Glenreagh

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Waiting at Glenreagh for the railway picnic train to Coffs. Note the containers in open wagons. These days we still have container traffic, but no longer have general traffic in open wagons. (Greg Lee)

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Location of Glenreagh (Six Maps)

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Glenreagh in about December 1983 or 1984 with No 11 North Coast Mail at the station (Bob Bell)

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Glenreagh, 2022 (Brian Leedham)

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Glenreagh, October 2022 (Brian Leedham)

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Glenreagh depot, 1948 (State Archives)

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Profile train 1904 at Glenreagh in 1935 (obscured) (State Archives)

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Greg Lee:

I'm back (woah woah the Monster's back; Dave Warner, 1978).
A very good friend of mind has unearthed some not-before-published photos of the 5088 on the Dorrigo Line on Saturday 30th August 1964. The photos were taken by the NSWGR archivist John Forthsyth and are part of the State Rail photo collection at the State Archives NSW.
I am going to post one a day, with my descriptions of, and comments about the scene.
In this first photo we see an early morning shot of the immaculately maintained platform at the Northern end of Glenreagh station.
Of interest to me is how much "better" people dressed in those days. I am somewhat surprised to see that no one appears to be smoking.

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Peter Neve:

Stations of the North Coast Line
Peter Neve  · 1 h  ·
DORRIGO EXCURSION WITH 5088
I have been asked if I would post some photographs that I have taken of train operations on the Glenreagh-Dorrigo branch line on this Facebook Page. I have travelled only twice on the branch, both occasions being on excursion passenger trains. Although some years after branch dieselisation, steam traction was used on each trip, 5261 on the one and 5088 on the other.
Recent photos posted have been those taken by John Forsyth (JHF) from the State Archives Collection of the trip with 5088. I can support these with my own – both in colour and black & white, unless viewers get sick of them!
Contrary to previous statements, this excursion was not one organised by the Australian Railway Historical Society, but was a side-trip as part of a visit by the NSWR's "Vintage Train" to Murwillumbah and Condong as part of a local Banana Festival. JHF was at the time Archives Officer for the Department and accompanied the "Vintage Train" on all of its operations.
This was a time when the Traffic Branch of the Department did not look kindly to some railfan tour operations and so the Secretariat would arrange for the "Vintage Train" operation to be supported by public patronage! It had been proposed that a side-trip to Dorrigo be added to the journey, particularly as diesel traction was to be used on the main North Coast line because of pathing difficulties in the limited times available. What made these trips particularly attractive was that only normal fares were charged, rather than much higher fares which had to be charged to meet the operating fees set by Traffic Branch! The weekend's activities were covered in the then "NSW Digest" (forerunner to the current Australia-wide coverage of "Railway Digest") in its September 1964 issue. At that time, Digest was published at the end of each month, just in time for the next month's ARHS/nsw Sydney meeting. Basically, for the travelling railfans, the itinerary was Sydney-Murwillumbah-Glenreagh-Dorrigo-Glenreagh-Sydney. The sleeping car train had been hauled from Sydney to Casino by d/e 4401, then by 5907 (oil) to Lismore, where the consist was reduced to the "Vintage Train" passenger carriages of CBC, CBC, HX along with the AB dining car and TAM sleeping car for the buffet staff, for the final section to Murwillumbah with vintage locomotives 1243 and 1709. On arrival, 1709 was detached and turned, leaving 1243 to take the train over the extension to the Condong sugar mill, normally only used for sugar cane traffic. 1709 brought the train back from Murwillumbah, then with 1243, took the train back to Casino – 5907 having returned with the sleeping cars earlier. Overnight, 4416 took the sleeping car train from Casino the relatively short distance to Glenreagh. Here, there was an extended delay of 75minutes awaiting a connection with the late running No. 3 Brisbane Express, conveying a contingent of 16 Victorian and NSW enthusiasts (plus yours-truly) bound for Brisbane at a lengthy tour of the Queensland rail network by special train.
My first photo shows 5088 standing at the head of its train in the back (or branch line) platform at Glenreagh. For those who do not know the track arrangements at Glenreagh, it was almost as if the Dorrigo branch had been a privately operated line, with a simple connection to the NSWR's North Coast line. Thus Glenreagh had and island platform with the eastern side serving North Coast Line passengers. There was also a crossing loop (without a platform) for the crossing of opposing trains on the main line. The get to the branch line train, one had to walk to the other side of the island platform. This western side also had the facilities to service Dorrigo line trains, including a turntable.
I had forgotten that the Dorrigo side trip was done of the return from Murwillumbah, so initially I had been puzzled by the location of this photo. The special train has been shunted from the main line side of Glenreagh's platform to the branch line side and the consist reduced to AB dining car (it's a long trip to get to Dorrigo and back in a single day!), TAM sleeping car (for the buffet staff who somehow seemed to enjoy these trips, despite the long and difficult hours worked), CBC sitter and HX sitter with guard's compartment. The residue of the main line sleeping cars for the passengers can be seen stowed on the adjacent track. Of interest is the location of the men's toilet, off the platform itself, a common feature with such facilities at country locations. The ladies on the other hand would always find their facility as part of the station building.
To complete the weekend's activities, 4416 took the re-amalgamated train from Glenreagh back to Broadmeadow, thence steam with 3838 to Gosford and electric 4616 for the final 50 miles to Sydney.
JHF's photos have provided a differing aspect of the day's excursion, while the local knowledge of Greg and Chris are making it possible for me to more correctly identify the locations on my many photographs taken on the day. Thanks, guys!
The date for the branch line trip??? Sunday, 30th August 1964. Bringing back some old, old otherwise almost forgotten memories of some 58 years past!

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Glenreagh in 2003 (Susan M Woodhouse)

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Glenreagh mid 90s (Syd Ramsay)

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Glenreagh, 19/12/2002 (Neil Munro)

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Goods shed and station at Glenreagh, 1997, uncredited

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Glenreagh in 1958 (C Winney)

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No. 11 North Coast Mail at Glenreagh, 29/10/1976 (Neil Munro)