Cooroy Luncheon Tuesday 3rd December 2013

[ozbob]

Informal get-together at the Cooroy RSL for luncheon Tuesday 3rd December 2013.

Roma St 9.33am 'Gympie Lander'  Cooroy due at 11.57am

Return options:

Cooroy 2.03pm Nambour 2.25pm  Roma St due at 4.21pm

Cooroy 631 bus 3.38pm - 4.20pm Nambour

Break at Nambour for a look at Nambour station and local developments.

Options

Nambour departures 3:13 B3:51 4:30 B4:51 B5:22 5:53 B6:21 B7:20 8:13

B=bus

[ozbob]

From http://railbotforum.org/mbs/index.php?topic=5795.msg58963#msg58963

First day Gympie Lander 6 June 2011

Locals greeting the train.

Pomona!





Cooran!









Gympie North











Roma St





Photographs R Dow 6th June 2011

[ozbob]

Cooroy RSL --> http://www.cooroyrsl.com.au/

Menu --> http://www.cooroyrsl.com.au/rslpages/restaurant.html

[Stillwater]

While at Nambour, inspect the fenced off area beside the car park that is owned by QR and could be used as additional parking.  Until recently, it was Sunstrip Printers building.  Word is that the site contains asbestos.  Curious though, the weather has been dry and the wind has been blowing a gale.  If there was asbestos in the soil, it would have blown all over Nambour.  Proper asbestos treatment would be to have water sprinklers keeping the ground moist and preventing asbestos particles from spreading.

You would have thought that the best way to deal with asbestos would be to seal it in, beneath a layer of bitumen.

Also, inspect the former rail goods yard, also fenced off.  It is sealed and the car parking spaces marked out!  No, can't park there either.

DDA compliance that was to proceed now won't proceed.

Maybe we can call upon QR to spell out its plans for Nambour, particularly surrounding claims of asbestos in the Sunstrip Printers soil.

Do nothing seems to be the guiding principle at Nambour these days.

[Stillwater]

How many takers for a journey on the train past Nambour?  The daytime Gympielander journey allows one to see the line in operation.  The 'dance of the trains' is something to behold, as are the scaffold and plywood 'temporary' railway stations awaiting the realignment and duplication that is still 18 years away on current planning.

[ozbob]

Only me at this time SW ..

[Stillwater]

Hopefully the day will be warm, but the beer will be cold tomorrow.

[ozbob]

 

[ozbob]

Presently breakfast at Roma St ... 

524 bus 6.37 am Curnow,  19 pax, all transferred to rail at Goodna.

6.59am SMU283  ex Goodna, 3 car.  Good solid load, around 350+  out of Indro.

Changed trains at Milton for the following service EMU76 (6 car missed the second unit number) .. estimate 500 pax all up.

Used primary Senior go card 524 bus to Goodna rail.  Secondary go card Goodna - Milton.  Primary go card Milton to Roma St.  [transfers only work between same or adjoining zones] Now completed 2 paid journeys, remainder of the days travel now free (providing I wait one hour before touching back on).   This is the way it is .... 

[ozbob]

Left Roma St on time 9.33am sharp.  ICE 155/153.  The mighty Gympie Lander! 

Noted lots of rail grinders in the yards at Mayne.. 

[ozbob]

Beerburrum!  Lovely sunny day on the Sunny Coast today ...   

[ozbob]

Glasshouse Mountains, passed an UP freighter ... 

[ozbob]

" Dance " at Moolalah, passed another UP freighter at Eudlo.  Nothing passed at Palmwoods.

Woombye 11.26am on time, due Nambour 11.31am.

[ozbob]

Well, lovely lunch at the razzle dazzle.  Local tap dance group were having their Xmas party!  Fine time was had by all 

Good to catch up with SW and a local Councillor (soon to be).  Sunny Coast line, time for the changes!

Nambour next stop.

[Stillwater]

Councillor (elect) Sandy Bolton will be one of six councillors and a mayor to take charge of a re-formed Noosa Council from 1 January 2014.  Noosa has broken away from the SC Council.  Cr Bolton is keen for sustainable public transport throughout Noosa serving all, but especially those who live in the shire, away from the coast, for lifestyle reasons and because of the cheap rents.

Noosa and Sunshine Coast Councils putting united pressure on the state government to coincide with RailBOT making 2014 the year of action for the SC Railway Line.  Whoo. Whoo!

[ozbob]

   onboad smu 293 ...  we got the shunt at CAB ...  it is a good test of character CAB - IPS  lol

[ozbob]

Batteries about dead ....  see ya y,all 

[ozbob]

Well, I tried ... the urge for micturation got to me.  At Indro I had to abandon ship and head for the pub, which was the only loo that I knew I could  get a  weee ..   this is not a trite issue,  male or female,  if you have to go, you have to go ..

I am going to write to the Minister (yet again) about the need for a sensible toilet protocol. Maybe, cards, keys, I don't know, but if you have ever been caught short, I think you would understand why this needs to be addressed ..

[ozbob]

Photographs R Dow 3rd December 2013

[Stillwater]

The paint job on the Cooroy Railway Station a little while back didn't extend to the overbridge, which is well due for a lick of paint, even if only to preserve the timber (picture 6).  In an imaginative maintenance treatment, the worn and pitted tops of the timber supports have been filled with concrete (picture 7).

The overbridge does not comply with DDA requirements and is the ONLY location in Cooroy where pedestrians, cyclists, people in wheelchairs or scooters, and mothers pushing strollers, can cross from one side of town to the other.  While it is used frequently, the great majority of users are not rail travellers.

Against logic, QR argues that too few people (i.e. people who catch trains) use the overbridge to warrant an upgrade or replacement with a DDA- compliant structure.

A similar situation exists at Nambour, where the only practical means of getting from one side of town to the other, around the railway line, is via an underpass that was earmarked for an upgrade, but which has been cancelled since.

[James]

Well, I tried ... the urge for micturation got to me.  At Indro I had to abandon ship and head for the pub, which was the only loo that I knew I could  get a  weee ..   this is not a trite issue,  male or female,  if you have to go, you have to go ..

I am going to write to the Minister (yet again) about the need for a sensible toilet protocol. Maybe, cards, keys, I don't know, but if you have ever been caught short, I think you would understand why this needs to be addressed ..

Ozbob, as far as I'm aware, Toowong/Indro are both very good in terms of toilets being open, even late at night. Came across a locked toilet at Taringa last night around 7:30pm... slightly frustrating, but not too bad when your train trip is only 12 minutes long, and you have the option of bailing at Toowong and using a bus to get to the City.

It's a bit of a dilemma. I think the reason we don't hear much of it is because whenever people need to wee late at night on the rail network, they either do it in the train, on a nearby tree, or in a lift, and hence the problem is solved (apparently). I think TMR/the Minister probably think there are better things to do than try and fix the toilet situation, especially when so few would be doing long-haul rail commutes without toileted IMUs like CAB - IPS.

Probably a better idea to put toilets on the buses so when they get stuck in bus conga lines and road congestion for over an hour people don't need to get off the bus...

[ozbob]

It is actually a major issue for some folk James.  To the point that some people have stopped using public transport.  The Minister has been involved before in these matters. Every now and then there is a media beat up about something going wrong.  Even during the day many of the station toilets are closed except maybe a couple of hours in the morning.  One of the European railways actually has disposable urinal kits for passengers if needed!

Last evening I went to the pub as I have been caught out at Indro station loos being closed when I thought they would have been open.  I was strategically seated so I could go down the subway and to the pub. 

As the population ages it is going to become a real issue.