Yass Junction – October 2011
The old haunt hadn't been visited for months; it was time to check out if Saturday mornings still had a good selection of traffic. It turns out that there weren't nearly as many grain trains as I would've expected and there were absolutely zero south-bound container trains... The XPL and XPT ran as usual though.
Infrastructure
Yass Junction Signal Box seems to have had a repainting. I imagine ARHS ACT are to be commended as they probably still have the lease on it. Meanwhile the mudholes around the place are still just as bad as ever.
...and then something different
It's always nice when the signals switch red... It means someone is in control and something different is happening. Seeing the points then shift is better, as it usually means something is about to wrong-road into the loop and allow a pass. This time around it was BL30 (I hadn't seen a BL in Yass before) leading 3x 48s on what must have been a pretty heavy load of grain.
The end of the loop is a fair way north of the station. The better viewpoint is a road bridge up along Cooks Hill Road. I could've just stayed and seen what was passing from the platforms... but I hadn't been up that way in a while.
It turns out that light-engine consists can fly! FL220 lead 48s35, LVR's 4702 and 48s33 on the up, flying past me near the road bridge. The poor old BL and 48s then struggled up the incline and continued north.
And that was a wrap... the day had actually warmed up and there was family to visit.