Thanks Budd
The last blog showed the very early days of the conversion of the Athearn Budd cars to something that will hopefully run better and look closer to its New South Wales counterpart.It wasn't long after the blog had internetted that I had an email from a former work collegue Jim Harris who sent down some of his collection of Budd photos. He has given the Ok to share them with the world.The first photo is the Down South Coast Daylight express taken near Erskineville Junction. I believe the ESR hadn't been built at this stage and the tracks to the left were from the Alexandria Goods Yard.
The next photo I'm not sure where it was taken. Any guesses out there? It looks like a delivery/test run. Look how clean the pilot is, no grime as yet.
The next photo was taken near Waterfall obviously before electrification had reached there.The last shot of Jims was taken just north of Kiama with the Budd set headed for Bombo which shows up in the last photo. This shot clearly shows the 'weathering' on the roof.
The last shot by an unknown photographer (I think it was off a calendar) typifies what I love about the South Coast scenery. This is as close as the lines in NSW gets to the surf and certainly would make a good modelling challenge. Also located at Bombo is a blue metal gravel quarry which would add operating interest.
The photo also shows the South Coast Daylight Express in its final form as a loco hauled train. Included in the consist are some of the 1200 class Tulloch cars originally utilised on the Riverina Express.
The site of the first photo at Erskineville is where a derailment occured and a descision was made after this not to repair the cars but convert them to a loco hauled set.
RIP Budd cars.