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cleanerg6e

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Everything posted by cleanerg6e

  1. Here's the call of the Bell Bird which is said to warn of intruders. Roy.
  2. When I bought my system Griff I wanted radio as we garden railroaders have a habit of ignoring everything going on around and above us. So for me radio was the way to go because if the heavens opened (due to me being oblivious to the weather and everything else when operating) then that would eliminate having to unplugged a control panel and rush it indoors.
  3. Well the saga of mum's mobility continues. She is once again in hospital in the rehab/physio ward and it seems that her left knee has for want of a better phrase, worn out. She has osteoarthritis in the left knee joint due to the last hip which as it aged slowly collapsed and put pressure on the knee joint with her cartilage being worn away until it's just bone on bone. She may have a knee replacement and that would make two artificial knees. She has two doctors in the hospital one is full of hope and the other is what mum calls Doctor Doom and Gloom. This doctor has told her that we're going to put you into a nursing home somewhere in New South Wales. I saw this doctor and she told me that 'we have you mother's best interest at heart'. I told her 'no you don't you just want to be rid of her asap'. 'My mother is a human being not a number on your computer files'. The fighting continues. But today my Dyson vacuum decided 'I'm not going to suck anymore'. My Dyson Vacuum is a DC01 and is over 15 years old. Many people would say 'oh well it's worn out', but not me. I decided to take it to bits and OMG there was loads of dust, fluff and general crud bunging up the airways where the fluff usually flows to the bin on the front. Having cleaned it all out it now sucks like new. A workmate of mine his wife has a Dyson in fact her fourth as he says after a while all vacuum cleaners stop sucking and the motors burn out. When I said 'why don't you take it to bits and clean it out before the motor burns out'. Answer.'can't be bothered, easier to buy a new one'. I have two vacuums the other is a Volta barrel vacuum that dad bought to vacuum out his car (Ford Focus 2002 model) but he never used it as shortly after he became permanently ill. So when he died I took it and use it to vacuum all three cars, my two and that same Focus which although mum no longer has a license, she keeps in case one of us needs it or we take her somewhere as my Falcon is low down as is my brothers car and she finds it hard to get in and out of them. As the Reverend Peter Denny said to some bloke,'don't get old it's not fun'. Unfortunately unless you suicide you don't have any choice. Today a steam loco went past the back hedge but I didn't film it as it had two diesels on the back so that the steam loco wasn't make sounds of Chuff! Chuff! Chuff! Chuff! but softly saying fuff fuff fuff fuff instead and the two Alco diesels at the back were roaring doing all the work. I also phoned DCC Concepts in Western Australia and bought their "rolling road" with 12 rollers as I have Garratts. I also asked the owner if the Power Base Plates would stand up to an outdoor environment, and what should I use to fix them to the base material. He suggested an exterior silicone glue, one of those that come in a large cartridge. He asked what code of rail I would be using (100) and he said that spacers are available for locos using code 100 track to bring the magnets closer together. Roy.
  4. I recently bought a new kettle for just over 10 pounds at Kmart and as this is a garden railway forum and a steam loco is really a kettle on wheels I thought why not show a video of it boiling water. I has an ultra violet light in it so it looks good in a dark kitchen. It's a copy of the Russell Hobbs kettle but mine was heaps cheaper. It amuses me that you can spend serious money on a kettle just to boil water for a cuppa. The warranty went in the bin as for these little appliances I never keep them same as my electric face shaver with spare parts such as the blade and foil costing more than a new shaver. I'd bet that a new element for the kettle would cost as much as a new kettle. https://youtu.be/6ASPcJwuiDo Roy.
  5. I too Riddles have seen that video but it was done by the people (DCC Concepts) who make the power base. What I was looking for was an independent video review and I hoped that Hornby Magazine's video may have provided it. But it didn't. Nor did they say what code of track they used. I presume code 75 but I know that DCC Concepts provides magnets with spacer pieces for use with code 100. The trick is just getting the magnets close enough to the base plates under the track to make a substantial difference. I guess all this power base does is to pull the loco down onto the track and provide better traction. I thought it would only be needed on gradients not the whole layout as on my old garden railway I found that a Hornby West Country would only slip to a stand on level track with 21 Bachmann Mark 1's behind the tender. But on a gradient that number was cut to 5 of those same coaches. Roy.
