Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge – Public Transportation

Public Transportation

Naturally I could not do a public transport themed challenge without trains so here are some that I found in my railway files and converted to black and white. I thought I would include a bit of background information in this post mainly because I can never just post a picture. I have to tell the story.
These rail cars were the mainstay of the Adelaide suburban rail network from the mid 1950s until the late 1980s. I grew up with them, rode on them, sweltering in summer and freezing in winter because there was no air conditioning; and later on cleaned them when I worked for the railway authority. There were two types, the 300 class which was single cabbed and ran in pairs and the 400 class which was double cabbed and could be used as a single unit. They were brick red for most of the time I knew them although photos I’ve seen showed the roof colour varied over the years. We called them “Red Hen’s”. Why? Because they were red and because our country passenger rail cars were blue and all named after birds. Perfectly logical.

There were a few variations. One 400 class was painted white for a promotion and was given the nickname “Foghorn Leghorn” by rail fans and another was steel clad to resemble the next generation of rail cars in the 1980s. This set became known to fans as “Super Chook” I guess you have to be an Aussie to follow all this. Does anyone but Aussies call hens chooks?  These photos were taken in the late eighties I think and scanned. The Redhens, the station and even the railcar depot are all gone now.

South Australian railways 400 class railcar.

South Australian Railways 300 class railcar

Converted 300 class railcar set “Super Chook”

This one was taken on a steam train excursion which was commemorating the station’s centenary year. It actually looks just as good in black and white as the original colour. These old locomotives and wooden carriages were replaced by  the rail cars.

The train that travelled nightly between Adelaide and Melbourne was The Overland. Here are a couple of old carriages that are now in museums. These two are at Seymour in Victoria. David and I had our wedding reception in a similar dining car to Murray. Ours was called Adelaide.

V&SAR Sleeping Car,Seymour

Dining Car Murray, Seymour Victorian & South Australian Railways

And now for something completely different here are a couple of different ways to get around in Sydney. I wish we had commuter ferries and light rail in Hobart.

Author: Taswegian1957

Born in England in 1957 my family came to Australia in 1966. I grew up in Adelaide, South Australia, where I met and married my husband David. We came together over a mutual love of trains. Both of us worked for the railways for many years, his job was with Australian National Railways, while I spent 12 years working for the STA, later TransAdelaide the Adelaide city transit system. After leaving that job I worked in hospitality until 2008. We moved to Tasmania in 2002 to live in the beautiful Huon Valley. David passed away in 2015 and I'm here on my own now but I have Cindy the dog and Polly the cat to keep me company. I currently co-write two Wordpress blogswith my sister Naomi. Our doll blog "Dolls, Dolls, Dolls", and a "Our Other Blog" which is about everything else but with a focus on photographs and places in Tasmania. View all posts by Taswegian1957