Gembrook Railway 1947 48
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- Опубликовано: 7 фев 2025
- The Upper Ferntree Gully - Gembrook 2 ft 6 in gauge Railway in 1947-48. An 8 mm film by Reg Stamford; digital transfer by Frank Stamford, August 2018. The quality is very variable, the worst is near the front around Upwey. Note the first locomotive to appear is 12A which is burning wood. Other locomotives featured are 8A and 13A. This film includes cameo scenes from a number of family members. Items from Russell's timber tramway also make an appearance. (Frank Stamford)
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what a gem of a film. i'm glad youtube put this where i noticed it. i wonder what sort of weed killer was available in the late 40's, 13:00.
A snapshot into when Australia was pure and simple, great footage of times gone by.....
Excellent video and very interesting how it gave the feel of Australia at that time.
I really love this. it looks so awesome.
this is authentic, invaluable , indispensable and not to be lost, but I would like to see a more modernised version as well, both colourised as it was seen in actuality and with sound or music added too. Children. - got to love them haven't you. - older than me of course and probably most have passed on by now. Such is the world.
Please no fake sound and no badly coloured video. Too things that wreck many videos.
Excellent film...I would have guessed it to be 16mm, rather than 8mm. Wonderful piece of railway history. Thanks for letting us see it.
This is brilliant material Frank. The first thing I noticed was that 12A was burning wood. I couldn't see what was in the bunker on 8A. I went on my first ride to Gembrook in 1948 when I was three and so this is taken at around this time. Health and safety clearly didn't count for much in those days with lots of people riding on the running boards and with their legs dangling.
I think that the wood was used to raise the height of the coal storage area
@@petershearman9484 It is probable that it was a response to the coal shortage caused by the ongoing strikes in the NSW coal fields. With the small firebox stoking the Na on wood would have been a horrible experience. Normally they gave these engines a diet of the very best coal. Similar to what was used on the "Spirit Of Progress". Due to the very limited firebox size coupled with the steep grades and tight turns.
You still can dangle your legs out through the windows but you diffently can't ride on the running boards.
They banned riding with legs out in 2018 after a serious injury.
@@allangibson2408 It was a serious collision rather than a serious injury. No one on the train was hurt as fortunately the people in the carriage that was hit by the mini bus had their legs out on the side away from the crash. Some of the people in the mini bus were injured but not seriously. Hanging your legs out the carriage windows in now permitted between Belgrave and Lakeside but not yet from Lakeside to Gembrook. I was guarding on trains 13/26 (the half Gemmy) last Friday and there were legs out on both sides of the carriages all the way to Lakeside and back. The passengers are clearly enjoying the return of 'legs out'. All the passenger carriages were modified in the last few years so that the sills were wider and sloped slightly inwards, making it quite difficult to fall out. Only people over four can ride with their legs out and this is enforced by the use of wrist bands; up to four you get a red band and over four you get a green band.
Puffing billy railway has to be one of the best railways in the world, not only because it has beautiful scenary but because theres no other railway in the world where you can sit on the window sill with your legs out.
May be in India, if you accept roof top riders.
last i heard you can't do that. thank the bus driver (or bus company his vehicle belonged to) who slammed into the side of a train the other year! puffing billy were forced to ban it afterwards likely on insurence or health and safety grounds
@LiliaArmoury you can know. The rule was removed
@@JacksVictorianTrains oh good
Thank you I have lived in Cockatoo for 30+ years and was always a fan of steam power and loved seeing places I recognised.
Danke für das Teilen dieser wunderbaren Aufnahmen - ein Fest, für jeden der an historischer Technik Interesse hat und ein Fenster in die Vergangenheit sucht.... 😍😍😍
Herzliche Grüße aus dem Vogtland - Ost-Deutschland 👋
Vielen Dank für Ihre freundlichen Kommentare zum Film. Ich freue mich, dass es Ihnen gefallen hat. Beste Grüße, Frank Stamford.
Excellent old footage.
Very good film, thanks for putting in the work to transfer it, and thanks for sharing. I enjoyed seeing the whole thing, including the bits you might have been tempted to edit out. In historic footage like this I prefer to see everything even if the quality isn't brilliant.
Another "How good is this moment!'
Thanks from Me to all those involved - from back then, to this now-modern era !!!
