Welcome to the first of a multi part series looking at Australia Day in Sydney.
The day started with the customary look at the heritage buses operated by the Sydney Bus Museum, followed by a journey on the, soon to be withdrawn, Lady Class ferries to Taronga Zoo wharf.
 Buses and ferries are where my transport interests started decades ago. It was refreshing to spend a day back in that world, well away from the hatred of the railfan hobby. It is intended to spend another day on the Harbour Lady's again soon.

Leylands - Surely the best looking buses to ever ply Sydney roads.

David Oaten was more popular than the buses when it came to photos.

Mr Whippy was a trial build of a bus.

Ladies were over from South Korea purposely to take part in Australia Day.

Jo from Germany turned out to be quite the fan of shipping worldwide.
One of about three requests for photos to be emailed. 

A Lady that will soon disappear from the harbour.

This guy had me quite fascinated. Thought he trip he had a number of people photograph him holding this sign with a Sydney icon behind him.
Asked to take a shot of this going on.
Of course it came with a promise to send a copy of the shot again.

  The Semi-Retired Foamer and S*M*U*T Modellers Group would like to thank ALCoWorld for all their support over the years.
  Visit ALCoWorld for all your modelling, book, DVD, magazine, souvenier and other railway hobby news.

http://alcoworld.com.au

A Pictorial Look at the 

Australian NR Class.

  Over the next few weeks we shall take a look at the NR class locomotive.

  Hardly riveting in the looks department and the reason for the loss of many older units, they none the less have made a massive impact across Australia and continue to rack up massive kilometres each week.

For further information on the NR class, please check out the S*M*U*T Modellers information pack on the class.

NR Class Info Pack.

The Semi-Retired Foamer, after around seven years, is giving in to the pressure and hatred that exists in Facebook and taking a good long, and quite indefinite, break from that horrid little world.

It is quite surprising how this hatred can drag you down to it's level and then beat the bollocks out of you.

My interests have already been taken far away from rail, however, while I still have the desire to work on a couple of major railway projects, I am planning to put this newly found time to good use.

If there is one piece of good advise I can give. When using Facebook beware, not everyone out there has good intentions for you. It is an incredible tool for keeping in touch with friends, sharing photos and especially researching.

However, a little bit of effort from anyone who may harbour ill intentions, can see lives manipulated and ruined.

Far to often, I feel the hobby tends to forget it is mean't as a fun pastime.

Be good to each other.

RP-C3347 seen in the revised Cebu Pacific livery.

It has been a while since our last delicious random selection of random train shots.
This group are probably not quite so random, all being for a selection of Jumbo shots to place on Farcebook (my former location of choice for my shots).
Join us as we have a look at a few of these great ALCo beasties, the numbers of which have declined over the years since.

While rail traffic still passes this location, it is more likely to be a light rail vehicle.
The entire goods line from here to Ultimo has been gradually converted into a popular modern new light rail system.

The above shots are of NR1's first trial and the two Jumbos that accompanied her.
This was quite possibly the biggest weekend of my former railfan career. The night prior I had finished work at 10am and driven up to Newcastle. About four hours sleep was had before we were up to get NR1 leaving the Goninan plant (where she was built) and out on the mainline.
That evening we had to be in Goulburn, then Junee the next day.
Heck - I whinge about driving to Newcastle after a sleep in now days. :-)

Botany line Jumbos.
Having lived most of my life along this line, these become quite boring after a while.
44211 has been a lucky survivor, preserved at Thirlmere.
44212, however, was built into the ghastly GL112.

A ride out to Rozelle was a rare and much appreciated event. I can recall at least four times that I have had the privilege. Three were cab rides, while at least one was a single deck intercity set on one of Bruce Cook's ET Tours.
These tours themselves were something else. Probably the last of the great old style type tours, where the train would stop everywhere and people would pile out for photos. None of the rules, or even worse, the self appointed gunzel police, of today.
Yes, they were truly fun days.

Stay tuned for another thrilling roller coaster ride of photos shortly.

Spotlight on the NSW 80 Class.

A collection of images taken back in the 90s.

For a very long time, 7SP5 was the train of choice for Saturday morning foaming.
It would regularly rate a lashup of four ALCo lovelies.

LOCOMOTIVE - PETRIE

Detail shots of locomotive while sitting in Philbrooks siding (Bli Bli, Queensland).
At the time, PETRIE was involved in track removal work. Moreton Mill had closed the year before.

Maroochy Shire Tramways Group

Maroochy Shire Tramways Website (Trial)