Newcastle Light Rail: The Opinions (Surprisingly Positive)

This article contains references to the 158 Films production Newcastle Light Rail There And Back Again, which you can watch here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOIHGFVQKSw&feature=youtu.be

Newcastle’s new 2.7km of Light Rail have, and probably will, continue to divide both the city and transport “enthusiasts” alike. Some will happily embrace it, others still lament the Christmas 2014 axing of the “heavy” rail service (the normal trains), which I do to a degree, but we’ve got to move on.

On 17/02/19, the Newcastle Light Rail took its first passengers. The line to get a ride from Newcastle Interchange, as you can see in this photo, was rather long.

Evidently, the city was, at least for the most part, ready to embrace its new system.

Anyway, as per the title, this article merely contains the opinions which I (for the most part) suppressed in the film I recently produced: Newcastle Light Rail There And Back Again. Most of what you read in that was facts and showcasing, as I try and keep the opinions out of my films for the sake of presenting things as they are.

One opinion did make it into the video, that on The Flyer artwork at Newcastle. We’ll get to that later.

Here’s one of the Spanish-built URBOS 100 trams used to work the Newcastle Light Rail. They look very similar to the URBOS 3s that work on the Inner West Light Rail (Central – Dulwich Hill via The Star and Lilyfield), both inside and out.

I don’t really have an opinion on these trams. They look nice and they do their job. Admittedly they have had a few teething troubles (two broke down in the space of two days, one on 19/02 & another on 20/02), but aside from that, they’re good. They’re reasonably capacious and will be able to cope with the traffic on the NLR quite well, as the high levels of usage on 17/02/19 were almost definitely an exception.

There is actually only one thing about these trams I find a bit bizarre, and to be fair it’s not entirely the trams’ fault: It’s a design choice that I find a bit, odd.

You will notice if you’ve watched the film or looked at photographs that the trams have no overhead wires. Instead, they have charging points at each stop, which power a battery to run the tram.

The decision to use charging stations and batteries rather than conventional overhead wires (as is indeed employed on the Inner West Light Rail) does have its advantages: It definitely looks aesthetically better (though not notably) and does remove any clearance issues with road vehicles on the roads the NLR crosses. It may well also be more energy efficient, but it does also have some problems, as we’ve seen.

The two trams that suffered from malfunctions in the NLR’s first week of operations both had charging problems which resulted in the batteries going flat. This is not an issue that would have arisen if a conventional overheard wiring system had been used, and it’s potentially an issue I see happening again. For the record I don’t think there’s anything overtly wrong with the system that’s in place; I do however find it bizarre that the tried and tested overhead system wasn’t used here in favour of something new and potentially unreliable. However really, it’s too early to write the system off: It’s had two faults, both of which can be attributed to teething problems.

Now, the Light Rail itself.

The Light Rail has got potential. It really does. It is perfectly able to revitalise Newcastle, just as the glamourous (I use that word very loosely) adverts from Newcastle Transport will tell you. It’s a good system: Clean, efficient and environmentally friendly.

I was about to write a paragraph here which would echo the same “Save Our Rail” opinion which most of Newcastle has been milking (and quite rightly) since the railway was closed on Christmas Day 2014. It would have gone something along the lines of: “The Heavy Rail Line should not have been closed. That decision has killed Newcastle. It’s an act of treason”. I in no way agreed with the decision to close a piece of expensive, functioning and (despite what they’ll tell you) well-used infrastructure that did not actually cut Newcastle off from its foreshore: That argument which almost single-handedly justified the closure of the line is actually complete crap. Even today I still don’t, especially seeing as the often-cited opinion that the land will now be sold to developers may well turn out to be true. That is something which really will cut Newcastle off its foreshore: Putting a load of high-rise apartments in the place of the railway.

However, now that the Light Rail has opened, that argument is dampened slightly. The NLR now fulfils the function that the heavy rail line once did. You can say that there’d be no need for the NLR if the heavy rail was left open, and you’d be right, but after over four years of no transport between Hamilton and Newcastle Beach (which is really what killed Newcastle), the NLR can indeed revitalise Newcastle by fulfilling the purpose of the heavy rail.

So that’s all for the Light Rail. However, there are a couple more things that perhaps I want to cover in this article before I close it up.

This is Civic Station as it stands today. The platforms are fenced, the tracks are gone, and it stands forlorn and alone whilst the modern equivalent less than 100m away is thriving.

The station has been unused since it closed. That should be changed. It’s a piece of perfectly good infrastructure that you could potentially turn into something else, like a café or even a museum of rail in Newcastle. I’d be all for that second idea, seeing as Newcastle Station has been turned into a café and multi-purpose complex. Hell, just use it for something other than a discarded piece of history from the olden-days. Anything please.

Unlike at Civic, it’s good to see that Newcastle Station has been reused as a café and entertainment (I think) precinct. It could have done with an actual train in the precinct, however. I say actual because nowadays, The Station has to settle with this…

The Flyer. Oh dear Lord…

Points for trying is all I can say when it comes to this thing. I do understand and approve of the logic behind this piece of artwork: To honour the Newcastle Flyer. However, it’s been executed incredibly poorly, so much that I think this thing may well be DIShonouring the Flyer more than it actually does what it was intended to do.