  6. I've been having a look at the above and wondering if it would be suitable for outside or whether dirt and grime on the base plates would render the magnets useless. I had a look at the review on you tube of Hornby Magazines use of the power base. What a complete waste of time. It isn't a review it's just a promo to buy a certain issue of their rag. There is no before and after running up gradients with and without power base fitted. I was very disappointed. The whole point of this video is to show what the product achieves, BUT IT DOESN'T. They also don't say what the code of track is. If this is their idea of demonstrating the benefits of DCC Concepts power base then I'm no wiser than I was before. Here's the you tube video: Roy.
  7. Of course for me it all depends on whether I have the new railway room built on the slope which will mean that it will have to be supported by piers or if I have to cut into the slope and have a concrete slab similar to my garden shed. If I decide on that way to do the railway room the trains may enter the room at near waist height. If that's the case then I will only need two levels of boards. The top level will have the four tracks of the garden railway run and perhaps a branch line above that. The lower level will have the storage roads for all the carriages and wagons. I would have to devise a system whereby trains can come and leave the terminus without impinging on the running of the four garden railway lines. So a system of flyovers may solve that problem. The branch line would probably only be used on wet days or days of high wind and very hot temperatures so I have something to operate which with the old system I couldn't do. I also intend to make the new railway room big enough to have two rooms and house a small workshop so I can build kits and weather locos as at the present time I only have the garage and everything has to be set up do the work and then taken down again. All very time consuming. Roy.
  8. I'm thinking of a half and half layout. Half indoors with two or three levels and the bottom level going outside on a ground level railway. I have (in model railway terms) a fairly steep slope in the back yard but due to the number of steam locos I have I can always double head long trains. Indoors I want the top level to be a terminus and loco depot and having worked in a loco depot mine will be large. A bit American in style in that it will have a roundhouse for the steam locos and straight roads for the diesels. The terminus will only have two platform roads with a center release road. There will be a round the room railway on the top half and the middle section will be for storage of carriages and wagons. The bottom section will be four track and will come in one side of the room and do a 3/4 circuit of the room before emerging back outside. I want to have a helix to join all three levels but similar to one I saw on you tube built by a bloke in N. Ireland. He built his own traditional helix (all 12 levels of it) only to discover that once in the helix the trains are invisible. So he has a 180' gradient at a rise of 1 in 50. In the states it's called a Nolix. Here's a video of this blokes railway on the nolix: https://youtu.be/zXf_1vwmCYE Here's a cab ride ascending that gradient:https://youtu.be/ppk6BYuFp2w This is what I want to hopefully have. If I thought that I had gone though a lot of track on my previous outdoor attempts then I ain't seen nothing yet. Roy.
  9. There was for a time a female in the foreman's office who had a very potty mouth. She used to complain to the top boss if the men used colourful language in her presence. He in turn would warn the men to keep their language clean in her presence. The men complained of her potty mouth but the big boss didn't believe them. On day the big boss was in the foreman's office and this female was singing to herself. The boss remarked on how happy she seemed and she told him that she had a headache last night which just as well as she only gave her husband oral sex, but said in her usual potty mouth way. The big boss at that time was a very conservative and religious man and he was speechless after what she said. The next time she complained to him about language issues he ignored her. To say she was as common as muck is a massive understatement.
  10. Here is the call of one bird that's frequently heard near homes in Australia. The Whip Bird, the whip is done by the male. Years ago on holiday in the Dorrigo National park there were many of these birds all doing the whip call. It sound like a rodeo. Roy.
  11. Hi Griff, yes the whip bird that Tony posted a photo of is I gather one of our native species. It's the male that does the whip. A long note of "G" followed by the whip which sounds like a cowboy cracking a whip. If there's a high pitched cheeping right after the whip that's the female answering. We also have another little bird called a Bell Bird, which makes a tinkling sound and they seem to be in areas of dense bush. There is a hill near me called Bell Bird Hill but due to all the semi's crawling up it in low gear and making so much noise it's impossible to hear the Bell Birds. Still not to worry as the local hardware superstore has loads of them in the bush behind the store. Oddly enough the tinkling is thought the warn off predators. I'll put some video in the Plant and Landscaping section of the Forum.
  12. I think a bad development is happening in my country. Our drivers seem to be taking lessons from the Russians. Many of our countrymen use the "F" word so if that offends you please click on the speaker icon to turn the sound off. Although this video may seem to be a little bad it gives overseas people a brief chance to see Australia. The second one is mainly bad driving with less accidents. People running red lights, not giving way to other motorists etc and see how many cars you can recognise.
