At sunset

The last rays of sun are reflected in the buildings near Central Railway at Centennial Plaza.

Pigeon pair

At the (restored) Ibero - American Plaza, commemorating the contribution of Spanish and Portugese speaking peoples to the history of Australia.

Loco 3642

Steaming away



To read more about this locomostive and its class, click here.





Loco 3526

Built at the NSW Government Railway's Eveleigh workshops in 1917, loco 3526 remained in service until 1967. It was restored between 1990 and 2004.

For more about this locomotive, click here.

The Southern Aurora

The Southern Aurora's stainless steel carriages epitomised luxury overnight rail travel between Sydney and Melbourne from the early 1960s. The later Indian Pacific carriages between Sydney and Perth were almost identical; I remember spending 3 days to Perth, and 3 days back, playing cards and listening to the radio in a Club Car very similar to this in 1972.

I especially love the etched glass lyrebird.

Meals were freshly cooked in the galley kitchen, and served in three sittings in the dining car.

The carriages were based on American long-distance luxury trains. The first run was on 16 April, 1962, on the newly opened standard gauge rail line. Before that, passengers had to change trains at Albury, from the NSW 4ft 8.5inch gauge line to the Victorian 5ft 3 inch. Competition from road and especially airline traffic saw the end of the Southern Aurora on 3 August 1986.

Sydney Great Train Expo

Steam engines, diesels, old carriages, all on display at Central Station this weekend.

Locomotive 3265 was bulit in 1901 by Beyer, Peacock in Manchester, England. It was painted maroon in 1933 and was used regularly as the "Newcastle Businessmen's Express" during the 1930s.  In 1968, after having travelled 3 million kilometres, it was retired, and relocated to what is now the Powerhouse Museum.

Restoration by volunteers began in 1998, as far as possible in line with its original specifications. It re-entered service on Sep 20, 2009, and hauls occasional steam tours run by rail heritage groups. Its "home" these days is  'Trainworks'  at Thirlmere.

For more about this loco in particular, and its class in general, click here.

(Canon G12, using 'Nostalgia' feature, giving the photo an 'aged' look. Yes, I'm having fun with my new camera!)

Bounce!

23 September: Spring Equinox.
An interesting name for a hotel. The southern edge of the city is home to many of the city's budget hotels and backpackers' hostels. This hotel is in Chalmers St, across from Central Station and Prince Alfred Park. In the spirit of the current theme of spring and renewal, here is another example of renewal - an old building finding new life. The facade would not be out of place in Europe. Here's what it looked like when Google Maps drove past:


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Spring leaf

The new leaves of spring look fresh and green. Sydney is abundantly planted with the species London Plane (Platanus x hybrida). It tolerates pollution, neglect, vandalism and poor soils and in return it provides plenty of summer shade and in winter a deciduous canopy that allows the sun through. Some people experience allergic reactions to their pollen and fibres in September. Luckily, I don't and I love them!

Spring is sprung

Fresh air, fresh blooms, fresh leaves on trees. Azaleas bloom in late winter, early spring, and they have been at their best the last week or so. The plane trees are re-leafing after their short hiatus. Winter is pretty short and unbrutal in Sydney, and spring doesn;t last long either!

Home time (Skywatch Friday)

The last light of the afternoon - the moment before sunset (you can just seee the glow of the sun having disappeared behind the staunchion) Looking over Central station as I head home.

Have a look at other skies around the world here.

Belmore Park

First, sorry I haven't responded to comments of visited other city daily photo blogs lately. There's seveal reasons, including beign extremely busy at work which means long days, and having to attend to "real life" at home, and I have been away from home on work-related matters several times, thus I upload a week of photos on the weekend to publish automatically.





Sydney is really a city of evergreens, though there are stands of deciduous trees in parks and street plantings. This autumn scene is in Belmore Park opposite Central Railway. YOu can see the sandstone facade of the station through the trees.

Looking north from Railway Square

Last week I visited a friend who was staying on the 6th floor of the Medina Apartments in Railway Square (formerly a huge Post Office). Here's the view from the balcony. We're looking north into the heart of the Central Business District (CBD). To the left, out of shot, is Chinatown. You can see that the London plane trees in the middle distance are just starting to acquire an autumnal yellowish tinge.

This part of Sydney is "backpacker central". The huge Youth Hostels of Australia (YHA) hostel is the red-brown building behind the elegant brick one at the intersection. It's another hostel, called Wake Up! There's another YHA hostel incorporating the buildings along Platform 1 of Central Station. Also in the area, numerous small hostels of varying reputation, and hotels. It continues the tradition of travellers' hotels clustering around major rail terminals (see final picture below).

The road just out of shot in the top photo, to the left is George St, one of the city's main thoroughfares. Follow it all the way along, through Chinatown, the cinema district to the shopping area and past several office towers, and 3.2 kilometres later, you'll end up at the harbour at Circular Quay.

