In April 2011, i went for a 3 day trip to a area i haven't been to for a long long time - the south of NSW - Snowy Mountains region.
My main purpose was to see old railway infrastructure and record the passage of time on these items. I also needed a break from work and to escape Sydney for a few days. The hustle and bustle of Sydney is just draining sometimes.... too crowded and busy. So a holiday to a quiet area of NSW was on the books. Planned for nearly 2months beforehand - mapped out, budgeted and trip planned down to the exact time and kilometers - i was ready to go!.
The plan involved heading south from Sydney in the direction of the nations capital at Canberra and then heading down the Monaro highway to Cooma-Bombala-Cooma-Tumut-Gundagai-Yass-Sydney. It was going to be a busy trip due to factors of short autumn day light and distances involved would mean i could not spend too long in some locations. The total distance was around 1350km i needed to drive over 3 days , with around 20hrs driving. Some parts would have much traffic and others hardly none at all.
The weather was generally either a mix of cloudy or sunny or some rain. Overall was good for the main parts.
I managed to speak to many different people associated with heritage railway operations at Cooma, Tumut, Gundagai and Yass. I spent maybe 12hrs overall on the trip discussing heritage issues, learning about what they had done and new ideas. I even had the luck of speaking to a shire mayor and the Riverina's federal politician at one town.
Day 1 - Sydney - Bombala - Cooma
10hrs/590km driving overall and 3hrs looking/photography.
PART 1 - SYDNEY - MICHELAGO RAILWAY SECTION
I left Sydney around 630am trying to beat most traffic onto road... peak hour sadly starts early even earlier in Sydney on a Friday!!!. Cruised along the tollway - grrr - and onto the highway and started the long journey south. I managed to have a break at the enjoyable and cheery Penrose RFS "Stop Revive Survive" car park around 2hrs later. Nice warm hot chocolate keep me going. Many people were using this as a rest area - better to rest than drive and die from fatigue. If not speed - tiredness / fatigue kills people everyday on the long highways in NSW sadly.
I then drove onto Canberra's outskirts, stopping briefly at Lake George for some scenic photos.
After this i moved onto the day's primary target - the Cooma branch railway line route - or as i will call it CBL - which begins just outside Goulburn at Joppa Junction and heads south deep into southern NSW skirting the eastern suburbs of Canberra/ACT. Some of the roads/directions and layout around south east Canberra are the most confusing i have ever come across in NSW. Poorly planned and poorly approved - something needs to improve.
First stop was a small disused station at Royalla on the CBL.
ROYALLA
Found about 30mins outside Canberra, this station forms part of the Canberra ARHS ACT "Michelago" branch line operation, the station area was noted as i drove down a stretch of the Monaro Highway looking for something else. I quickly pulled over and saw the 3 rolling stock items. the site did look uncared for and overgrown. The rolling stock on site consists of a petrol
wagon, coal wagon and hopper. Tall grass and weeds were seen all across the yard. The line from Canberra to Michelago is owned as i understand by the ARHS ACT divison but its current status is unknown at the moment for future use.
The station at Royalla is a small corrugated iron cladded hut and a small green coloured work building with a "Royalla" sign attached. All boarded up and unpainted meaning not much is happening there it seems. The rollingstock at Royalla was in this morning sun light captured quite well. I was puzzled as to why coal was still in the hopper after no use for so long .... like it was literally left there years ago on the last ever movement run or something. Maybe one day it will one be collected and reused.
MICHELAGO
Next stop was Michelgao - which was once a bustling town in the 1800-1900s, nowdays it is a smaller town but still steeped in NSW heritage and history.
There is something quite appealing - almost like attention grabbing - about coming across a rural "rustic" heritage railway yard for the first time. The bright colours, old fashioned structures and composition of surrounding items leaves one to ponder.... like it was built and then walked away from ...
These features draw the eye closer wanting to know more, yearning to search out more imagining - what was it was once like when steam locmotives pulled passenger carriages, goods wagons and mail to the south of NSW.
Michelago is part of the of the main Cooma branch line and was a major station until its demise around late 1980s .This station was made to a common design across NSW in the 1880s and was quite nice to see it still well preserved even if underused. It still attracts attention - as while i was surveying the station buildings, i saw many people were in the yard wandering around and looking at its layout.
The station is brick and painted heritage red - it is bright and unsual to see this colour in the middle of nowhere. The yard has semaphore signals still installed, down the south end past the large goods shed is a turntable that was resintalled in 2008 and a fettler shed just north of the platform.
The Monaro area - meaning treeless plains - is suited for the surroundings as you will see later on for other railway yards / stations i visited.
The next few updates will include the rest of Day 1 - Nimmitabel, Holts Flat and Bombala stations.
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