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Trains, trams and automobiles.  1) F1 arriving into Platform 1 at Sydney Central station with car C 3426 leading. It was the leading car on the official “first train” to cross the Sydney Harbour Bridge on opening day in 1932. (Vincent Cavanagh) My father and I were in attendance on Sunday (25 February 2024) for our first Sydney Tramway Festival, which is held annually in Loftus, NSW. We had booked tickets for the Sydney Tramway Festival Express from Sydney Central to Loftus, and back, aboard the Sydney Single Deck Suburban F1, a.k.a. “the Red Lady”, which is operated under partnership between Transport Heritage NSW, Historic Electric Traction and Sydney Trains.  2) F1 readying to depart Central, Platform 1. Motor car C 7396 is on the Loftus end of the train. (Vincent Cavanagh)  3) Passing through Oatley station, where the first electric train ran from here to St James on 16 August 1926. (Vincent Cavanagh) We departed Sydney Central at 9:28am, travelling on the Eastern Suburbs Line to Redfern before continuing on down the Illawarra/South Coast Line proper towards Loftus railway station. We arrived at Loftus two minutes ahead of our scheduled arrival at 10:20am. Upon leaving F1 we were greeted on the platform and issued our tickets to the Sydney Tramway Museum by museum staff. The price of the entry tickets was included in the booking for travelling on F1.  4) Two kinds of heritage transport greeting us at the entrance to the Sydney Tramway Museum: a penny-farthing bicycle and Brisbane ‘Dropcentre’ #295. (Vincent Cavanagh)  5) 1975 Holden FC ‘Yellow Cab Co.’ taxi, Sydney Bus Museum. (Vincent Cavanagh)  6) Model A Ford in resplendent red paintwork among the line of members’ vehicles from the Model A Ford Club of NSW. (Vincent Cavanagh) We had only about an hour-and-a-half or so to look around the museum before we had to return to the station for our return journey to Sydney Central at approximately 12:05pm. Thankfully when we got to the museum gates, we found out that the museum had reserved the coupled Sydney O-Class trams (#1111 and Powerhouse Museum #805) for the passengers arrived from F1. We promptly took our seats as the tram set was about to head off on its shuttle along the rails to the Sutherland railway substation and back again, passing Loftus TAFE, University of Wollongong’s Sutherland campus and the Sutherland Army Depot.  7) 1920s P-Class #1497 ‘Toastrack’ tram returning from Sutherland railway substation, as viewed from Powerhouse Museum #805. (Vincent Cavanagh)  8) Powerhouse Museum O-Class #805 coupled behind Sydney Tramway Museum #1111 awaiting their next run up the line to the substation. (Vincent Cavanagh)
The Tramway Festival itself was not solely concerned with trams. The museum was host to classic automobile clubs, model ship builders and other modellers who were set up inside of Sutherland substation—sadly, we didn’t have any time to go in look ourselves—and the Sydney Bus Museum, which had brought along a heritage Sydney double-decker bus and Yellow Cab Co. taxi for visitors to ride in for the price of a gold coin donation—yet again, too little time.  9) Ballarat ‘Dropcentre’ #37 queued behind R1-Class #2001, both awaiting their next journeys. (Vincent Cavanagh)
After grabbing lunch from the 1st Sutherland Sea Scouts BBQ set up under the awnings of the Railway Square waiting shed (1907–1973) and a transference of monies inside the Museum Bookshop we made our way back to Loftus station to await the return of F1 from a siding in Waterfall station.
 13) State Rail Authority (SRA) map of Sydney System network, circa mid-1980s, above the doorway in C 3426. (Vincent Cavanagh)  14) F1 in Sydney Central Platform 1 at the end of the morning Sydney Tramway Festival Express shuttle. (Vincent Cavanagh)  15) F1 awaiting the start of the evening shuttle. Motor car C 7396 on the Loftus end of the train. (Vincent Cavanagh) We returned to Sydney Central at 12:55pm and made our farewells with F1. The second, and last, shuttle of the day would be leaving at 1:30pm. All in all, it was a very full day out indeed. Vincent Cavanagh 27 Feb 2024.
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To tell you this story, you have to meet Suzanne first. Here she is, a well known local hairdresser. What's new is that she is now running her own salon, after being either an employee of another salon or doing home visits for many years.  Here's her salon website page http://suzannessalon.weebly.com/ and the Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/SUZANNESSALON1/ (You will notice how very proud Suzanne and Louise are with the results of their hair colouring talents.) Anyhow, in her travels Suzanne saw this image (below) and had an idea.  She wanted something like this on her salon wall too, so she asked me to do it. The first step was working on the computer and using Adobe Illustrator to produce an image that could then be reproduced freehand grid-by-grid.  As you can see, this print out got a lot of use. Once Suzanne was happy with the size and placement on the wall, I got busy with a pencil, ruler and set squares to align the grid and then start the image.  It gradually took shape...  And looked a lot better once the no longer necessary grid lines were removed. Now onto the painting stage...  It was a different experience painting on a vertical surface rather than a horizontal one. To keep the edges and points as sharp as possible I made use of good quality masking tape. That's the blue masking tape you can see below.  And here it is, finished but for the removal of a few pencil marks that will come off easily from the 'wash n wear' paint background.  It was something completely different to what I normally do, and it feels good to have overcome all of the new challenges that came with it. Of course I'll see all the errors in it, and never be completely happy, (that's life as an artist), but hopefully Suzanne, Louise and their customers will enjoy it for many years to come.
Thanks Suzanne for trusting me with this project. |
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