by Engineman Wook
The pictures are sent by courtesy of Oz Pete from New South Wales where he worked as a fitter/turner (this is a mechanic and machinist in other words) on the NSW Railway. The first picture above is a 1952 builder’s photo of a Garratt steam locomotive, all shiny and new.
The second could well be called ‘All Clapped Out’ (like my dad’s Wellington in the war!) The general unkempt appearance and rust shows that it was close to the end of the line for this engine that evidently was still being called out on an “if running” traffic or backup basis; the late 1950s color pictures online here and there of the Union Pacific Big Boys tell the same story of those great locomotives’ declining condition in their last year or two of life, out in Wyoming and Nebraska.
[picture from online archives of: www.trainweb.org ]
Additionally, Oz supplies the following four video links to a complete half-hour or so of fine 1960s and earlier documentary footage, of Beyer-Garratt and other steam locomotives operating in southern Africa.
1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIXUJ9zz7I4
2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQZPT62RMOE&feature=related
3. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJlvlVydMf8&feature=related
4. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nIm4y5Cn_c&feature=related
For EweNipple footage these four are quite exceptional and so a tip of the Wook tile, to Oz Pete!
[Engineman Wook
[all text-rights reserved & all others revert to holders]
[21 January 2010]
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