HISTORIC PHOTO OF THE DAY
Historic Photo of the Day: 2024-07-10
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Today’s historic photo of the day: Diesel loco 4461 is stabled and Tin Hare railmotor CPH16 sits out of service at Cootamundra, NSW, November 16 1985.
Cootamundra is a significant railway location 429km from Sydney on the main Sydney-Melbourne railway. It is also the junction for the line up to Stockinbingal and Parkes which is these days used by many trains to access the east-west interstate railway between Sydney and Perth.
Until 1983, Cootamundra was the connecting point for passengers changing between main line trains and branch line railmotors to Lake Cargelligo, Griffith via Temora and on the now out of service line south to Tumut (and formerly Batlow/Kunama). You can see the Tumut branch line track here branching to the left and running parallel to the main line in the distance for a while.
The CPH railmotor in the left background of this photo was presumably one of the fleet that had been based in Cootamundra to operate those branch line services until their replacement with road buses less than two years before this photo. It appears CPH16 had simply been left in that spot since those services were withdrawn. CPH16 is today in storage with Lachlan Valley Railway at Cowra.
Diesel loco 4461 on the other had, was still then very much in service, and in this image she is stabled awaiting her next call to duty. She remained in active service for some years, in her latter days with Qube logistics, and is now stored out of service.
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