Thanks to all that filmed it in a day when it was costly like hell and tedious. Something we forgot in modern time.
Those parts of the past that didn´t finish in the garbage, have been collected and finally share with us.
What a strange bridge at 06:36 ?
Too bad we can´t see it more. Grooves were made in abutments to hold beams. May be there was a wooden walking platform that rooted and was removed, or doing repairs. 2 missing beams betwen track. In war time, ressources were few.
Simpler time and released from war stress. Kids sitting on a fence just to watch the train. The classic shot of toddler running toward camera. People gathering at the station xith train arrival and kids running. All these riders watching scenery. Try it today. All brains focusing on screen.
When did we decided to become zombies ? What a loss.
Thanks for the share.
Thank you for your kind comments about the film. It was my uncle who filmed it - and it was certainly much harder to do in those days. What you call a bridge at 06:36 is actually a cattle pit. These were fitted at each side of level crossings to prevent cattle from straying on to the railway.
The toddler running towards the camera (at 07:35) is myself! I am now 80 years old. Best regards, Frank Stamford
Thanks Frank, the cuttest toddler ! Wow, 80 now...
That part of the comment is amazing.
I remember 8 and super 8 movie with 4 minutes of film, then developping it....then wait and pay.
I quickly tought about cattle crossing, but never saw that model before. But Australia isn´t USA or Canada.
Frank, i wish you many many more Christmas, and wish you the best in 2025 !
" Frank, the cuttest running Australian toddler ".
Stay cute and keep that childish hearth. It keeps you young😊
Is it your mom at 02:53, watching the train then your uncle ?
And thanks to your long time gone uncle, the missing person that we´ll never see, behind the caméras, and that saved that era....and family to keep it and share with the planet, how, once life was overthere.😊😊😊😊😊❤❤
What a funny world Frank.
An unknown movie taped years before my birth, in Australia while i´m in Canada.
I write a comment. In it i mention the running toddler.
AND, it´s that kid that answered me !
How the world can be so small, strange and funny ?
I´m the big prize lottery winner today.😂😂😂😅😅😅😅
Thanks Frank. Outstanding.
Thank you very much,it was great to see.
Thank-you!
Fantastic piece of social history from the 1940s,life after the war.
Interesting that for Victoria and based on the tender rear at the start it seems to be burning wood and not coal. Didn’t know we burnt wood in Victoria.
Victoria relied on getting coal from NSW. When there were severe strikes in NSW those railways kept the coal for themselves and Victoria went short. So many puffing billy rosters were cancelled to conserve coal. But as petrol was heavily rationed this lead to puffing billy being the only transport into the hills . Hence trains were overloaded with people wanting a day out after the horrors of ww2. Wood was a very poor substitute for the small firebox in the Na. But what was the alternative? A few years later oil from the middle east was the solution on the rest of the railway system.
Great piece of historic footage. Only one correction: Monbulk Creek bridge is bridge No. 5.
Yes, I know! Unfortunately it is a rather convoluted process to change.
интересный фильм. только вот глядя на людей больно на душе, осознавая что их уже нет на белом свете
I totally agree, but having been saved on film, bring them alive. Sort of.
Beautiful.
An Australia that none of us will see. In some ways we're the poorer for it.
Excellent!
Why is there taits at 0:40
I saw my childish doppleganger. He'd be a couple of years younger, but still a twin!
Awesome
Wonderful
Just look at the amount of Ash from the firebox getting down the boiler tubes into the smoke box!
Incredible...
I assume the film is probably 1950s.
Kids hanging on the sides, there must have been a number of fatalities.
It's more like the Wild West than it is a civilised post war country.
Not far removed from how trains are run in India & Pakistan in 2023.
The film was taken in 1947-48 at a time when there were post-war shortages of petrol, tyres, and good quality coal. At holiday time people were determined to enjoy themselves whatever way they could. The train speed was low. There were no fatalities!
It is actually small pieces of unburned coal. Not ash. The small firebox in the Na coupled with long cut off slogs uphill drew small pieces from the fire. The screens caught a lot of them but those which get past the screens create smuts. Every keen rider of these trains has had smuts in the eye from time to time. All of those pieces represents wasted fuel. And that is after perhaps 4 to 5 miles from Ferntree Gully. The process would have been repeated at Emerald. And at the terminus at Gembrook.
