Trains to Batlow — Travelling in a Time Warp
Contents
The Batlow line was a relatively short lived but quite extraordinary line. For most of its existence it relied on an ancient locomotive type to run its trains — a type able to manage all of 100 tons each time it ran to Batlow. My limited experience was all within a short prior in the early 1960s but all involved fascinating glimpses of a style of rail activity now no longer in existence. This is what it was like!
Batlow 1 — April 1960
Easter 1960 fell in mid-April. In those days Victoria celebrated with a five day break straddling the Easter weekend. It was a time, second only to Xmas, when freedom to tear around the countryside was made a lot easier with a plethora of extra trains. My travelling companion on this trip may have been Westy — this side of things is a bit vague and I am not sure there is any way of proving it one way or the other now that he has shuffled off.
The 18·45 extra Sydney express departed seven minutes late from the old platform 9 — one of three afterthought platforms tucked away in a pocket over near Spencer St. B70 had a load of 9 cars / 405 tons made up entirely of red wooden cars, including 18AE which is now part of the Seymour Heritage collection. We obviously followed a ‘spark’ out to Broadmeadows but after that had a good run until nearing Albury where several signal slows and a halt or two suggested the 18·30 Spirit ahead of us wasn’t going too well. A halt of 15 minutes getting to the Albury platform more or less confirmed our surmise.
3801 was in the lead of a fairly substantial extra division of 11 cars / 439 tons which included an SFX car — a NSW copy of a Victorian BW car. Departure was 40 minutes late at 00·10 and stayed that way through to Cootamundra. We arrived at the island platform (by now 04·05) where 3644 came on the front as a banker engine through to Goulburn. While this was going on a southbound express with 3621 and 3807 paused on its way south, momentarily recreating the entrancing atmosphere of a nocturnal steam railway.
We bailed out at Coota and whiled away our time until the Tumut pass was on the menu board, in the interim noting the contrast between 1954 (1877 vintage) and 5704 (1929) parked in the loco sidings. 3004, which a few years later I met up with as a banker at Dubbo, powered the Tumut train comprising a trio of composite cars and a van, including an ACS composite sleeping/1st class/2nd class car. We were delayed by the late South West Mail train (3808 and 11 cars), departing at 07·41 instead of the scheduled 07·00. Running was lively over the lightweight branch line, with periodic stops for a few passengers along the way, particularly at Gundagai, which was a water (for the loco) and refresh (for the voyageurs) stop. Notable memories are the ‘900’ metre long Gundagai bridge over the Murrumbidgee flood plain (not realising at that time it was one of the more significant wooden bridges in this country), the line creeping around the South Gundagai hillside with its 200 metre curves and the Willie Ploma catch point, a novel if not archaic stub catch point that had to be a derailment waiting to happen (assuming the siding ever was used).
Arrival at the junction station of Gilmore was still around the same lateness, and since the timetable said to connect there for Batlow, we disembarked onto the island platform. The Mail connector went on its way, at which time we realised that there was no Batlow train, nor any station officer or even any sort of human in any direction — a totally unattended junction in a totally uninhabited place. Such was the zeal of the railway to be a railway that we had no concerns about buses or any such disappointments — our only concern was that maybe the train had been annulled due to the holiday weekend. An hour later (but two hours late) patience was rewarded when 1901, the class leader of an ancient goods loco type, came wheezing around the corner from Tumut with a train of five empty wagons and an HCX composite car van — all up around 110 tons which was possibly an overload for the line ahead. If there were any other passengers, they must have come from Tumut — there was no one else at Gilmore.
For the first eight kilometres or so the line meanders along the valley floor to Wereboldera — an entirely normal NSW branch line experience. The valley itself was somewhat glacial in its appearance — U-shaped with relatively steep upper walls enclosing a narrow but attractive valley floor. To escape this valley the railway had specifications that few other railways in the country had in the way of grades and curves — 1 in 25 continuous grades for around 10 kilometres with continuous 100 metre reverse curves as the line scrambled up the side of the valley to a summit some 1500 ft higher (we had gained about 100 ft in getting to Wereboldera but facing ten times that amount ahead of us). Because of the peculiar nature of the line the ancient 19 class locos were the only steam type to ever run to Batlow, even though their full load was only 100 tons.
We reached Wereboldera exactly 120 minutes late, where we shunted off a solo S wagon (empty of course, they always were). From thereon we had increasingly grand vistas away to the east as we crawled upwards. At two places — one part way up and one close to the top — the line did a full half circle. Since the direct distance across the horseshoe was only around 200 metres it was not unknown for enterprising voyageurs to leap off and run across to get an action shot before rejoining, while the train didn’t miss a beat.