George St begins here, as an extension of Broadway. The other leg of the V-intersection is the beginning of Pitt St - it's the tree-lined one. Both roads are seen in the pic below.

George St was named in 1810 by Governor Lachlan Macquarie for King George III, then King of the United Kingdom, and of course the colony in Australia. Until then it had been known as High St. Interesting, because it was in 1810 that George had the final relapse of his mental illness (possibly caused by porphyria) and his eldest son was installed as the Prince Regent. Pitt St was named after Prime Minister William Pitt (the Younger), whom George III installed as PM. Pitt's appointment proved that as King he was able to appoint Prime Ministers on the basis of his own interpretation of the public mood without having to follow the choice of the current majority in the House of Commons. Throughout Pitt's ministry, George supported many of Pitt's political aims and created new peers at an unprecedented rate to increase the number of Pitt's supporters in the House of Lords.



Below: Railway (then Central) Square about 1908, when this part of Sydney was the centre of the retail trade. Note the Crystal Palace Hotel on the left.

For One Day Only

London plane trees are used extensively in Sydney's street plantings. It tolerates pollution, neglect, vandalism and poor soils. In autumn the leaves fall, but on one especially windy day last week I emerged from the station and this fluff and seed pods were all over the ground. They are a source of intense irritation to anyone who is allergic. By the next day, they had been blown or swept away.

New friendships

I recently received a message on one of my Bronte pics from Anne, who lives near Avignon. She is a great friend of former super Sydney photoblogger, now re-established in Avignon , Nathalie. Anne was visiting her stepdaughter and family in Bronte and had been taken with some of my shots of Bronte pool. Anne, it was a delight to meet you, and I hope we can spend longer next time you pass this way!

Sorry about the quality of the photo. We enlisted a passer-by, and unfortunately it was taken into the afternoon sun (in the interests of a more interesting backdrop, and one Nathalie would recognise!)

Things Past Part 3: Edmondson tickets.

At Central Station there is a nice little display of railway heritage in the beatifully restored old ticket office.

The Edmondson railway ticket was a system for validating the payment of railway fares, and accounting for the revenue raised, introduced in the 1840s. It is named after its inventor, Thomas Edmondson, a trained cabinet maker, who became a station master on the Newcastle and Carlisle Railway in England. He introduced his system on the Manchester and Leeds Railway.

The tickets were printed on cards about 1 inch by 2 inches (2.5 by 5 cm), and were numbered. When the ticket was issued, it was date-stamped by a custom-made machine. The tickets to different destinations and of different types were stored in a lockable cupboard where the highest number of each issue was visible. Different colours and patterns helped distinguish the different types of tickets.

Edmondson tickets were phased out in NSW from 1991.

Things Past Part 2: Platform Tickets

Platform ticket machines were introduced in the 19th century, to allow non-travellers access to country train platforms for farewelling and greeting people. In 1993, with the introduction of computerised ticketing they became redundant. This machine is in the rail heritage centre at Central Station.

I remember these ticket machines at Central Station. I am sure my family probably bought them when they farewelled me on the train to Perth when I went to a Girl Guide trip there in 1972. It was, and still is, a 3 day journey across the continent. I remember listening to the Olympic Games from Munich broadcast on the radio, and being very excited as Shane Gould, who is the same age as me, won swimming medals. While we were in Perth the tragedy of the massacre in the Olympic village occurred.

Donna

The story of Donna from a plaque underneath:

Donna, friend and constant companion to John Hogan of Pyrmont, Sydney, Australia was born on the 14th February, 1975. At the time of her death, on 6th May 1995, she was recognised in the Guinness Book of Records as the World's Longest Living Hearing Guide Dog.

Donna travelled extensively on trains throughout NSW and John affectionately remembers her first journey from Sydney to Murwillumbah in 1985. "During the 14 hour trip, Donna was well behaved and waited until Casino where she left a very large puddle on the grass behind the station."

This memorial also recognises the love and companionship that all Guide Dogs for the Visually and Hearing Impaired give their owners.

It has been provided by the State Government of New South Wales with assistance by City Rail and the Department of Public Works and Services.

Unveiled by Hon Brian Langton, MP, Minister for Transport and MInister for Tourism on 10 May 1996.

Sculptor Ian Shaw.

Belmore Park and Central Railway Station, winter

Central station busker

I sometimes see this fellow busking around Central station. He's a nice guy.

Ambulance Service motorbike

There are two of these BMW bikes as part of the New South Wales Ambulance Service rapid response fleet. Until today I hadn't seen one. However this morning someone collapsed at Central Station. The bike paramedic could gain access to the concourse where the ambulance couldn't, and provide immediate assistance. When I went past, the patient was being transferred on to a trolley and then to a conventional ambulance parked outside the station.

Do you have motorbike paramedics where you are?