Obviously, it’s meant to look like a C38 class. It “vaguely resembles” one, and that’s as far as it goes. One chum I have has described it as “an insult to the taxpayers that funded it”, and unfortunately, he’s probably right. This thing has missed the marks of both honouring the Newcastle Flyer and representing a C38 class by a distance as great as the distance the real Flyer travelled.

I suppose if you look at it from this angle, it looks a marginally more like a C38…

So, to conclude,

The NLR can be great. It really can. It’s got all it needs to revitalise Newcastle and fulfil the purpose of the heavy rail, the lack of which has strangled Newcastle for the past four years. The decision to use the charging points, rather than a conventional overhead wire system, is interesting to say the least and has created a couple of problems, but those will be solved in time probably.

So, there we are. Through writing this article, I’ve actually reformed my own opinion of the NLR and am quite a bit less negative about it.

That said, I still dislike The Flyer.

TheBritFromOz

MMXIX

Tallong And Marulan: Clipped Wings

There’s a general rule that the word “ambitious” in association with BritFromOz Productions should translate to “common sense has been defenestrated” by default. And sometimes, in fact, rather frequently, the Lord reminds me of this, just as he should. It’s for this reason that Tallong & Marulan ended up being only half the length it was planned to be, yet somehow managed to not suffer from it.

The original plan for Tallong And Marulan, apart from it being 2018’s final shoot and visiting two stations which I’d previously not filmed at (it managed one of those), was for it to be the longest Southern Highlands production yet, with a total of about sixteen hours (twelve in the Highlands and four in-transit) on the shoot. However, because I needed reminding that common sense is not yet dead, it did not turn out this way.

So, let’s get on with it.

It’s worth noting that from 05:47 until about 10:00, everything went as planned. Apart from the weather. I’d known it would be wet (one of the reasons I chose 13/12/2018 for the shoot), I didn’t bet on it being that wet.

Kicking off the shoot, N11 arrives with SN34 from Goulburn to Campbelltown at 05:47. This was the first time I’d filmed a train at Marulan (also the first time I’d set foot on the platform), so it’s fair to say things started well.

I’d hoped for at least one more train at Marulan before heading north to Tallong for 06:40. Happily, I got two more.

QBX001 leads QUBE’s 3112 into Marulan at 06:05. Though I’d seen QUBE’s 1311 service several times, this was the first appearance of the northbound run.

5WM2! With LDPs! Sadly they had to put the two NRs on the front. Ho hum. This was the first time I’d seen LDP004 & LDP009 since being repainted to their “Ghost” paint job (I wouldn’t call it a livery), and I have to say I liked QRN more.

Time to head north, to Tallong!

And it properly starts raining. That will start causing problems soon…

It’s worth noting that to say I’d never filmed at Tallong before is actually a mistruth. It had appeared, albeit very briefly and for only two clips, in Cs Down South: The THRU RUNNERS Tour. Tallong & Marulan, however, marked its first proper appearance on BritFromOz Rail/ 158 Films, with history, an XPT and multiple trains.

It’s not a particularly gripping station though.

So, let the Tallong section of the shoot commence! I’m sure it won’t get too wet…

06:40 & SN23 from Moss Vale to Goulburn arrives. Two things to note.

1.     Quite clearly, you can see the rear of 4MS2, which nearly blocked out SN23 entirely. I can’t help but find it slightly ironic that a block out could occur HERE of all places, but it nearly did.

2.     SN23 is four carriages. The normal process for this service is to run as two carriages from Moss Vale to Goulburn as SN23, then back to Moss Vale as SN44, where another two carriages are attached and the four-carriage train runs as SN42 through to Central. However, today it ran as four carriages all the way. I’m not sure if this is a one-off, whether it’s now a regular thing or if it’s always been a regular thing. Answers on a postcard plz.

Regardless, SN23 is being operated by N10 & N9 here.

Because we’re on the Main South, it doesn’t take long for some 81s to turn up.

And some more 81s!

And then some t*ts! Ok, they’re TTs, I’ll be mature. *Hangs head*

And then N9 & N10 show up again, and a local confirms what I thought when I first got here. Tallong’s platforms are incredibly low compared to other stations, so it’s quite a step (this local man described it as a “mountain climb”, which is a humorous description but one I don’t think is unwarranted) from platform to train. The platform has the usual “Mind The Gap” warnings in place, but I think “Mind The Step” would be more appropriate here.

About thirty minutes later, SP31 rockets though on its way to Canberra. Tallong’s main attraction is the high-speed limits (passenger trains are permitted to go at 140km/hr through here on the Down, and 130km/hr on the Up), and SP31 was the train which showed this the best.

Look at the step between platform and train! I’ve been to a few stations where the platforms and train doors are not on the same level but Tallong wins for the biggest difference.