The nominal summit was at Wybalena, a few kilometres short of our destination, but the grades and curves were still unrelenting even if not as continuous through to Batlow. Arrival at Batlow was one hour after departing Wereboldera, a distance of just 16 kilometres. Even so we gained nearly 30 minutes on the schedule — this branch off a branch line was enjoyably peculiar as long as time was of no consequence.
While the loco turned and watered we were plied with apples by the station officer, who presumably was used to seeing the occasional travel-weary visitor on his train. Departure downhill (but up in railway-speak) was at 14·12 just 22 minutes down. The load this time was just two of the ubiquitous S wagons and the HCX. Having negotiated the running line catch point near Wybalena we squeaked and squawked our way down hill, 1901 having little to do other than keep the air pumped up. At Gilmore we kicked off the two S trucks and then waddled off for the 10-minute run to Tumut as engine and car-van.
The return branch passenger train consisted of the same cars as in the morning but with 3082 as the replacement steed. Consistent running had us into Coota at 19·13 — 5 minutes early. Although railway management had put on a couple of Mail trains to convey us north, we had all night to go 42 km to Harden so we could be picky. In fact, we finished up aboard the van of No. 32 up express goods heading out of Coota at 23·05 with a load of 503 tons behind 3657 — a varied load of bogie louvres, a couple of reefers, two RU grain wagons, a considerable number of stock wagons and two of the inevitable S wagons. Trailing behind were two Email advertising cars — not the email you are now used to, but the Orange-based white goods manufacturer. We were headed to Harden to connect to Grenfell and therein lies another interesting story that may get told one day.
Batlow 2 — October 1960
The second occasion was as a bit of relief from the dreary no-train weekends in Victoria that came from a union work to rule yike. I well remember this ARU action — where I then worked was a hotbed of conservative union types (the erstwhile DLP in political terms) as compared to the far-left union management (the Commies!) elsewhere. However internal friction within the union didn’t deter the work to rule activities at that time.
The late Michael Schrader was very good at creative tour organisation, so concocted a number of tours during this period that simply operated on someone else’s patch, one of which was a weekender to Batlow. So, on Friday 8th October 1960 the Spirit of Progress departed with perhaps 150 of the fraternity among its inhabitants on its gallop up to Albury. S302 and B75 had a trailing load of 14 heavyweight blue cars. Stops at Euroa, Benalla, and Wangaratta were compensation for the cancelled evening 280 hp rail motor, although that cost the Spirit around 15 minutes in running. A stop at Wodonga was to take S302 off — the long train barely fitted into the Albury platform with just one locomotive. (On at least one other occasion the remaining loco in similar circumstances was an S class loco running backwards).
Albury arrival was around 20 minutes late so the 22·40 Limited and 23·00 Express were also 20 minutes late. Following these was our extra — 3823, an FS (for the peasants, among which we would have been included), four TAM sleeping cars and a van. The 38 made a spirited run up to Junee despite being slowed by the Express ahead nearing there.
We laid over at Junee from 02·17 to 05·44 — a mere pause! The plan was for a 57 from Junee to Cootamundra but the rostered loco failed so we got 6006 as compensation. It made a fairly energetic run up to Cootamundra where we arrived at 07·25. There must have been time for some sort of breakfast before departing on a branch line extra — 3051 with the FS from our Albury train (that must have been a first — a through car Albury to Batlow) and two lightweight timber bodied second class FR cars (for the sleeping car travellers). The all-up weight of 99 tons was the practical loco load limit on the Batlow line.
We stopped at Gundagai for the loco to take water (and presumably refresh for passengers) but quite a few of us chose instead to walk across the bridge over the Murrumbidgee flood plain, open transom top deck structure notwithstanding. Eventually the train followed us over the timber girder bridge and stopped various refuges along the way to pick up everyone at whichever refuge they had reached prior to the train catching up. In fact, the train took on a role more akin to a steam tram service in collecting its straying voyageurs. Despite the horrified gasps of modern-day safety types, no humans or animals were hurt in this exercise — we actually took responsibility for ourselves in those days rather than outsource it to rules-based box-tickers. Once everyone was aboard, we went to the far bank and then had a normal photo stop of the train on the steel span.
We ambled along to Gilmore, which was no more populated than it had been on the earlier trip. Here the train waited for 1901 (again!) to make an appearance, although we knew this time that there was some certainty about that happening. Around 12·42 we set off — the same three cars with 1901 on the front for the 1600 ft climb up to Batlow. The difference this time was that instead of just the two of us we now had a train load of voyageurs. Of course, there was no room for any goods this time either — the three passenger cars were a full load for 1901. We had a photo stop not far out of Wereboldera before the worst of the ascent. I have a feeling that an intrepid soul or two may have made good use of the lower horseshoe curve to have a non stop photo stop — off and on the train at its sedate pace was not hard to do, and once again no humans were hurt in doing so.