@@smitajkythanks for your comment, cause
i´ve never seen ash pit removal from the front, but always from firebox. It needed quite a strong draft of air to bring them in front.
Thanks to an old movie shared with us we learn new things. Proof that "old" and
"long past" can still be helpful.
I note 8A and 12A are part of the current "Puffing Billy" rolling stock but I wonder what happened to 13A?
13A was transferred to Newport workshops in April 1950 for overhaul. It remained at Newport until June 1953 when it was transferred to the Wangaratta - Whitfield railway. That line was closed in October 1953. It then went back to Newport where it was stored. It was scrapped at Newport in September 1958.
@@slow2garden
Really sad to end that way after so many moves from places to places.
going up the bank at uperferntree gully must of been very slow going epsh when wet
I can remember it well. Starting from the station dead cold and immediately into the 1 in 30 grade. With the cylinder cocks open to release the condensation. It was a slow slog up past the gantry transfer crane and then the transfer shed. Hiss, Hiss, Hiss. Once past the shed they could shut the cocks and it pulled better with the more normal Choof, Choof Choof. All this without any of the wet. Interestingly today the last bit climbing into Cockatoo seems to give more trouble because the rails are perpetually damp. Two other things that stuck in my mind. The main road had been gravel so the rails get stone chips. As we crossed that there is a high pitched hiss, followed shortly thereafter by a deep low rumble due to some movement in the bridge. The high pitched sound was repeated years later at School road Menzies Creek until they bitumened that one also.
12:13 Does anyone recognise this locomotive?
Yes, it was built by Kerr Stuart & Co. of Stke on Trent, England in 1902 - their builder's number 797. It was a Kerr Stuart "Skylark" class 2 ft gauge 0-4-2T; and was built for the Northern Territory Mining & Smelting Co. for use at their Grove Hill tramway in the Northern Territory. In 1907 it was sold to machinery merchants Cameron & Sutherland of Melbourne. They sold it to Whim Well Copper Mines Ltd of Western Australia. It worked there until 1917 when it was apparently sold back to Cameron & Sutherland. In 1920 it was sold to Block 10 Misima Gold mines NL for use on their tramway on Misima Island off the coast of New Guinea. In 1922 that tramway was closed in 1922 and Miller & Co. of Melbourne bought the loco. They converted the loco to 3 ft gauge and sold it to EAC Russell of Gembrook in 1926 for use on his timber tramway. Unfortunately it was a total failure on the tramway, being under-powered and very prone to derailment. The loco remained at Gembrook out of use until it was cut up around 1953. (Information from "Bellbrakes, Bullocks and Bushmen: A Sawmilling and Tramway History of Gembrook 1885-1985" published by Light Railway Research Society of Australia (www.lrrsa.org.au).
Passenger Safety measures were not quite the same back then.
In those days, people were smarter. You
didn´t had to write on coffee cup that it´s hot !
When did the practice of letting passengers hang on to the outside of the open carriages stop?
Shortly after this film was taken, I think it had finished by about 1950. At the time the film was taken there was still rationing of petrol, and tyres and tubes were hard to get, as a result of World War II - so the train was hard-pressed to carry the holiday crowds.
My guess is - when all the ones who were foolish enough to do it, had all got killed under the wheels.
@@MySteaming You need to get your facts right, there were no fatalities.
@@MySteaming
People weren´t dumb in those days, they had a working brain.
Didn´t had to write on coffee cup or tea, that the liquid is hot, that a plastic bag can choke a kid or a pet, and wet floor can be slippery.
they ruined lakeside
Ruined is a strong term. It is certainly different from what it was. So much more regimented today. But a lot of the problems began in the 20s when they subdivided the land above the lake. It wasn't built on but two or three generations later it was built on and the pollution wrecked the lake. No more swimming. No lifesaving club. No slides and diving boards. The kiosk on the hill was replaced with a very different type of building in a different location to serve a different clientele. The world no longer revolves around having a Sunday picnic in the Dandenongs. Mum getting out the wicker picnic hamper and spreading a blanket on the ground to eat in the surroundings of the trees and the birds. For better or worse life has moved on.
Ruined is the word.
16:09