Right Away! Railway Recordings

Just to prove that I'm not biased (well not much anyway...) here are a few non-steam recordings for your listening pleasure:

(NEW 7/11/06) While in Sydney chasing steam, I also wanted to make sure I captured some of the old diesels still working hard in NSW.  Since the privatisation of the national freight network, motive power has been at a premium, with a lot of previously retired locomotives and even musuem pieces coming out of the woodwork to haul revunue freight once again.  I spent an afternoon looking for a suitlable location, eventually spotting the flyover at Sydenham as being a good spot.  As is the recordists lot, while walking to a quiet spot for recording, three trains went past on the flyover in the space of 5 minutes, all being hauled by various eclectic combinations of motive power.  Well, after waiting another hour and a half, and on the verge of giving up completely, along came two 44 class World Series Alcos with a 47 class tucked in behind them.  Sydenham also has the distinction of being directly under the flight path of Sydney's International Airport, so after the train passes, a United Airlines Boeing 747-400 makes a cameo appearance and adds further fuel to the fire of the urban noise debate (not that I'm complaining!).  Listen! (1.5MB)

(NEW 7/11/06) While waiting for the ARHS tour from Toowoomba to come up the Little Liverpool Range, an export coal train, double headed by two 2300 turbocharged GMs, roars up the hill in Run8.  Listen! (1.5MB)

In response to some feedback on the Railpage Forums, here are some older English Electric and Cooper Bessemer recordings for your listening pleasure.  The first two are from my first recordings, hence are mono and not that great in quality, but they record now long gone scenes on QR:

First we have what was an English Electric spectacular, double headed 2350s on export coal trains.  When I was still at school, I used to be good friends with the SM at Bundamba, Frank Klein, and there was a regular coalie off the branch at around 4.45pm most afternoons.  Well this day, some time in 1983, I had my trusty cassette recorder and managed to get the sounds of the double header coming off the branch and onto the mainline.  Listen! (957kb)  To see the location in Google Earth, click on Bundamba Station and Box Flat Branch.kmz



A regular occurrence on the ARHS tours calendar used to be the August Exhibition Wednesday tour, usually out of Ipswich as the crews there had a different public holiday, hence the tour charges did not have to account for penalty rates.  Back in 1983, 1174 worked part of an Exhibition Wednesday tour up the now closed Churchill branch, and in this track, we hear the departure from Ipswich and moving onto the branch.  Listen! (1.7Mb)  Thanks to Jacob Cash for use of the thumbnail.  To see the location in Google Earth, click on Former Churchill branch.kmz


Lastly, I used to haunt a nice spot next to Mayne Signalbox on occasion just watching what would go past.  It was a good spot, as typically trains would stop to change crews, so the sounds of departure were usually good.  This night, in company with some friends, we were lucky enough to see and a 2350 and 1300 double header.  The train had pulled up to change crews and you can hear the ringing of the trackside bells to warn railway staff of the approaching train.  By this time, I had upgraded to a stereo recorder, so this is a bit better quality than the previous two.  Listen! (689kb) To see the location in Google Earth, click on Former Mayne Signal Box.kmz

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Another day chasing diesels at Acacia Ridge yard.  This time, I was fortunate to see double headed General Electric EL's on QR National's regular freight service from down south.  After running past on the mainline, the pair broke the train up running backwards and forwards several times which made for some good noises. For those who have Trainz Railroad Simulator, this is one of two recordings I used to prepare the 7FDL-12 soundpack recently released on the Download Station.  Listen! (773kb)



NR 36 was also on hand to shunt Pacific National trains.  These NR's are very quiet, even when running flat out and in this recording, that's just what NR 36 does when pushing back.  Listen! (3.3Mb)




While NR 36 was shunting, QR's 2132F was busy a couple of tracks over.  Listen! (842kb)





The ELs had some shunting help in the guise of 42202.  After the ELs had shunted part of the train, they detached and 42202 pushed the rest of the train back up into the main part of the yard.  Listen! (2.2Mb)





After all that action, 2474H pulled up, and with a little encouragement, the driver did a rev up just to spice things up. Listen! (705kB)






I must apologise for the quality of the thumbnails.  Unfortunately I lost the originals due to a DVD failure, so these were all I had. 

If you are interested in having a look at the action at Acacia Ridge, there is a spot near the Boundary Rd overpass where the sound barrier ends and you can see some of the action going on in the yard.  For those who have Google Earth, the location can be seen by clicking on the placemark here:  Acacia Ridge yard.kmz

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While chasing 1089 heading up the North Coast line (see the Steam page), just North of Nambour, 2355 and 1736 came up the hill on the Sunlander long distance passenger service on Saturday 4 February 2006.  Listen! (458kb)

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Ok, time for something different, here is what it sounds like to ride in Auckland Tram 248 at the Museum of Transport and Technology in Auckland on 10/12/05.  We start at the Auckland Zoo terminus with a ding ding from the conductor and off we go.  It's not the best recording, but still, it allows me to use the word "international" to describe my recordings on the website! Listen! (2.0 MB)

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I've been trying to hunt down 2800s lately to get enough sounds for a General Electric FDL soundpack to use in Trainz.  Between myself and Wulf_9 on the Trainz Forums, hopefully we should be able to have enough material for Wulf to do up a soundpack in the very near future.  While chasing the GE's, occasionally I have to put up with a few EMD ring-ins, however on 3/12/05, that's about all that seemed to be around, with 2317+2256 double heading a container train out of Acacia Ridge yard on 3/12/05 here (515 kB)

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While waiting for a 2800, 2130F came along with what seemed like an endless string of wagons down the headshunt.  She can be heard dragging them along and coming to a stop just under the overbridge at the Eastern end of the yard here! (548 kB)

The drag of the wagons must have been substantial, as the push back up the yard had to be heard to be believed, with every cylinder of the 645E motor straining to get the string of freight back into the yard.  But that's for a later update ;-) !

As to the 2800, well just before I left, 2842 came down the yard and went to the turntable, so I managed to get some tracks of her running backwards and forwards.  Why the had to turn a double ended diesel though had me stumped!

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I'm a bit partial to four-stroke diesels, and lament the long lost days of English Electrics plying QR.  Now, we have to get our kicks on the new General Electrics of which one is Queensland Rail's 2800 class no. 2840 built by Goninan Queensland.  On the steam page is a recording of 1089 at Tennyson, well here 2840 is recorded at the same spot 8 October 2005.2840Tennyson.mp3 (1.25 MB)

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After a request from fellow Trainzer Colin Hadley (hi Col!), here are a couple of 90 ton Clyde-GM 1502 class locomotives winding up as they accelerated through Landsborough station back in 1989.  Now withdrawn, some of these locos are to find a new life in Chile where it is hoped they can once again haul revenue freight like they did in this recording.  Not the best recording I have made, but on the record anyway!.  Double1502sLandsborough.mp3 (658 kB)