~~ WELCOME HOME SMR10 AND 18 ~~

A six hour return trip, a pre dawn departure, pouring rain during the whole event and deep thick mud.

AN AWESOME DAY!

Nothing was going to stop myself, along with my usual sidekick MrX, heading north towards Maitland to celebrate the returning home of SMR10 and 18 to their rightful home in East Greta Junction.
The whole day was somewhat heritage themed, with visits to Minmi and Pelaw Main aso partaken in, along with a chase of a Pelton (SMR) coalie with ALCo locomotives up front, something that will soon disappear.

Thanks to everyone at the HVTC and 'Friends of SMR' for a truly great day.

East Greta Junction

Abermain

B1 preserved at Minmi has had its windown smashed on the other side.

Passenger gets sick of waiting for next Cessnock passenger.

~~ 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?