Two views of 930-class loco no. 952 and Victorian Railways C506 approaching Belair with a Melbourne-bound freight in September 1985.
The 1,750 H.P. 930-class were regular performers on the main South line and often worked trains through to Victoria in the 1980's. 952 was a double-cab example, built in 1961 for South Australian Railways (S.A.R) by A.E. Goodwin in Sydney. 952 has now been withdrawn and scrapped, but examples of the 930-class can still be seen at both the NRM, Port Adelaide and SteamRanger.
VR's 3,000 H.P. C506 was built in 1977 at Clyde in Rosewater, SA, and survived to be transferred to National Rail in 1995.
Both locos are seen in liveries which had been superceded at the time they were photographed - 952 in ANR's original maroon and silver, C506 in VR's blue and gold.
The 860-class trailers were modified from various steam-era cars and were incorporated into Red Hen sets in the early 1960's to increase passenger accommodation.
The trailer cars were progressively withdrawn around 1986-87 and the 300-class RedHens reformed into 2-car sets.
Beyond Belair, the STA local service operated on a 2-hour frequency in the daytime (approx every 90 minutes on Sat & Sun), with very limited evening service. A passenger needing to travel between, say, Aldgate and Adelaide had more attractive options by bus. Journey time from Aldgate was 37-50 mins by bus, with a 30 min daytime frequency, compared to 44-62 mins (depending on the stopping pattern) by infrequent train.
Another nail in the coffin for the Bridgewater service was the need for the STA to pay access charges to operate local trains on AN tracks beyond Belair. The Belair-Bridgwater service was withdrawn in Sept 1987.
The 400-class Red Hens had a driving cab at each end, which enabled them to be operated as single cars on lightly used services, as well as providing the flexibility of building up longer trains at busy times. Working the Belair line at weekends was a typical task for these single railcars.
The first of the fleet of single-car Red Hens, no. 400, was introduced by the South Australian Railways in 1959. The example shown here, no. 419, entered service in 1961.
250-class BlueBird no.261, together with a 100-class trailer have just left National Park tunnel with the Adelaide-bound Blue Lake from Mount Gambier on 19 April 1990.
The Bluebird railcars were built by S.A.R at Islington workshops between 1954 and 1959. The fleet of airconditioned BlueBirds operated to various country destinations on the broad gauge system north and south of Adelaide, replacing older railcars and loco-hauled trains.
Each railcar carried the name of a bird - no.261 was Quail.
Quail had originally been numbered 250 and was the first of the series to be built in 1954. It was re-numbered 261 by AN.
By 1990, the Blue Lake to Mount Gambier was the sole remaining service on the broad gauge. Even this was discontinued by AN in December 1990.
The semaphore signals above the loco control access to the crossing loop at Long Gully. This loop was quite short and only useful for crossing short trains and railcars.
The Long Gully loop was removed in 1990, after the withdrawal of the local STA trains to Bridgewater in 1987. The semaphores were replaced by a simple searchlight signal in each direction, which maintains an intermediate section on the single track between the crossing loops at Belair and Mount Lofty.
The station at Long Gully was situated well inside Belair National Park and trains generally called here between roughly 8am & 7pm (although surprisingly, a late train would stop for you on request on Saturday & Sunday nights around 11.30pm!).
In steam days, weekend Picnic Specials from Adelaide had operated to Long Gully, but by 1985 the facilities here were very basic - a normal platform on the main line with only a small step-down structure on the crossing loop. One or two local trains were scheduled to cross at Long Gully, which would necessitate the use of the step-down platform - if any passengers actually joined or alighting.
Winter sun casts long shadows as 700-class no.704 and two unidentified 930's grind up the final few metres of the 1-in-45 climb into Mount Lofty station with an eastbound empty grain train on a July afternoon in 1989.
Except in mid-summer, Mount Lofty could be a cool and damp place to wait for passing trains, but very worthwhile for the atmospheric location and the sight and sound of trains battling uphill into the station.
Mount Lofty station is about 4km away from the summit of Mount Lofty itself, and is quite a bit lower - the railway reaches an elevation of 491m, whereas Mount Lofty is 727m high. In fact Mount Lofty station is situated just south of the Hills township of Stirling.
The station buildings at Mount Lofty have now been converted to Bed & Breakfast accommodation called, not surprisingly, Mount Lofty Railway Station.
Loco no.704 is still in service in 2005, now painted in ARG's orange livery and regularly employed on the remaining broad gauge freight lines north of Adelaide. No.704 can often be seen working the daily limestone train between Penrice (near Angaston) and Osborne.
By this date passenger trains no longer stopped at Mount Lofty, but the substantial stone buildings still stood, slowly decaying but mercifully unvandalised.
The small stone building immediately to the right of the station signpost is the original signal cabin. This had been replaced by a larger structure, out of sight behind the railcar, which itself was taken out of regular use when CTC was implemented in 1977.
STA services no longer operated at this time, but Aldgate still appeared in the AN timetable as a request stop (pick-up only leaving Adelaide, set-down only towards Adelaide).
Later in 1989 the island platform was demolished and the crossing loop & goods siding were removed, together with the classic collection of semaphore signals. The track was replaced with a single plain line, which allowed a faster and safer passage for through freight trains.
The station buildings have been retained and converted into a Community Centre.
