I decided to head trackside on Sunday morning, as a bit of a refresher after having been on holiday. This however was going to be no normal Sunday trackside.

Only having the morning to spare, I didn’t want to venture too far – first stop was Thornleigh. Not long after arriving I heard a familiar grumble of EMDs, but unfortunately wasn’t in the best position through distracting myself with things like cleaning the camera lens. Therefore I have to present the colourful combo of LDP004/LDP003/CLP10/CLP13 in two ordinary pictures where of course one good shot of all four (with some of the SCT loading) would have been preferable …

After a while of photographing regular passenger trains …

… 4486 came through light engine.

This was interesting enough in itself, but not as interesting as what was to follow. A Flemington S set. A Flemington S set in Hornsby territory. A Flemington S set in Hornsby territory with two of the AK track recording cars in the middle …

It turned out this was a trial run, to see how it performed so it could be used in the underground lines in place of diesel locomotives (even though the ones used have exhaust scrubbers, it of course would not be ideal in underground conditions).

Well, the chase was on, or more to the point, try and be in a good spot for the return trip … I decided to relocate, and gambled on Meadowbank. It was a gamble as I would again be on the opposing platform, and shooting into the light. Upon arriving, and before getting over to the other platform, NR113/NR53/NR22 came through, but again (as I had just stepped on the platform, and didn’t have time to get in position) the fence got in the way of the trailing shot, but at least this time I had better lighting.

Thinking I may have missed it, I wasn’t sure whether to hang around or not, but did anyway, but the shot I setup for though was to be blocked by a suburban service. I had taken a gamble and lost out – oh well, these things happen. 4486 dutifully followed (it was acting as pilot), albeit some distance behind.

I headed back towards the city, by which time I received word that the trial train was to perform a second run (needless to say I wasn’t the only one that saw it) – I had missed the second outward journey, but wanted to catch the return. I looked around Stanmore, Petersham, and Ashfield for a spot, and wasn’t happy – I decided to try near Burwood, and found somewhere for a nice trailing shot of it rounding the curve on the up main.

Whislt waiting I captured a few “normal” trains, some well groomed, others not so much …

As another S set came from behind on the Suburban lines, little did I know it was the test train, for as mentioned I had expected it on the main line, so my shots again were disappointing as I had visualised something else, and improvised badly. This time though I didn’t have to wait long for 4486, as it followed very closely.

Overall, whilst the photos were ordinary, it was a good morning of interesting sightings. Hopefully there will be more trials so I can have another go …

More pictures can be found here.

Enjoy!