  13. I'm trying ( I've been told I'm very trying at times) a little experiment. I bought today online a Peco O gauge, yes O gauge tunnel mouth and a Peco O gauge over bridge. Now this doesn't mean that I'm about to change gauges but as O gauge is twice the size of OO then a double track tunnel mouth in O gauge should or may take four tracks in OO gauge Some may feel that an O gauge tunnel mouth would look odd on a OO gauge railway. But not really, as the early railways had huge tunnel mouths so that early passengers wouldn't feel they were about to be squashed in the tunnel. Choked on smoke and steam yes, but not squashed. I'm surprised that early trains didn't come with a warning " On entering a tunnel passengers in this railway carriage are advised to take a deep breath and hold it". Roy.
  14. Having a troll through some old video footage I came across an on board ride behind D0260 Lion. It was taken with the new Sony Action Cam The old 808 key fob cam didn't like bright sunlight and it's lighting sensor would just white everything out. https://youtu.be/Ao9R_GHk5gg Although not mentioned in the video text the other diesel in the footage is class 25/3 D7638. I hope you all enjoy what once was. Due to my mum becoming increasingly infirm with early stages of Dementia I've been unable to do anything as I'm always going over to see to her needs. I'm trying to get some home care for her because I also have to work so it leaves no time for modelling. I haven't given up on the garden railway idea but with all I have on my plate at the present time it's a long way down the list of "things to do". We're also short staffed at work so I'm having to do extra there too. I pop on here from time to time just to see what you are all up too. Although not having a garden or outdoor railway at present I won't offer advice to new people. For me that just doesn't seem right to offer advice when I don't have a railway myself at the present time. Roy.
  15. An older man is on the dance floor with an older woman. The older man who's a little deaf has a grin from ear to ear. The older woman says to him,'No! No! I said I have acute Angina!!!'. Another older man who is also a little deaf is in the doctors surgery. He bends over and produces a very loud fart. The doctor says him 'Yes Mr Anderson that was very loud, but I said I want to hear your heart!' An older man is sitting on a sofa with an older woman. He puts his hand inside her blouse to feel her breasts. She turns to him and says, 'They're not up there any more Walter'. An older couple are in bed and the man appears to have a huge erection. His wife who's reading a book turns to him and says, 'stop showing off I know it's your walking stick!!'. Another older couple in their bedroom has the husband at the foot of the bed with his pajama trousers round his ankles but his teeth are gnashing. His wife is in bed clapping her hands. She says to him,'I'm not applauding your erection, I'm trying to turn the light off!!!' I hope those aren't "too near the bone" and if I've offended anyone I sincerely apologise. Roy.
  16. In 15 years of working for the railways I remember a few funny incidents. We had one charge man who if on back shift would clean the office with aftershave causing an old charge man who only worked day work to come into the office and the first thing he'd do would be to open all the windows even in mid winter. He's also spray fly spray from an old metal pump action garden sprayer round the office. This aftershave charge man would take the telephone receivers apart and clean them with aftershave. The old bloke would pick up a phone and say "Oh Pooooo!!!! and would only hold the ear piece to his ear and when he spoke into the receiver he'd hold it at arms length and yell his reply. We had a leading fitter who was a tall and gentle man and one day he was standing outside the shed with two dry powder fire extinguishers looking at an 81 class which was doing a self load. Unlike the 80 and 48 class diesels the 81's didn't need to go to the load box to do load testing. On this day I asked the leading fitter what the extinguishers were for. According to him there was an electrician of dubious talents doing the self load test on the 81 and he was waiting for it to catch fire. My favourite charge man who was a very large man told me when he was a driver he was once driving the loco heading the school train and the guard came up to the loco and told that the kids on the train were tearing out the insides. This charge man went back and into the carriages and standing in the doorway said in his deep loud voice, "YOU LOT SHUT UP AND SIT DOWN!!!". A thin young weedy girl yelled back at him,"ah p#ss off you fat c#nt". I asked him what did he do. He replied that he was so shocked he was lost for words. The school children were all from private schools which says much about private schools. I also once had a run in with a loco inspector from Parkes depot. He was a real nasty piece of work and was very self righteous and brimming with his own self importance. He was riding on an 80 class diesel and I'd cleaned the cab out and he asked me to do it again as it wasn't clean enough for him. I refused and he asked for my name and said he would report me to the charge man. As he walked over to the charge mans office I nipped out and gave the cab another quick clean. I was called to the charge mans office and again I refused to clean the locos cab and told the charge man it was already clean and if he didn't believe me then go and have a look for yourself. The charge man was my favourite one and on walking towards the loco he said to me in a low whispered voice because this inspector was close behind him, 'you've already redone it haven't you'. I remained silent. The charge man climbed the steps up to the cab, opened the door and took a look. He climbed down and tore a strip off this pompous inspector who had a look on his face of absolute horror. He told him he'd book him late out of loco. The charge man had his back to me but the inspector was facing me. I gave him an "up yours" signal. The charge man came back towards me and said 'I knew you'd redone that cab' and 'did you see the look on his face when I had a go at him'. I answered 'sure did you could have put a turd in his hand but you wouldn't have got a better look'.
