Footbridges

 Wagga Wagga railway footbridges.  

As part of the Inland Rail upgrade, both footbridges crossing the railway in Wagga are going to be replaced. 

Mothers Bridge.

I am not sure why the footbridge connecting Railway Street to Station Place was called this, but it is ideal as a railfan viewing platform.  It doesn't provide any passenger connection off the station platform

June 2007 - railfans line up on the bridge for 3801's arrival. This is the view looking east (towards Sydney)

A 1934 NSW Railway department drawing shows the bridge - looking west.  Some changes have been made to the northern ramp, but generally there doesn't appear to have been many changes

Fortunately, I don't need to measure the bridge, as the above plan, when enlarged, shows the dimensions quite well

At the Station Placeend, the original ramp has been kinked, to provide for the enlarged roadway

The railings are attached to the uprights with "U" bolts

Cassidy Bridge

Lost Wagga Wagga facebook site occassionly provides some interesting Railway related material

Looking west. Note the lineside poles get much taller as they get closer to the footbridge

Looking east - poor picture, but does show the Best Street road bridge

Mount Erin school in the distance.  The closeness of the school was the main reason for the bridge to be built

At this stage, I do not have a firm idea of the width of the baseboards, so making either bridge may be premature.  But at least I have pictures - and their replacement by Inland Rail should not impede my modelling of them.

An excusion to Cootamundra by Railcar

Yesterday (Sunday, June 12), I had a pleasant ride on restored 621/721 railcar to Cootamundra and back.   The railcar was supposed to arrive in Junee at 10:22 - but there were some unplanned interuptions, which made for some extra photo opportunities

The Down steel train suffered a major engine fault, and it was sidelined to the old disused platform road, awaiting a replacement engine.  Traversing the crossovers was taken slowly.  Once stopped, I could take some pictures - particularly the "out-of gauge" wagons.

Following the steel train, came the VISY container train.  This train is broken up in Junee yard, and shorter shuttle trains are then sent to Harefield Intermodal yard.  I get to view (and hear) these shuttle trains - regularly hauled by alco power, heading up the 1 in 49 grade out of Junee.

I understand, after  speaking with the driver of the Visy Train when we returned from Cootamundra, that one of the engines was taken off the Visy train, and added to the Steel train.

We still had longer to wait for the railmotor.  The Griffith Explorer train was also running late and had priority.  

Approaching the platform.  The train from Griffith has to reverse direction once it arrives in Junee

Finally, the 621/721 railcar makes an appearance - around 40 minutes late - the Griffih Explorer trundles past, heading north.  The old and the new.

621 aqpproaches Junee platform.  The Railmotor society have done a real good restoration

Interior View from my seat - the internal bulkheads are for the engine in 621.  Not sure I ever remembered blue seats when I travelled on these in the late 1970s.   

With the weather so gloomy, there was little point in trying to chase the railmotor back to Cootamundra in the car, in the hope of capturing a great picture.   In any case, it was a good day.

Until next time