After a pause of almost two hours at Batlow we set off down hill back to where we had come from. The compulsory stop at Wybalena to close the catch point and set the brakes prior to the long and steep descent was justification for another photo stop. Two more photo stops on the way down added to the day without doing too much damage to the timetable.
Arrival at Tumut allowed us a couple of hours before we set off for Cootamundra, this time with 3065 and the addition of a CS (heavy weight saloon car) and a brake van for ‘ordinary’ passengers. We stopped at most stations on the way back to Coota and had the unusual experience there of running straight through the station and backing into the north end dock platform.
Our FS was reattached to the sleeping car consist and at something like 02·45 in the morning, with 3802 at the helm, we headed off for Albury on what was probably the relief Express table. We were 20 minutes down on arrival there but the following Express and Limited must have been nearer the mark — the Spirit departed only 8 minutes late. S305 had 13 vehicles in tow but still ran close to the times through to Beveridge where a short stop was required to deal with a ‘loco fault’. Arrival at Spencer St was only 13 down, a commendable run.
Batlow 3 — March 1962
The third and final train to Batlow was something else. It involved what was possibly the heaviest traditional main line passenger train to run in NSW up to that time, possibly the heaviest train to ever run to Batlow (and certainly the oddest consist to ever turn up there), and a galaxy of veteran locomotives in their final years of existence. It was also one week before the Ballarat railway centenary and two weeks before the start of standard gauge passenger trains running through between Sydney and Melbourne — an extraordinary period for the local rail fan fraternity. This my Batlow story which may have been shared in part by others from south of the border, although I don’t have any memories of other Victorians.
For me it all started on Thursday 29th March 1962 with my last break of gauge run to Sydney — S307 on a modest Spirit (entirely made up of VBK and VFK cars pending their transfer to SG, plus Dining, BP98 power van and 19CE) which turned up early at the border station. 3804 and a fairly ordinary consist of seven cars ran the Express though to Sydney, where we were equally on time. A bog-standard run for that time, although a note of interest was T363 in suburban Sydney hauling a train as part of its delivery to VR.
The main game started on Friday evening. The event was a rather elaborate farewell to steam operation of the Batlow line, having been operated by ancient 19 class locos for the whole of its life up to this point — in fact the locos were already nearly 50 years old when the line opened in 1923. 3830 and 3813 had a 14 car ‘wooden’ consist that included in its make up four EAM sleeping cars, two VAMs and a lone LAM — all end platform sleeping cars that long since been overtaken by the numerous TAM sleepers (two of which we also had). Accompanying them were two RFM dining cars, a BV (first class lounge car) and two vintage train CBC cars to make a 14 car train of 622 tons. The BV and two CBCs actually made it through to Batlow possibly creating another record of sorts. This train handsomely exceeded the previous 550 ton limit for non-auto-coupled cars. It is suspected that the TAM cars at the head of the train had been modified with stronger drawgear.
We set forth at 19·23 from one of the long platforms (1, 2 or 3) at Sydney Steam Station, not far in front of the 19·30 Express. A number of minor delays, notably to ‘inspect train’ at Liverpool put us 18 minutes down, intruding well into the Express’s path. By the time we arrived at Goulburn we were far enough ahead that we were no longer an impediment. The Express, 3615 and 3823 south from Goulburn, went through the down platform while we set back to the up side goods yard to stable.
We crept out of Goulburn at some early hour — my first morning notation is at Demondrille where we did the time honoured thing of taking coal and water and disposing of ash before heading onwards to a rather grand early morning photo stop at Morrisons Hill. Arrival at Cootamundra was late, at 07·27, a few minutes before we were due to head off along the branch to Tumut. This was the start of a very vintage time — for the next 36 hours we were in the hands of ancient locomotives that even then were regarded as obsolete.
For some reason I have no times or notes recorded from Coota to Tumut although our subsequent late departure from Tumut suggests all was not well. The train had morphed into 1219 (1877 design), and 1709 (1887) with a motley collection of cars — the RFMs, CBCs and BV from the arrival train were joined by HX2, a companion of the CBCs.
At Tumut the train was again massaged, in this case to fit the very limited load that 19 class locos could handle (100 tons each). 1901 and 1954 (1877 design) had a train of AC (small State Car), CBC, BV, CBC and HX2. It is unlikely that any of this rather unusual train had ever been to Batlow before.
Our two ancients wheezed into action at 12·12 just 82 minutes behind the timetable. A short stop at Gilmore enabled us to access the branch and to get the branch staff, while a rather cryptic note suggests a photo stop at some location after Wereboldera but with no indication where. The long and arduous ascent to Wybalena with this overlength train (as compared to normal) periodically meant that the front was virtually going in the opposite direction to the rear. I have a memory of going slightly mad at the upper horseshoe and doing the non-stop photo stop thing — presumably that will be confirmed with photographic evidence. Arrival at Batlow was still 82 minutes behind time, where we were met by 4831 on the scheduled mixed train — a symbolic meeting of old and new. Technically 4831 was only the second loco type to have visited Batlow and that was 40 years or so after the line opened.