  17. Trevor, have you ever heard of Softfall/Softrax rubber as used in public parks and daycare centers for kids to play on. There are companies over here that make it but I've only found one so far that supplies for D.I.Y as most seem intent on providing a team to do the job for you. http://www.softfall.com.au It seems to be the ideal track bed for an outdoor railway and also seems similar to yours. Your track bed is great but over here I can't find anyone who supplies cork chips. Like your ingredients it's done in a "wet pour" process. Roy.
  18. Although an older thread my local model shop here Woodpecker Model Railways stocks many manufacturers but Dapol locos is not one of them. When I asked why, I was told that the service from Dapol for locos and rolling stock was totally pathetic and they have a real ingrained attitude of "well you've bought the product and now you're on your own. They do however stock the old Airfix range of kits now made by Dapol. Roy.
  19. Yes Mick, this "wet pour" rubber certainly looks most interesting. In one of the early Model Rail magazines Trevor had a photo of the ingredients of his "screed", cement mixed with cork and rubber chips all held together with his SBR binder. It looked like one had to get the proportions absolutely perfect otherwise it wouldn't work. This "wet pour" rubber does away with cement as it's held in place with a binder. It can be laid on bare earth but they recommend a 50mm base of road base (gravel) compacted and then the "Softrax" rubber poured on top. Mine would need to be around 3cm in depth as the track pins I would use are 2.5cm in length and are nickel plated brass. Although this rubber comes pre-coloured in loud colours one of the colours is a light grey. It's all been U.V tested so as not to fade or breakdown in the heat. As you may have gathered I've had my fill of wood and timber generally. It has it's uses to be sure but high level garden railway boards is not one of them. I'm now after a material that is (as near as damn it) zero maintenance. In other words I install it and that the last time I need to touch it. This Softfall/Softrax wet pour rubber may fit the bill. Roy.
  20. I've been having a look on the net at a company here that an old friend of dad's suggested I take a look at. They're are called Gadsby Surface Solutions and supply "wet pour rubber". It's similar to what Trevor Jones has as the basis for his garden railway. This lot say it will last 10 years with virtually no maintenance. However that's with it being walked, jumped on etc on as this stuff is designed for play areas. They have two types of rubber, shredded and granulated. I think that granulated would be the best type for a garden railway track bed. http://www.softfall.com.au Does this mean that I'm once again considering a garden railway?....maybe, but it won't be as big as last time although my boss at work said "why not have one running around the circumference of your block. That would be a run of 141m. Yes I could do that as long as he buys all the extra track, wiring and makes the removable bridge across the driveway. I wouldn't require 141m in track but around 580m of track because I'd have four running lines, 2 passenger and 2 freight so that I wouldn't have to worry about trains having rear end collisions. But no, many people over here had plenty of ideas on "what I should do" but when it came to the time that I asked them to help me implement them they shied away. So perhaps they were "pie in the sky" ideas. I've learnt my lesson from last time with only one bloke coming around once as he had a DCC equipped loco. The bigger a railway is the more there is to maintain. Also this time IF I have another railway it will be ground level in garden beds quite close to the ground so that once I can't get down to it anymore I can cover the track bed with garden mulch and until someone digs there no one will know it's there. Roy
  21. As stated in the first part of the article I wrote, that we were lowly cleaners and that our welfare was of a low priority. On the council our welfare is of a high priority. On the railways we often had to fight the management and our immediate supervisors to get basic equipment whereas on the council they couldn't be more helpful. We are constantly trialing new detergents and we have the say in which is better or worse. On the railways the management often had the say in what we could use and their choices were often motivated by free gifts from the companies that supplied the detergents. When we finally got the "Spartacus" and the "Oxalic" acid the free gifts came to us and the management tried threatening tactics to have us hand the gifts to them. If something happened at home you had to plead with the management on the railways in order to go home and deal with it. Whereas on the council our boss Ken and the general manager of the council