Hilifta's on the move again.

[hilifta]

It'll be all peace and quiet on my front for the next 2 weeks.
I'm off tomoro night on the big tin turtle (Emirates A380), on my 26th annual pilgrimage to Bathurst and the sacred Mountain.
Hopefully a "few" more truck piccies along the way. I intend to have a snoop around the Sydney markets this time as I believe there are some cool trucks hanging around there.
My son is now involved with a coalmine upgrade at Appin, just south of Sydney.
I told him I'd like to come down with him one day after Bathurst, as I did last year to Port Kembla. He replied "Dad, there's nothing there, it's in the middle of nowhere".
My response was, "You said they loaded a coal truck every 60 seconds for Port Kembla".
He said I was a "silly old bugger".
That' not very nice!!!

Last year did note a couple of Mack Magnums on the coal run, so, hopefully, I may catch them!.
In the V8 Transporter scene, HRT, the premier Holden team, now have sponsorship from Nissan, so now run a NISSAN as the race hauler!. Boy they're gonna cop some stick for that.
Also the "Cars 2" film have some sort of deal with AVESCO and they bring along a "Cars" transporter to every race. It has been modified, it is actually a Mack, but it does look cool.

So guys if you do watch the Great Race, Sun 9th Oct, I'll give you a wave.

Mike (hilifta)

[G-CPTN]

Enjoy your trip! (and I'm looking forward to your photographs).

[Ian]

Maybe even a piccy of the A380 for our sister site avationnostalgia.com

Have a good trip Mike

[coastie]

Sadly, I don't think they show that race on TV over here.

[robertdavey6]

Originally Posted by coastie

Sadly, I don't think they show that race on TV over here.

I'm sure I've seen highlights, once or twice. Plus, there is lots of Bathurst video footage, on YouTube. Including, in car shots with fancy graphics, that show you what gear the car is in and percentage of brake or throttle.
unfortunately, it does sometimes feature strange things. Like Fords, rather than Holdens.

[hilifta]

As with all holidays this one was over much too quickly.
Still I did come back with a fair few photos, Trucks, 1427 photos, Bathurst 1015 and Sydney Airport 465. Plus 28 family type photos just to keep some balance!.
I had a quick look on Foreshore Drive on my 3rd day. They have almost finished extensions to the Container Terminal and have finished the new boat ramps and parking areas. In doing this they have created some beautiful walking and cycling tracks right on the foreshore. And they have also built a pedestrian bridge over Foreshore Drive which provides a fantastic place for truck photography. You will easily see my photos from this spot. Traffic is very heavy and you still will miss some shots. No worries just enjoy what you do get, there’s plenty of it.
For me the highlight here was the Mack Magnum B-double. I honestly never expected to see one of these as the Maggies have slipped down the pecking order these days.
I went back to this spot again on the Monday after Bathurst. I had intended to give the new Sydney Markets a go but I did not appreciated just how vast they are and the security is fairly daunting as well. Trying to find a park in the early morning darkness and impending rush hour was also a no no. I shall have to do some more research for next time I go, as there are some awesome trucks there.
Bathurst provided it’s usual highlights, the HRT Nissans looked a lot better than I expected, they were almost acceptable. I saw my first Cats up there, frustratingly all were in tractor mode only configuration.
They look very sleek and aerodynamic, rather like the Freightliner Century’s. Finally on the last night I did get one hauling a trailer. I subsequently saw a Cat dumper with a trailer in Sydney.
I did find a new photography spot just outside Bathurst, in Kelso, nice rising ground and I could stand back and get good shots in both directions. I even pulled out a chair from my camper and took my photos in real comfort.
Not a lot of the new Kenworth’s were seen though, bit surprising as they’ve been out a year now.
On my last day I went with my son down to the coal mine at West Cliff where he is a project engineer on the new coal washing facility. Safety issues meant I could not go in and have a looksea , but I knew this and there were more than enough trucks to keep me amused anyway.
West Cliff is 6km from Appin, and about 40kms from Port Kembla. The trucks operate 24hrs a day hauling coal either to the port, or hauling coking coal to the Blue Skope Steel mills.
The 9 axle B-dubs haul 44 tonnes per trip for an all up weight of 68tonnes, the slightly smaller 7 axles truck gross out at 57 tonnes. They do 7 round trips each per 8hr shift and each trip includes the very tough haul up and down the escarpment on the Mount Ousley road. The road drops around 300 metres and is very steep, (I’ve been unable to find the gradients for it). Trucks and busses heading down are limited to 40kph, but my observations would suggest they are going a bit slower than that, maybe about 30kph. (Any Aussie truckers on here care to comment on that). Going up trucks and busses are limited to the 2 left hand lanes only. It is an awesome piece of road and one that demands respect by all.
In the photos I took at the bottom, you can see just where it starts to climb, you have all day to set up for trucks coming down, but with those going up you have to be quick as they have their pedal to metal and are flying.
The escarpment is known as the Illawara escarpment and Mount Ousley Rd replaces the notorious Bulli Pass. West Cliff mine is up the top, on the Woronoa plateau.
The ordinary semi’s around the mine are hauling coal from the Appin mine to be washed at West Cliff.
Traffic on Appin Rd is very busy with many car transporters heading from Kembla to Cambeltown and the cars yards, thereby missing Sydney altogether.
I also spent a couple of hours outside the Cooks River rail transfer terminal and container yards in Sydney.
It is very tight around there and boy those drivers hauling the long B-dubs with 3x20 or 1x20 and 1x40 box have my respect as they thread those monsters through traffic on something that is not much bigger than a suburban street. Trucks can’t turn in from the LH lane, it is too tight, they have to be in the middle lane and the number of times I saw dumbarse car drivers try to go under them and pass on the LH lane. Crazy bast++ds.

I bought a new camera, a Nikon D7000 the week before I left so it was crash course learning how to use it, the manual is 324pages!!!. It takes all my lenses from the D70 which is good. The D70 was 6yrs old and has had a hard life, so it is now my backup.
I’m very pleased with it but I still have a lot to learn yet though.

So that’s it, hope this give some background to the photos I’ll upload in the near future.

Mike

[coachman]

My wifes reply when I told her how many truck and other type of pictures you had taken was '' that sounds about right '' what his poor family.

[robertdavey6]

By my calculations, 1427=(at 8 per day) nearly 6 months of posting, every single day!

[hilifta]

Coachman,
Your wife's not Australian is she, sounds like she may be related to mine, cause that's the reaction I'd get as well!!
Seriously tho, this is the "boys week away". The wife of one of the guys at Bathurst decribes it as the "Male bonding week!!'

Robert,
yeah i know, have to have a word with "the boss".