This image caused me some non-photographic problems. I've been going through my older shoots adding long-forgotten photos to my galleries to get my meagre image count up but this one brought me to a shuddering halt last week.

I wanted to do a write-up of where this train load of coal was coming from and going to, but extracting that information is like getting details of Soviet troop deployments in the 1960's. I know that there were coal mining operations in the Southern Highlands at one time, and there may still be. This coal is heading in a southerly direction but I'm not sure where to; could be a power plant, or there could be a spur line taking it off to Wollongong for export.

Anyway, it's a long, long train of an awful lot of coal. While the wagons in the distance suggest a placid pace, the motion blur on the near ones give lie to that; the train was cracking on.

A word of warning when you're on that bridge too... avoid doing so when a train comes through. The 82 class diesel locomotives expel their exhaust gasses straight up leaving you nicely roasted in kerosene fumes, and with a stunned expression on your face similar to that of Wyle E Coyote after the anvil drops on him.

As you can see from the image number, I think it was my first trip away with the 40D. It was also the last trip away with my old Hewlett Packard Smartphone which vanished from a decidedly un-smartly designed belt clip on the trip to Canberra. I had it when I arrived at Mittagong, I didn't when I reached Lake George. It was never heard from again.