Squeakaz Squawking's ....

The last Sunday of January was spent at Zig Zag Railway at Clarence. Clarence is located approx 10km's out of Lithgow. This is something I had wanted to do for a few years now and I knew it would help in reliving childhood memories. I thoroughly enjoyed the day. I have taken a few photos which I will upload to Flickr shortly. The steam train ride took us from Clarence station to Top Points Station, where the loco ran around the carriages and then from Top Points station down to Bottom Points station. Bottom Points Station is where the Zig Zag meets up with the main west line for CityRail services to Sydney and Lithgow. After a short stop over there we headed back to Clarence. Once back at Clarence I got a lesson from the loco driver about the safeworking staff and ticket system used on the Zig Zag Railway. The Zig Zag railway is run and preserved by volunteers. It is a great day out. - Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Time for a little catching up. Its been 2 weeks since I last posted and to be honest nothing really major has happened. Let me see... I am really enjoying my job and I am loving the shifts. It is mainly night work as we do the majority of the testing when the other trains have finished their runs for the night. This means I am sleeping during the day and surprisingly I am managing to obtain 7-8 hours sleep, even with my inconsiderate neighbours. On the new home front everything is moving along nicely at the moment. I shall have an update for my building blog http://www.squeakbuilds.blogspot.com this weekend. Our little puppy is growing fast and is currently in the rebellious teenager stage of his life. This is proving to be a lot of fun as he is choosing to ignore alot of the ground rules that have been set down for him. Here is a pic: In my previous post I mentioned that I am struggling on the night photography front. It had been a few...

I long to be able to take a night shot such as this. My attempts to this time have been unsuccessful, but I am not going to give up. It is quite obvious that the train is the focal point in the photo, but capturing the beautiful city/Harbour Bridge in the background, really makes it. I know this section of track and it is not exactly the best location lighting wise. Gunzel412 has done a great job to use the limited lighting available to capture the colours of the train and the stainless steel body has been brought out with a little assistance from the LED lighting emitting from on board the train and the street lights from the road deck. Only thing I can pick on here (which is no fault of the photographer) is the Harbour Bridge could of had a few more lights on. This would of been the case if the photo was taken earlier in the night before Sydney goes into "power saving mode" overnight.  

Original After using Camera Plus It looks like a model, but its not. Its a pretty cool feature of an iPhone app called Camera Plus. It works really well on shots taken looking down from a great height. It also works on shots taken close up but not as well. It also depends on what is in the image as to how good it works. Here is another example. My train at Clyde

This was taken with my iPhone 4. It is a shot I hope to get one day with my camera but in the afternoon in the "glory hour". It was taken one morning at Macarthur Station in Sydney's South West. I was testing out the iPhone's updated software including the HDR photo's. It turned out exactly the way I wanted and I am still  shocked that my phone took this photo.

It was a weekend where there was nothing scheduled to do. So we hopped in the car and headed out to the auctions at Windsor. With them having nothing to offer us it, whilst thinking of things to do I remembered they were testing CityRail's newest train "The Waratah" or "A" set on the Richmond branch line. I made a phone call and found out it was at Clarendon. So off we went. I snapped up a few shots and had a few words with the crew and protection officer and played a little game with a power tripped SNP security guard. The evening was a pleasant one. We attended a BBQ at Drue's house and I had an exceptional time. All I will say on that is "boobies". 

Click to watch video on Flickr As seen at Central Station in Sydney at 420am one morning after completing testing on the City Circle. This Video was taken on my iPhone 4 and edited in imovie on my iPhone 4

My Millennium train standing on the platform at Liverpool. I wasn't sure what result I was going to get when I took this photo, But I am please with how it turned out. Its an angle we don't get to see thing from on a day to day basis so a camera is a the perfect thing to capture and experience the different views that can be had.  The yellow of the yellow line, doors and hand rails and the brightness this night photo needs to get the point across. Just the right amount of light as well without a flash. 

This is a photo that I am not sure what happened to it, however I do like the effect. I was going for a pan shot but instead got this which has no real focus point but the blur seems to come out in a circle formation from the centre. It seems to play tricks on my eyes every time I look at it so I would recommend looking at it only when sober. Something a little different from a photo that would normally be discarded. 

Headed out to Luddenham in Sydney's south west to have a look at some model trains, cars & planes. The day was rather windy so not many planes were in the air but that didn't stop the trains and cars. At the Model Farm on Luddenham Rd, I got a glimpse at some 5 & 7 inch model live steam trains. Click one of the photos below to view the rest of the photos from SSME Luddenham.   (Click photo to view on Flickr) Shortly after we headed out to Vicary's Winery, which incorporates The Train Shed. On weekends and public Holidays they run Thomas and Friends 5 inch model trains for kids to ride on. They have - Thomas, Gordon, Percy and a few others. Click on one of the photos to view the other trains at The Train Shed.   (Click photo to view on Flickr)

(Click photo to view on Flickr) On a beautiful winters day in Picton, warm enough not to need a jumper, I was to meet up with David, Woo, Azzie and Beau for afternoon tea. I arrived a little early to take in the quaint little town and grab a few shots of some trains. The first train I came across was a freighter. Above is the leading loco NR109. This is the first time I have seen this loco in the wild, and yes I know what most of you are thinking "he has to get out more". I was trying for a motion blur shot and I think I got it just a little bit. What do you think?

Sunday started off a fairly normal day with my morning at work taking me to Penrith and Blacktown a few times. The diagram was fairly lengthy, a total of 213km's, in such a short shift, 7hrs and 37mins. (Click to view on Flickr) I was keen to get this out of the way as the afternoon had me heading south again. This time it was to Thirlmere and the days events at the Rail Museum "A day out with Thomas the Tank Engine". (Click to view on Flickr) A fantastic afternoon was had and many photos taken before heading home and early to bed for another early start on Monday. The rest of the photos from the day can be seen here

(Click photo to view on Flickr) Travelling to Liverpool one morning I decided to grab my camera out and have a play with a few night shots and long lowlight exposures. This photo is of a Millennium train passing the train I was travelling on. The things I like the most about this photo is the sky and the rails.

Saturday seen the end of my working week. My day at work had me taking trains to Hornsby, Blacktown and Carlingford. For my trip to Hornsby I was expecting a Tangara to turn up, however an S Set showed. I will have to have words to Leigh about this. When I was rounding the corner between Seven hills and Blacktown fog started to appear. It seemed it was from Blacktown West that was covered in Fog. It was then time for a few trips to Carlingford on the Clyde to Carlingford Line. In the evening Mrs squeak and I headed up to Blaxland to visit some friends and for dinner. A bonus of visiting them is they have a puppy. They have a beagle "Marley"