~~ NEATH WEEKEND #? ~~

PART 2

We start the second part of our story at the Neath Hotel on the 19th of September where various members of the 'Neath Hotel Railfan Group' attended the inaugeral meeting of the 'Merriwa Railway Society'.

Whi;le not officially members of the Merriwa group, as it is our local we felt it wise to be in attendence to ensure much rowdy behaviour would go on :-)

Please enjoy the following little look at the attendees of the meeting.

Left to Right

Brad Coultar (who looks like he just sat on a carrot), Andrew Tailby,

Paul 'SMR30' Bird and Jason Roberts.

Left To Right

The World Famous Colonel (aka davo1620), Mr Nathan and Brian

Leedham (Chair for the inaugeral meeting)

Trent Pegler's head starts to list to starboard.



Colonel donates large quantities to the Neath Hotel economy!




Birdie and Cooties feed their faces while, ahhmmm, whats his name looks on.

No wonder he is worshipped near and far!!!!!!

MrNathan just loves his Neath Hotel days and his gunzel mates.

Streeeewth - hope the wife dosen't see this Colonel!

Sadly all good Neath occasions must come to an end, however, instead of the usual collapsing in a room upstairs until morning (or the first passing coalie), the Neath gang headed on to the 'Richmond Vale Railway Museum' to see what was running.

Mr Nathan and Cooties help out by ensuring the track in in gauge.

SMR30 (the locomotive, not Paul Bird) heads towards Pelaw Main.

Seems the first gauge check was not good enough and they needed to try again.

BHP34 heading back to Richmond Main.

A bit closer - obviously!

Jason Roberts and The Colonal argue over whether the G sets are more

attractive than single deck trains.

Theres that pesky BHP34 again, heading to Pelaw Main.

And to finish off the day we headed back to East Maitland for some late afternoon piccies of trains passing the new bridge work that will

ultimately destroy this location (bastards).

Amongst many other delights were these two EL class on a down wheatie.

Thus concludes our coverage of the latest Neath Hotel weekend.

Coming up shortly is a look through the photos recently found buried in the bowels of the garage, along with special guest Cooties and his look at fellow foamers I have had the pleasure, or otherwise, of knowing over the years.

Thank you for coming and PLEASE mind the drool as you leave.

We are to tight to get PLI!

12453

~~ NEATH RAILFAN WEEKEND NUMBER ? ~~

PART 1

Ahhhhhh yes it was that time again, its spring, a time when a young man's thoughts to love and a foamers thoughts turn to the Hunter Valley.

While not really a weekend, given this was a one day venture north to sit in on the inaugeral meeting of the 'Merriwa Railway Society', much opportunity was taken to consume the Hotels fantastic food and delightful 'alcoholic' beverages, during a sampling of Colonel's finest orchestral instrumentation from the nearby gentlemans convenience.

As it was likely to be the last time I can drag my rapidly decaying frame to East Maitland prior to the most glorious of all hackspots, Pitnacree Bridge (aka Houro's Bridge), being destroyed by a brand new bridge catering for the ever growing needs of humanity. I thought this would have to be the go for the first few shots of the day.

Now I am not going to sit here and type up a whole pile of sightings for you to quickly persue through and soon forget about. Nah stuff it - I can't be bothered.
So instead - please devour the following selections of gunzel porn taken on the dribbly cam which will appear over two parts.

NOTE: I hold no responsibility for expansion of personal

body parts while viewing the following!

Just in case anyone cares - our first sighting was this flamin thing!

The Colonel brings along a sample of his new gunzel rag.
To be released in 2012

PL5 48120 48137 pass through East Maitland with one of two services out of Pelton

that morning. The afternoon services were cancelled.

NR92 NR83 NR52 scream through East Maitland with a load of containers

bound for the 'Shakey' city of Brisbane.

The excitment of the earlier Huntercar was way to much for Nathan and Colonel.

The elder-statesman of Hunter railway photography, Mr John Hourigan

as found in East Maitland waiting to pounce on the next exciting combination!

9005 9022 8241 up coal rooooooooooar through East Maitland 20kph.

A Broken Man - 8am and still no Bundy!

Buggar, didn't I just show this one?

Must have come back for a second run through.

8237 8217 8210 Down empty coal passing through East Maitland.

Yes, it was getting very hot. As a safety precaution much fluid was consumed.

Perhaps a little to much was consumed in retrospect!

Anyway, eventually 8226 8254 8129 9007 took centre stage with a rake of coal

headed to port.

Cooties, 3112 and the World Famous Colonel!

All members of the 'Neath Hotel Railfan Group', Facebook and AA.

5010 5004 make a welcome change to the endless Pacific National passings.

Despite being a hot and sunny day, the moon did make a brief apearance.

~~ COMING VERY SOON IN PART 2 ~~

In Part 2 we shall sit in on the inaugeral meeting of the 'Merriwa Railway Society', visit the Richmond Vale Railway and head on back to East Maitland for the final hours of daylight.

12126

You come back again - ya here?

~~ HUNTER HOLIDAY HIJINKS ~~

and NEATH WEEKEND #11

** NOTE: As always, high-res copies of all photos are available for any
magazine who may wish to use such **

PART 1 OF 2

" We are going to spend the holidays with my family"

My god, it's the statement from one's wife that causes deep sighing amongst men universally. Oh god, sitting around talking crap, not being able to sprawl semi-naked across the lounge to watch television and trying to rein in the SMUTTY comments and regular bad language that invests our vocabularies now days.
But one second, her family is in Newcastle, location of NSWs busiest section of railway line (freight wise anyway), the new 92 class, many railfan friends and only a short skip away to the beloved Neath Hotel (the states premier gunzel hangout).