are of the opinion that home and family come first and the council comes second. This was demonstrated to me when dad was on dialysis and couldn't get home due to the patient transport refusing to take him home because there was no one to bring back to the hospital. Dad rang me (on my work mobile,cell phone) and I rang Ken who said "don't worry about the job go and pick your dad up and take him home". This was great because the hospital was outside the council area and the work vehicle was not to be taken outside that area as it wasn't covered by insurance. Also my house was at the other end of my run and would add nearly an hour to the time dad would have to wait. Maybe our council is unique in this respect as once I left the railways I worked as a casual worker for an agency. One of my fellow casuals had to attend the funeral of his mother in law and the lady boss at the agency told him that attending a relations funeral was not a good enough reason to have an afternoon off. When this "lady" had to attend her own mothers funeral she had a whole day off, this fellow casual told her that having a whole day off to attend a funeral was not a good enough reason as he'd been trying to contact her. Her reply was " I'm a full time employee. You're only a casual so remember that!" This casual got a full time job with a real estate company not long after and he didn't inform her that he had a full time job. This agency had a nasty method of giving people work by having a list of top workers who would get the pick of jobs. If one of those workers fell ill or had an accident they would move to the bottom of the list and the next worker on the list would take their place. I had a few run ins with this lady and when I got the job on council I never even told her either. I had a fortnights holiday before starting work on the council and about one month later she phoned me to find out why I wasn't working at the job I'd been sent to and also stating that I'd been moved to the bottom of the list. I told her "you can take take your list, bend over and put it where the sun don't shine, as I'm now a full time employee of Blue Mountains City Council". With companies like that is it any wonder why people would prefer to remain on the dole. The council does have casual employees but they work for the council not an agency. With the agencies if a workers is getting say $45.00 per hour the company they are working at is paying $90.00 per hour as the agency demands double what the worker is getting so as to pay employer compulsory superannuation and to cover costs. As a casual worker you get no sick leave or holidays. Over the Christmas/ New Year break you don't work with companies shutting up for 3-4 weeks so you have no money coming in. Roy.
  22. The only "hood" type units we had were the 45, 47, 48, 49 and 73's. I've uploaded a load of diesel videos to my you tube channel which were in use in my period on the railways. If you use a previous post with a you tube link go to my channel and have a look at the above types except the 73's which were built by Walkers of Queensland. Roy.
  23. Hi Tony, the 442's came first in 1970 as the railways were after a diesel that would completely dieselise the system. The 40 class A-1-A+A-1-A's were to be accepted as trade-ins. But only a small amount of parts were used in the 442's. They were rough riders in their early years but after that was overcome they settled down and were reasonably popular with the crews. They had the nickname of "jumbos" because they entered service at the time the 747's started flying. They were and some still are powered by a Alco 12.251C 2000hp Turbo-Supercharged 4 stroke diesel engine. The 80 class are slightly modernised versions of the 442's. Entering service in 1978 they were the first locos to be fitted from new with air conditioning. The mechanism was so large it weighed 7 tons and was incorporated in to the body shell. The air conditioning unit was very unreliable and often failed to cool. At other times it cooled too much and water would run out of the outlet vents. The 80 class suffered from excessive oil leaks, fuel leaks and early on crews refused to work No2. end leading due to fumes and heat entering the cab. They tended to work in pairs with the No.2 ends facing each other in the middle. I knew the 80 class because they were based at Lithgow and on a average day of say 25 degrees the No.1 end would be around that temperature. But the No.2 end would be 10-15 degrees higher. The only other difference to me was that the engine room was usually bright in an 80 class and very dimly lit in a 442. The reason being that the 442's had hardly any light globes. I think there was only 4 for the engine room and with the soot and heat of the engine turning the light green painted walls black the 40 watt globes didn't provide much light. The 44 class had the same problem.
