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Jim Powe's "Visions of Steam"

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25.01.2022 The recent 165th anniversary is an opportunity to remember that, following his National Service, Jim joined the NSW Railways as an apprentice electrician. He was working on the signal boxes out of Clyde at the time his Centenary medallion was issued.

25.01.2022 Jim would have turned 86 today; here we see him about seventy years ago, surveying the northern extension of his O-gauge layout in the backyard of the family home in Thomas Street, Parramatta.

24.01.2022 3801 is still a few months from mainline action, but getting closer!

23.01.2022 After relocating, and re-assessing their holdings, our friends at the ARHS (NSW) are selling off some collectables next month.

23.01.2022 From 1960 until his death in 2009, Jim lived at Telopea, on the Carlingford Line. Its demise is as untimely as his was.

23.01.2022 Another positive development for 3801.

22.01.2022 Historic footage of 'Burra' operating in the early 1960s appears on our DVD 'Memories of a Railfan'.

22.01.2022 An eleven minute segment taken from Jim Powe's DVD 'In Steam', featuring a number of trains operating on the Carlingford Line in 1959. The DVD is available for sale direct from Jim Powe's "Visions of Steam", or from our friends at the ARHS Bookshop. (https://arhsnsw.com.au/product/in-steam/)... This excerpt copyright 2019 Pavonis Discretionary Trust ABN 75 709 553 509, trading as "Visions of Steam"

22.01.2022 A rare loco at the opening of the Canowindra extension 110 years ago.

21.01.2022 A lot of our heritage railways are in or near areas that have suffered through Australia's bush fire crisis. Visiting them is another way to 'Buy from the Bush'.

21.01.2022 Councillor Donna Davis' contact card announcing the 'Farewell to the Carlingford Line 1888 - 2019' event.

20.01.2022 What's On at the ARHS Open House #2? Just a couple of things from Scott McGregor's shed...

19.01.2022 LOCOMOTIVE 3801 RETURNS TO SERVICE! Transport Heritage NSW is pleased to announce the return to service of historic steam locomotive 3801. The locomotive ...will be officially relaunched at a special ceremony with Her Excellency the Hon. Margaret Beazley AC QC, Governor of NSW and the Hon. Paul Toole MP Minister for Regional Transport & Roads at Sydneys Central Station on Friday 27 March at 11.00am. The relaunch marks a new era for 3801 as it returns to the tracks for the first time since 2007 and inspires a new generation of rail fans. For more information on the relaunch, including a full list of 3801 events, visit: www.thnsw.com.au/3801

18.01.2022 Our friends at the ARHS are on the way back!

16.01.2022 Arguably the most famous NSW steam locomotive, the mighty 3801, built in 1943 is back out and about after a decade long rebuild. If you're between Picton and Goulburn you may just see her on the Main South Line over the next few days!

15.01.2022 Following the death today of "Australia's most famous train-spotter", former Deputy PM Tim Fischer, it seems appropriate to revisit his 2008 radio interview with Jim following the release of 'Trains and Railways of Australia'. The audio can be streamed as well as downloaded from the 'Download this mp3 file' link in this archived program. Jim's segment starts at the 8:00 minute mark.

14.01.2022 For Fathers' Day 2020: a shot of Jim with his Arriflex 16mm cine-camera, at an unspecified location circa 1974. (Ektachrome slide, photographer unknown.)

13.01.2022 Jims' good friend Dale Budd was a prime-mover in the push to develop Australian high speed rail back in the 1990s. It's deplorable that it still hasn't happened.

12.01.2022 A memory for Father's Day: this is part of the waist-high outdoor O-gauge layout that Jim's father built for him in the backyard of their Parramatta home in the late 1940s. Some of the tracks, with their powered third rail, were home-made (with the assistance of Jim's friend Brian Rowling) from the carefully severed and straightened rims of tin cans.

12.01.2022 LOCOMOTIVE 3801 STEAMS AGAIN! On Saturday 28 March, we had the pleasure of steaming locomotive 3801 for the first time since receiving its shiny new coat of p...aint. During this period of social distancing and in place of last weekends planned relaunch, we put together this short video as a small way of recognising the thousands of volunteer and staff hours put into the project. You can also now view images and more footage of the locomotive in its shiny green livery at www.thnsw.com.au/3801 We look forward to inspiring a new generation of rail fans across NSW with 3801 in the not too distant future!

