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Parkes & Cootamundra Trip 2004

This years trip was a 5 day trip consisting of 2 nights in both Parks and Cootamundra. Being winter meant we saw fewer interstate

trains but there was still enough action to keep us interested. The first sighting for the trip was a single Sprinter heading towards

Melbourne at Broadford No more trains were sighted until Tocamal were we found A79 and P21 on a train of container wagons.

Only one wagon was loaded and P21's HEP generator was on to power the refrigerated container.

The next sighting was at Nerrandera

were we spotted a Manildra 73 class shunter, but couldn't get close enough for a shot. That was the last sighting for Tuesday except for

some grain wagons moving the station at Parkes around 7:30pm. The next morning the yard at Parkes was pretty quiet except for 2204, a

string of ore hoppers, six container cars, one PN grain hopper and four ARG hoppers getting some attention. The old Western Region Training

car was sitting in the railmotor dock. Nothing else was sighted until around lunch when 846 and 844 arrived from the west with a string of

ARG / Manildra hoppers. 2204 was then couple up to the 830s then the whole train moved into the yard. The Silverton depot was rather quiet

with a "Red Terror" 44s, 8030 and 8023, 442s4 and a couple of "48s" around the back.

Thursday was the day we left for Cootamundra

and the yard at Parkes was quiet except for 2204 which must have stayed the night. Upon arrival at Cootamundra we found the usual

48s and 81s filling the yard. At this particular time there was six 48s and three 81s. 8174 and 4891 were shunting some grain hoppers. With

the Sydney bound XPT due in about five minutes my battery decided it was going to run out of power! Talk about great timing! We watched

the XPT come and go and noted XP2000 still in Sydney 2000 colours trailing. We headed back to base to charge up the batteries and have

some lunch. A trip to the yard around dusk revealed four 81s and nine 48s! It appeared that a group of four 48s had arrived from either

The Rock or Temora.

Friday dawned foggy and VERY cold. A trip to the station showed us the same as the night before minus two 48s,

although it was hard to tell due to the fog, which was very thick considering it was only 8:30am. The fog didn't clear for another couple of hours.

We ventured down to the station again and after about five minutes, the crossing bells went off and an ATN L class blasted through light engine.

We guessed it was heading for Junee so we decided to go for a drive to go and check. We were right and the L was sitting in the yard.

All that was seen at the roundhouse was an ATN 830 and some ATN hoppers. We headed back to Cootamundra to catch the Melbourne and

Sydney bound XPTs. We caught both and I was struck down with a headache soon after. We headed back to base for the night. That night

we heard about six trains with atleast one heading down the branch to Temora. Another couple of horns sounded alot like G classes.

The next morning dawned and I still didn't feel any better. It seemed I had had a migraine, not nice at all. With the help of some

Neurofen we packed our bags and headed for home. At Junee we sighted two G class and the same ATN L class. The next sighting was at

The Rock where T379 and 4836 in Austrac colours were sitting in a siding along with some Maintenance of Way equipment. An 81 was also at

the other end of the yard. It was still rather wet but had dried out by the time we saw the Sydney bound XPT just outside of Albury.

That was the last sighting for the trip. It was an enjoyable trip except for the getting sick part! I really recommend

going to Cootamundra sometime as it is a great railfanning location...

Hope you enjoyed reading this,

Cheers,

Adam

All photos / videos taken with a Ricoh Caplio G4 Wide 3.2MP camera

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