Hmmmmmm yes, but how am I to turn "your not going out for trains" into "oh OK, you can have a day out".
Again I refer to the universal man behaviour code book and start mopping around very bored and depressed :-)
Wala - instant day out. Plus a night at the Neath Hotel to boot.

Last weekends brief flirt with trains in the region did not go according to plan. As can be seen from my earlier panty raising post I spent most of my available time along the SMR again, instead of the planned coal road assault on things 92 and G class.
While new loco designs hold all the interest of a stinky decayed sausage found underneath the BBQ from two birthdays ago, I thought it may be beneficial to get them before they are repainted Pacific National coal and exhaust black.

It was a fast Spadge that woke up on Good Friday and made for the front door, foregoing the usual trip to the 'Little Bus Drivers Room' for fear of waking anyone up and being allocated duties to do before I leave!

FREEDOM

Where to go to first, out on the mainline in search of the elusive 92 and G class, or around the yards.
Decided on doing the usual rounds around Gonads (bound to see a 92 class with their reputation for reliability being up there with the Datto 120Y), Carrington and Morandoo.

Goninan 08.45
5010, AC4301 (Undercoat), 9208 (test area)
4833 was out the front entrance to Goninan.

08.59 - 8242 8207 - Up Coal - Georgetown

With no other action appearing to be on the cars save for a Hunter set one decided to head to Carrington and Morandoo forthwith.
Two seconds further down Clyde Street and one is confronted by the sight of a bus that would certainly sizzle the sausage of the most hardened of bunzel.
Bus was in the Clyde Street Spare Parts place - looked more of a garbage dump.

Rapid rise in blood temperature as one approaches this sexy set of locomotives.
PL5 48137 PL2 48134 stabled on a Pelton rake!

Morandoo Yard 09.16
8011, 8033, 8013, BL27, 8106, 4836, 603
8120 OneSteel shunt
PL5 48137 PL2 48134 on stabled coalie as above.

One pain in the arse Chubb Security automaton.
BHP32 preserved and doing buggar all.

Slightly more pleasant than the security guard was this LARGE local walked into while photographing 4836.

A last minute decision to drive under Industrial Highway and up to the, rather saucily named, Hump, resulted in a desperate last minute snatch and grab of my first 92 on an actual train.
Spadge moved with a level of excitement unmatched since 8219 was found in a rather undignified position at Beresfield (My condolences to CM over that tragic event - which I am told he has never quite recovered from).

09.37 - 9209 9202 9023 - Coal arriving at Port Waratah.

Enough security guard bollocks for one day, it was time to set forth west in an effort to meet up with my ol mate Johnno Hourigan at Victoria Street at 13.00.
A headlight seen while passing over the line at Tarro had me heading into the suburb proper for a short session of watering the weeds with quality foam.

TARRO

2703 2753 - up pass - 10.07
9001 9013 9029 - dn mt coal -10.14


2754 2704 - dn pass - 10.22

Then it was time to set the tone for a day full of bloody awesome coal line combinations and interesting movements.
For the first time ever (for me anyway and I am told it is significantly rare), my colon was set a tremble to the passing of quad 90 class on an up coal.

9035 9011 9016 9021 - up coal - 10.41

8252 8237 - up coal - 11.04
2704 2754 - up pass - 11.09 (Taken through the flowers)

8251 G538 9204 9210 - down empty coal - 11.11

In classic gunzel style it was all things packed and a mad sprint down to the car to give chase to, off all bloody things, an 82 class on the front of a coal train.
I can't remember the last time I chased a mainline coalie, but it would be way back when the 81s were having CCO and the 442 and 45 class were showing up on the coal roads again. Ahhhhhhhh memories!
BRB

LUCKILY the train stopped at Maitland and I was able to do the rather roundabout trip to get up to Elizabeth Street at Telarah for another shot.

UNLUCKILY a flamin train with 9205 9211 9022 passed under the same bridge at the exact same flamin time.
AAGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
The botty end of the train is seen passing a worksite.

A phone call from Brad 'Cooties' Coulter (or is it Coultar) saw me heading back east to the king of all hack spots, Pitnacree Bridge at East Maitland.
By now the day was really hotting up and the small amount of shadow in this spot was very welcome.

Actually I may use this time to express my sadness at the report that the gunzel bridge at Maitland is to be replaced as part of the project to rebuild the recently demolished section over the New England Highway.
This footbridge has become quite the railfan icon during the last two decades where one, while bored waiting for a train, could read all the in depth news on the sex lives, or lack of such, of many a prominent railfan.
Also shared are views on various railway publications, strange religious ideals and who sticks what strange object in orifices best not having things inserted in the first place.
It does seem however that the Pitnacree Bridge is beginning to become the replacement for the famous bridge.
If anyone has photos of said jottings I would be interested in hearing from them.

PITNACREE BRIDGE

8213 8220 8248 - up coal - 12.05
9215 G526 8232 9015 - dn mt coal - 12.10
Huge thanks to John Hourigan for later getting me the G class number.
Grrrrr put bloody side numbers on it PN!!!!!

Foamers - head to this shop - they may be able to help you on lonely gunzel
nights while railfanning around Bombay.

5002 5011 - up coal - 12.21

Cooties turns up in his 'Love Bus'!

9024 8217 8254 8241 - dn mt coal - 12.34
2502 etc 2523 - dn Exploder - 12.40

Time was running out for our plan to meet with Johnno at Victoria Street around 13.00,so offeast again, via the servo and on to the personal location of one of railfandoms most known members.

Many more interesting sightings were had during the afternoon here and these will be covered in PART 2!
Have a spare couple of tissues ready.