11.01.2022 SE Sydney light rail at Town Hall Square today. Still on training wheels...

11.01.2022 Everyone in his family was well aware of Jim's enthusiasm for railways of all sorts. On the back of this photo, Jim's sister Norma wrote: "31/8/60 - Victoria Peak - Hong Kong.... The Peak Tram (Photo by Michael Quentin Janne) especially for Mr. J. Powe of Parramatta, N.S.W." That's a bit of Norma's dress in the bottom left-hand corner. [Jim's mother Doreen Powe (née Fine Chong) and Norma visited Hong Kong for six weeks from the end of August until mid-October 1960. Doreen was catching up with her cousin and adopted brother Arthur Janne (Cheng) for the first time in nearly thirty years.]

11.01.2022 It turns out that Jim's family connection with the railways of Australia goes back to the mid-1860s. That's when his great-grandfather John James Matters came out from Britain "under contract to Peto, [Brassey], Betts, and Co., to superintend the construction of the first Queensland railway, that from Ipswich to Brisbane." J J Matters eventually went on to roles managing rail- and tramway construction across NSW, as well as the Rushcutter's Bay tram power-house cum depot where his grandson Norman Powe would get his first permanent job in 1913.

10.01.2022 Jim's family connections with rail transport go back two generations before him: his father's first jobs were with NSW tramways and then the NSWGR. His uncle Harold was employed at the Eveleigh Workshops, and in his latter years grandfather Richard was a tram conductor. 'The Co-operator' was the short-lived union newspaper covering railway and tramway services across Australia. This is the masthead of the edition that announced Jim's father Norman had started work with the NSW tramways as a cleaner at the Rushcutter's Bay electrical sub-station: Norm was fifteen-and-a-half years old at the time.

09.01.2022 Fancy a visit to Quirindi?

08.01.2022 Today would have been Jim's 85th birthday. This photo of him in his editing studio, with its background of reel-to-reel tape-recorders and railway ephemera, was taken in 2007. Jim was going to use it for the dust-jacket bio photo in his book 'Trains and Railways of Australia', but in the end chose a rather older - but much less severe-looking - photo.

07.01.2022 Jim was a prolific cameraman, in both a private and a professional capacity. Before he upgraded to 16mm, he was filming in Super 8 with what appears to be a Beaulieu (others recall it to have been a Bolex) cine-camera. Here we see Jim cradling that camera on the platform between a double-header led by 3801 late in 1970. The 'bush jacket' Jim's wearing was a souvenir from his National Service days with the NSW Lancers in Parramatta 15 years before. (Retouched and reframed Kodachrome slide, processed in December 1970; photographer unknown, although probably Jim's wife Jan Powe.)

07.01.2022 Good news for regional NSW.

07.01.2022 This is not right.

07.01.2022 It's in the blood: a snap-shot by Jim's son Brad Powe of the classic ARHS triple-header featuring 3801, 3813 and 3820 out Menangle way on 10 December 1972. (B&W Kodak 126 cartridge, processed March 1973.)

06.01.2022 The late Brian Rowling's 'Camden Line' DVD is available from our friends at Train Pictures www.trainpictures.com.au

04.01.2022 3801 steams again!

04.01.2022 HAPPY BIRTHDAY NSW RAILWAYS! Today marks 165 years since the opening of the first railway line in New South Wales, between Sydney and Parramatta. People gathe...red in their thousands along the 22km stretch of line to catch a glimpse of the first official train, which left Sydney at 11.20am to a 21 gun salute. The first day of operations included six return passenger services with 3,554 tickets issued in total. Rare examples from those early years of the NSW railways survive today and are on public display, including Locomotive No. 1 at the Powerhouse Museum and Locomotive No. 78 at the NSW Rail Museum.

03.01.2022 Photos from the last day of heavy rail service on the line from Clyde to Carlingford, 4 January 2020

02.01.2022 Any Sydneysiders fancy a short excursion?

02.01.2022 Nice shot by Richard Stalling.

02.01.2022 Jim didn't just film the trains and railways of Australasia; as a cameraman for the ABC in Sydney, he did a lot of location work - including for GTK*, the precursor of 'Countdown'. The current 'Retro Month' on 'Rage' features an interview with the members of Creedence Clearwater Revival by Jeune Pritchard, one of the reporters Jim worked with. * 'Get To Know', hipsters ;-)

02.01.2022 Our friends at the OTHR are gathering steam.

01.01.2022 Telopea was Jim's station on the Carlingford line; in the early 1960s he'd travel from there to work as a railway signals electrician. He would not have been impressed at the incompetence of this decision, nor the failure to connect Carlingford to Epping with heavy rail.

01.01.2022 5711 features in Jim's DVD 'In Steam'.