You’re a dirty one aren’t you.

Star Of The Show! Unlike TT124, NR75 is very clean as it leads 4MB4 northwards. It’s always a treat to see a GSR liveried NR, as they’re more interesting than the PN ones. Funnily enough, there is not a single PN-liveried loco on this train, with G542 being in Freight Aus. Livery and NR25 being in Indian Pacific Mk.3 livery.

I bless the rain’s down in Tal-long, dammit. One syllable too short.

ST23 passes, not quite doing 140km/hr but still going reasonably fast. But hey, it’s an XPT and it looks beautiful as usual (especially in this remarkably English part of the world) so I’m not complaining one bit.

So that was Tallong done, but it’s here that things start to go a bit awry.

And NOT because of the rain, that comes later.

If you use your phone as your primary recording device (I still do, as it serves me quite well), it’s a no-brainer that you require power banks to continue filming for extended periods. However, my three-year-old Dick Smith Power Bank (which had served me since 2015) chose now to give up the ghost. So I’m now stuck with 12% battery (this is before I got the battery replaced, so it was running at about 87% efficiency) with no way of getting a recharge, as my $5 power bank is empty by this point. Oh well, it’s coffee time!

Tallong General Store’s coffee is quite good. It’s not the best coffee I’ve ever had (it’s hard to top Delicious Bundanoon or the Wingello General Store), but still very nice. The barista girl also gave me a little Christmas Pudding. Nice.

And with that, let’s go back to where we started.

I do wish it would stop raining.

By this point, the rain was starting to pour down in buckets and it had also flooded the Victorian North East Line. Normally, this wouldn’t be a problem, however, it had delayed ST24 (the Melbourne – Sydney XPT) by about two hours. Seeing as I’d planned to see ST24 here, suddenly another seven hours with just 20% battery (managed to use my ropey car charger) and in the pouring rain seemed rather a dull prospect, even for me. As a result, this shoot had its wings quite severely clipped, and I would leave at 13:19 instead of 17:30 like I’d planned.

Clipped Wings. Someone should name a Blogger post after that expression…

Right on Noon, CF4411 & CF4412 lead 1291 through the pouring rain on their way to Goulburn. Good to have a break from what had been constant PN freight up until this point (apart from 3112, which of course was QUBE operated).

Though 1225 made sure the respite from PN didn’t last long…

You’ll notice here that Marulan (and Tallong as well) have received new orange station signs. This is also the case for Exeter, Wingello & Penrose.

My opinion? In a break from my usual opinion of these signs, I think they look quite good here. My usual gripe with the orange signs is that they replaced colour-coded and blue & white signs, which looked much more at home than the orange ones did. Here, however, the orange signs are all-new and are not replacing any older signs. I’d felt these stations could have done with a few more station signs, so for once, I actually approve of the orange signs’ installation here.

SP34 passes through as the rain starts pouring again, and my phone’s battery has finally ticked over to 1%. And that’s it. Not the train I was hoping to end the film with, but there it is.

SURPRISE! Not part of the film you saw, but with a bit more charge, I managed to see 2MB9 at Wingello. This stop was mainly so I could get another coffee from Wingello General Store, but when 2MB9 came I couldn’t resist.

I bless the rain’s down in Win-gello. There we go. It’d work for Marulan, Bundanoon or Exeter as well. Just not Tallong or Penrose.

For some reason, it always rains whenever I go anywhere between Bundanoon &  Goulburn. Not Exeter though, which has managed to be sunny two of the three times I’ve been there.

Hello 5MW2, wait, hang on, why don’t I just stop the shoot?

I don’t know why I pulled over to see this train (twice). Probably because it had LDPs on it. This shot is taken just south of Exeter, between two rainstorms.

The final nail in the coffin is N7 at Yerrinbool. Finally, is this the end of the shoot?

Nope! There’s 5MW2 again! And I would have got 5NY3 too if the rain hadn’t decided to set in again. But that’s the lot. This really was the end of the shoot.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Tallong And Marulan was in no way a particularly bad shoot. It may not have been the most enjoyable, what with the dead power banks and the English weather, but there was nothing in it that made it bad at all. There are no shots, whether they were in the film or shot later, that were overtly terrible, and there was also plenty of history at both stations.

What perhaps restrains this shoot from being the best was the factors that caused its wings to be severely clipped: The weather again, the dead power banks (though that’s my own fault) and ST24 being delayed by flooding. It wasn’t the film it was planned to be. However, that latter point actually saved the film from being restrained by its shoot, as I feel if it had been any longer, it would have gone on a bit.

Overall, Tallong & Marulan may not have been the best of shoots, or the most enjoyable, or the best to keep to plan. Tallong certainly isn’t the most exciting of locations and the weather was far from bright. Though despite this, a decent film was made, so it should be commended for that.

What did you think of the film? Would you like to see the “after” scenes? Drop me a comment if you want to. Be sure to follow me on my Social Media and to subscribe to my Youtube channels, I would really appreciate it.

Tah tah!

-Duck