Page added 20th February 1999

In 1972, when I was a tender young enthusiast, aged 15, I, like most of my ilk, would spend many hours "hanging around" the local railway station, which in my case, was the now closed station at Young, then an important point on the cross country secondary line running from Blaney on the NSWGR's Western Line to Demondrille on the Southern Line.  In those days, even though steam had been replaced by 48 class diesels since 1966/67, operation and traffic patterns had changed little from days past, other than the slow decline in traffic volume, that along with the fuel crisis of 1974 and the "rationalisation" of services that took place under the PTC and SRA in the late '70s and '80s, finally caused the almost complete abandonment of this once important cross country link.  At that time, being quite well known to the local railway staff, I had free access to all parts of the station and yard, and would spend many interesting and enjoyable hours observing shunting operations "from the ground" and even on occasions assisting, an activity unthinkable in this safety conscious day and age.  On a couple of occasions I accompanied the Guard as he recorded his train details on the "X2010" form prior to departure, likewise recording the train details in my notebook.  This notebook recently "resurfaced" during packing operations for our move, so here are the details recorded in those far off days, giving an interesting "snapshot" of typical secondary line workings of the NSWGR right at the end of the "Steam Era" of traffic patterns.