GrainCorp facility at Armatree in 2016. The 70-plus year-old two-cell silo still serves a sup-
port role to the brash new ‘tin shed’. Jim Craddock photo
A Down Coonamble Mail train headed by 4-6-0 3080 stands at Armatree Station circa- R T Clarke photo, ARHSnsw Railway Resource Centre, 352541
room. On arrival in Coonamble, the
locomotive would be turned and
serviced and the van shunted to the
Dubbo end of the train. This meant
that on arrival in Dubbo the van was
at the rear end of the reassembled train
and the extra carriages mentioned in
the previous paragraph were brought
onto the front by the fresh 36 class
locomotive that would take the mail
train as far as Orange. At least, that has
always been my belief.
I remember once being lifted up by
my brother so that I could look over
the tender of the Z12 class locomotive
to the dome and funnel from the end
vestibule door of the FS carriage. Also,
Ken Winney’s photos illustrating
Robert F McKillop’s The Western Mail:
a Personal History clearly show the van
at the rear leaving Dubbo.^1 I would be
grateful for any clarification regarding
marshalling the mail trains at Dubbo.
Apart from the occasion mentioned
above, I have only vague memories
of trips on this line. I do remember
leaving the train with mum at Gular
and taking a taxi a couple of miles
into Gulargambone, where our doctor
had his practice, and the pepper trees
behind the station building, but not
much else.
Goods trains were few and far
between and were conditional on
loading. Additional stock trains
sometimes ran, conveying sheep to
the Dubbo saleyards. The mixed goods
trains were more frequent when there
was wool or wheat to be collected, but
I don’t believe block trains were run
for either commodity. ‘Out of’ vans,
normally marshalled in front of the
guard’s van, contained crates, cartons
and drums of the various supplies that
were the life-blood of communities
along the line, containing not only
foodstuffs, but also drums of kerosene
for lighting and refrigeration, together
with hardware and basic clothing
items.
Railway operations were in the hands
of Jimmy Fowler, night officer, later
designated assistant station master
(ASM) and a small band of fettlers.
Jimmy was responsible for everything
from selling and collecting tickets to
loading and unloading luggage and
out ofs,^2 shunting stock, wheat and
general goods wagons, tending to
the signal lights, oiling the points,
sweeping the platform and keepingup with the dreaded paperwork.
Each business had two three letter
destination codes that were scrawled
on each item. For example, ‘RAB’ over
‘ARA’ identified a consignment for R A
Barden’s general store at Armatree.
Motive power on the branch at the
time was limited to the Z12 and C30T
classes although I once saw the mail
train double-headed by a Z12 class
and “something like a 12”, which
I now believe was a Z17 class 4-4-
locomotive, probably snaffled by
Dubbo on its way between workshops
and duty on the Warren branch,
northwest of Dubbo. My only other
sighting of a Z17 class in regular service
occurred several years later, when
my education had progressed to big
school.
The yard layout was basic and typical
of small country centres. The station
building was on the western side of
the main line with a loop and siding
on the eastern side, where there was
a basic, earth loading bank and a
small trucking yard for livestock. The
siding was extended southwards past
a small two-cell silo to a dead end
siding. Empty four-wheel RU bulk
wheat trucks (24-ton capacity) were
pushed up to this dead end and hand
brakes applied. When loading began, a
Wheat Board employee would propel
them one by one, using a pinch bar,
under the loading chute and thence
along the siding to await the C30T
class locomotive on its return from
Coonamble. A basic fettlers’ hut with
lean-to shelter for their ‘trike’ was on
the platform side of the line.
The only electricity supply inAustralian Railway History • December 2017 • 5