After we arrived the mixed went on its way while we spent the next hour and a half rearranging things for our return journey. In time, presumably after the mixed had reported from Gilmore, we set off downhill, setting the catch point, tying down the brakes and running at least three photo stops along the way. Arrival at Tumut was well astray — some 110 minutes behind time. 1219 and 1709 returned to the lead but in this case the AC car came along as an extra — in fact it stayed with us all the way from then on. In a display of how new locomotives don’t cure all ills, the goods train ahead (with 4831) delayed us 30 minutes at Coolac and a further 15 minutes at Muttama which meant a rather late night arrival at Cootamundra — 22·12 when the timetable said 19·30.
Next morning saw 3243 (1891 — relatively modern) replacing 1219 but 1709 stoically staying with us for the long journey home. The seven cars from Tumut remained the same as the night before — a 301 ton load — but rearranged so that the HX, CBCs and AC formed a vintage half set trailing . Even here, before departure the cars needed water, which caused some grief in timekeeping — setting us back 100 minutes before we even started. However, the 32 was in fine fettle and put on a stirling performance right through to Goulburn, ably supported by its smaller compatriot.
On our way north we gave Demondrille a miss — presumably the resident steam coal grab at Cootamundra had done its part prior to departure from there. However, at Harden, just down the hill we stopped and halved the train so 2532 (1881 — a variant on the 19 class theme but with a leading pony axle to help guide it on the curvaceous tracks of NSW) and a water barrel could take over for the meander to rural Boorowa. The first 16 kilometres or so was along the main line, at something well under normal main line speed, to Galong where the branch line separated, turned back on itself and headed away for 30 kilometres across country to its terminus at Boorowa. This line was through rolling hill country that provided a reasonably scenic outing but also rather taxed our tired little locomotive. A lovely little interlude was stopping at St Michaels to pick up kids from the nearby orphanage and take them for a bit of an outing. The train, modest as it was, was a bit too much for poor old 2532, so we progressively lost time along the way. In fact, on the return, we had to pause for 10 minutes to raise steam only a kilometre or so before getting the kids home to St Michaels.
When we arrived back at Galong, by now over two hours late, our two main line locos and remainder of the cars were waiting so it took only eight minutes to reassemble the train and head off towards Yass. 1709 had a rather puny tender (by modern standards) consequently filling it with water at one of the twin water columns at Binalong required only 2 minutes. A bit further along, at the well-known Goondah curve, we paused for a photo run past. Time was not what this train was about.
Arrival at Yass Junction was slightly improved — just 114 minutes behind time. Yass local locomotive 1311 was lurking waiting to grab the AC and two CBC cars off the rear for the short run into Yass Town. This line was worked as a ‘tramway’ for much of its life. In some respects, was decades ahead of its time — it ran with one man on the loco (the driver both drove and fired the loco) while it had a steam generator that powered the carriage lights by a rudimentary cable and plug set up. So, Yass had one man operation and head-end power decades before they became mainstream. Mind you 1311 was an 1896 conversion of an 1877 12 class loco, making the whole thing even more bizarre.
On the way to Yass Town we had a photo stop on the substantial bridge over the Yass River, while on the way back to the Junction there was a pick up stop in Dutton St, where the railway ran down the middle of the street. Despite these distractions we got away from Yass Junction towards Goulburn only 99 minutes astray.
Consistent good running kept knocking the lateness down such that arrival at Goulburn was only 45 minutes late and that was despite a frustrating wait for the Sunday evening train from Goulburn to depart and allow us into the station. By the time we reached Goulburn the sun was well over the yard arm, the locos had been going for over nine hours and the passengers were looking to get home to Sydney at a half-reasonable time. The only stop in the last sector was at Fish River to take water — the only time I can recall ever stopping there.
At Goulburn the Batlow train gave up its vintage power and got 3810 instead. However, I wasn’t heading to Sydney but rather heading for home in Melbourne, so I waited and caught the up Canberra train from Goulburn to Moss Vale behind 3807, then after a couple of hours, caught the Express southwards. Being a weekend, it was diesel operated, a bit of a disappointment since the Express itself would cease to exist a fortnight later and steam operation on the NSW Southern line would be significantly reduced at the same time.
This weekend was one of the greatest I had experienced, or at least it was for the next two weeks, until the transfer of the first Spirit of Progress set to Sydney and the last broad gauge Spirit into Melbourne created a legendary outing that has probably never been bettered since. However, my last Batlow experience was also my last hurrah for the rapidly disappearing NSW vintage loco collection that had survived well into the diesel era in NSW. Through the lens of time this whole weekend and its plethora of ancient steam power seem more and more like a mirage or some sort of fantasy.