  24. Yes there certainly is a massive amount of smoke Griff. On that line which runs north from Sydney there are two banks or gradients which were known in steam days as places to see locos slogging their guts out. Fassifern as shown in that clip and the other was Hawkmount, a torturous winding gradient of 1 in 44. I have it on a video and the narrator says, 'you could walk in the long grass by the track side and your boots would crunch on the cinders of a century'. The Garratts would be put onto trains of ever increasing length and weight so that in their final years they were worked to death. Originally the railways had one CME or Chief Mechanical Engineer. But when the diesels and electrics started running there were two CME's. One for the new diesels and electrics and the other for steam. If the new power failed in service head office just said 'teething problems' but when steam failed all hell and damnation would be brought down upon the steam CME. Unfortunately our railways from the time the diesels and electrics were introduced started to suffer from more and more political and union interference. If a politician in power had the A.E Goodwin factory (who built Alco's under license) in his area then new diesels would be Alco types. If on a change of state government a politician had Clyde EMD in his area then the next new diesels would be GM's whatever they cost. More and more traffic was lost or just given away to road transport for the powerful TWU or Transport Workers Union for trucking companies had the "ear" of politicians and still have. People with vested interests in seeing freight going from rail to road who give large political donations to the major political parties has seen the railways struggle even to the present day. Motorways such as the M5 motorway between Sydney and Melbourne carries 95% of the freight between the two states with only 5% going by rail. Even the widening of the road over the Blue Mountains where I live is being done so that B double trucks can have an easier run over the mountains. For those who don't know a B double is one prime mover hauling two long trailers. In due course B triples will run over the mountains. Fuel for western NSW used to run by rail but now all goes by road. Yes there have been accidents and tankers have exploded and people have called for fuel to be put back onto rail. But the trucking companies will make sure that the doesn't happen by threatening to withdraw large donations from the major political parties whereupon the politicians just crumble. I know a young bloke who was a long distance truck driver and told me that drivers were instructed by the company to pull into a rest area where a little van was waiting for them. That van carried drugs to give to the drivers to keep them awake. This happens all over Australia so that a truck driver can drive from Adelaide to Brisbane AND BACK a journey of over 2,000kms without falling asleep. If that driver has an accident he's at fault and can end up in jail and the company gets away scot free and just employs another driver who they pay big money and he drives drugged to the hilt. The situation has now become so dependent on the trucking industry that if trucking came to a halt tomorrow Australia's economy would literally grind to a halt. Our Prime minister gives televised speeches from his office and in the bookcase behind him is a model of a "Linfox" semi trailer which plainly shows to all who calls the shots on intrastate and interstate transportation. Here in NSW the railways were making a profit for the state government of $1.2 billion annually. $800 million for coal hauled freight and $400 million for container and other freight. So the Carr Labor government sold the highly profitable freight side to the Toll trucking company for a bargain basement price. Freight always ran at a profit and passenger trains ran at a loss. Now the government run trains are subsidised passenger and run at a huge loss. That 1.2 billion wasn't gross income it was nett income. Now the government complains it hasn't got any money. Roy.
  25. When NR (National Rail) was formed a number of 80 class Alco's and GM 81's were "loaned" to NR in order to allow that organisation to get up and running. For us cleaners it meant more work as the locos were running through the very arid areas of Australia which received little to no rain and as a consequence the locos would return to Lithgow full of red dirt. On the 80 class which leaked oil right from when they were introduced in 1978, their trip to South Australia and return would see the underneath and the traction motors especially having no distinct features. There would be just 6 motors covered in reddish black oily dirt. The main outlet from the engine sump would also leak and that pipe would be 4 to 5 time it's usual diameter. In the generator room there would be so much red dust that a shovel would be needed to clear it out. In the center of the steam shed pit (between the rails) was a drain with a very deep sump to hold all the dirt. One loco on it's return and clean from South Australia would fill that sump to overflowing and the private company that sucked out the sump would need to be on hand when the locos returned. We'd sent them back to South Australia clean as a new pin and they'd return them to us in deplorable condition. It took hours to get them back to a reasonable condition and the railways complained to NR and told them to return the locos in the same condition as the received them. South Australia refused saying that the locos were New South Wales locos not South Australian so our lot started to bill them for the clean up job and for repairs which were not done in South Australia. The South Australians didn't want to pay so the loco lending idea just collapsed. I don't blame the S.A lot for not liking the 80 class as our lot found them to be a very unreliable loco from day one. So in the end a number of 81 class were 'given' to South Australia and they ran them an maintained them. Roy.
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