ballarat in Victoria