New South Wales, Australia - 1973 & 1974
The Railway Reminiscence series makes available to all, acceptable quality silent films from the past, which to date have only been able to be viewed by the owners of the films and maybe their close friends. As these were silent films, rather than dub possibly inappropriate sounds of trains we opted to use commentary and tasteful music background of the production era.
This production features super 8 silent films of NSW trains taken by the late Bert Scales, believed to be in 1973-1974. You will see steam locos on special trips, tours etc, with single, double and even briefly, triple headed power. There are also the new diesels making their presence felt in regular service along with briefly, the Silver City Comet and the Indian Pacific.
Regular trains include: Bunnerong power Station No 7 4-6-0. Portland Cement Company's 0-6-0 No3 and 2605 2-6-2 saddle tank. South Maitland Railways 2-8-2 tank locos on 4 wheel non-air coal hoppers. Diesel 44100 on bogie and 4 wheel bulk cement, and assorted 4 wheelers. 44 and 48 classes on freights which include stock, speedie gas, oil and 4 wheelers. The Silver City Comet and the Indian Pacific appear briefly.
Tours featured include: 3526 4-6-0 in blue, partly assisted by a 46 class electric loco. Diesel 4915 continues the tour. 2705 2-6-0 with Walschaerts valve gear on the last run on Homebush abbatoir line. 3203 on Vintage train. Enfield in 1973 with 3203 4-6-0 black & red, 3137 4-6-4T black & red and 381 in Maroon. 5112 2-8-0 on delivery to Bathurst for display, with 5910 2-8-2 double heading the 8 car long train including 3 pullman. Several nice views in the scenic Sodwalls area. Triple header at Penrith, 32 4-6-0, 35 4-6-0 (blue) and 38 4-6-2 brief and sadly out of focus. Back into focus, without the 32, 2 locos continue to Wallerawang, then 4572 diesel departs for Oberon. 3214 4-6-0 in Maroon at Goulburn loco yard and then on to Binalong. 5367 2-8-0 on a tour Lithgow to Mudgee with some spectacular speeds (1981).
Footage captured on various brands of super 8 film, transferred by flying spot scanner to Broadcast Standard One Inch tape, linier edit to BetaCam master, transferred to digital format for release on DVD.
An Original Rowlingstock Film Production.
Approximate run time: 55 minutes.