Bags Packed, now I’m off! (LVR to Parkes)

Well! When I got into this little hobby of mine just over a little year ago, I didn’t realize the ramification of the journey I would go through.

The P Class leads the way. June 08. By Fred Sawyer

Stuff like all the nice, friendly and dead set funny people I’ve met are just one of the awesome things I’ve enjoyed to experience. Also, So far I’ve gone through four Cameras with the intention of getting my hands on an SLR in the near future. Tomorrow I shall be off to Cowra with a good mate, Maikha Ly from Railpage.

We’ll be heading off to the Lachlan Valley Railway and we’ll be helping out with running there train to Parkes (via Harden, Cootamundra and Stockinbingal!). Hopefully it should be an adventure in it’s own right, and being my first time west of Lithgow (Blue Mountains), let alone doing it by rail on the Cootamundra-Parkes cross country line is one of the few things I’m looking forward too!

Besides that, the people I am going to meet is also another thing I’m looking foward to. See, the LVR unlike other rail heritage oganisations actually care for there trains and the people who run them. And to me that means a lot, especially when running on the main line. In a way, LVR is kind of the underdog in Rail Heritage in New South Wales.

So hopefully after this weekend, when I get back (that’s another thing – which way should I take home, via Bathurst or via Cootamundra?) I should be well, firstly very tired, knowing that I have covered just a little bit more of this country, met some wonderful characters and also knowing how to run a train out on the main line in General.

So from someone who first got there pentax point and shoot around May Last year (resorting in me going to Central and forming on whatever I could find – An Oscar..) I am now making my way up in this hobby, seeing such trains a trains continental freighters and our own restored ‘P’ Class (32) steam loco. So far I am enjoying it a lot. Especially with most of the people I’ve met along the way who I now consider close friends, to me that means a lot to a student who gets that chance to get away from it all.

When I get back to Sydney, I’ll be returning as a better person with the experiance I gain.

Signing out for this week,

Fred