Harvest time - West Wyalong

While harvest is not quite in full swing yet in this neck of the woods, things are starting to hot up which is bloody awesome considering the past decade these guys have had to get through. Anyway, we were walking the dogs down to the main street for breakfast and I spotted a Volvo (sorry, Swish) N10 single-drive going through town. Always cool to see something old. We sat outside and I got a bit excited when a very nice bogie-drive F86 came through. She looked pretty good and I entertained the idea of going down to the town silos but then figured she was probably heading through town and beyond. On the walk home we saw the N10 heading out of town on the bypass so I came to the conclusion the F86 would do the same.

As soon as we got home I headed off to the silos and arrived in time to see the F86 driving off the scales. Pulled over and shot through the window to get this pic:



Watched him drive off and then drove further down the bypass to see where he ended up. He pulled into the line for a shed that was only about 300 metres from the 'main' entrance. Did a u-turn and parked up next to an old building where I could see the scales and where everything would have to pass me (except if they unloaded at the big concrete silos) in or out.

When I had jumped on the bypass after leaving home I ended up between two trucks. One was the first road train I had seen in this area and the other was a Ford Louie pulling a single trailer. They both turned left at the GrainCorp offices - I guess to get sampled at the yard opposite the silos (turned left again and out of sight). Anyway, they soon reappeared on the scales and I was able to figure out a pattern for trucks that 'disappeared' rather than going over the scales first. First was the road train:



Then the Louie:



As these guys were coming off the scales, as per the pics, a little Merc 1418 turned off to get sampled so I had hopes of seeing that again before having to head off for lunch at a friends' place. In the meantime, a couple of other trucks arrived and the Baxter KW below appeared from behind the shed where I was expecting to see the F86:





The 1418 performed as expected and reappeared over the scales (I'm assuming there's scales there based on the rolling forward the bigger trucks were doing, definitely no sampling):



About this time I figured it was time to head off to lunch so packed up and headed home via the bypass "just in case anything else was coming along." I literally drove off the road when I met this at the railway crossing...:



...and rattled off a heap of pics from the driver's seat. Thank goodness for an electric window that needs one press of the button to go down all the way as the lens cap came off pretty quickly. The old guy driving looked at me a bit weird, probably the way I got off the road and stopped. Haven't seen a working Flintstone for ages. I was still chuckling to myself when I got home.





We went out to lunch via the silos (to see the F86 leave - missed it though) and then came back home via the silos again to find the F86 back with its next load.

Some nice shots Andy !!

Cheers Adam

Andy
GuddayM8
Gr8 Pix
Keep mcummin

RE: the yello Flintstone
can remember the B models never went into upstuk exhausts
so the flinty next model after B me thinks
stuk with the pipe in front of the drive wheels
spose it keeps the grain clean th@ way

U can forgive a Volvo Owner/Driver
But not for much??

LOL



Cya

[ch9787]

That 1418 has escaped from S&M FOX's yard.You sure he didn't have load of coal on?

Cheers, guys, I still haven't wiped the smile off my face.

I don't know, Swish, have just been back (addicted) and noted a few more old Volvos. There must be something good about 'em. LOL. If I had've seen an F88/G89/whatever today it would have completed the set.

Hate to think how they'd class the coal, Rufo.

We ordered pizza for tea tonight so once Jodi ordered it I headed off to pick it up ... via the silos. A bigger line-up at the first shed and several also waiting to unload at the concrete silos. Kept on down the bypass to see the line and spotted this:



and this (close your eyes, Swish):



Well, these were the two I could get semi-decent pics of. It's occurred to me while downloading these shots that (and after further adventures detailed below) with the joint shut I could probably get away with driving next to the line - would certainly have got a better shot of the Merc anyway. Don't want to push my luck though so I'll try to speak to someone next time.

Anyway, I headed back past the silos and looked to my right to see what was lined up at the sample station. The 100th u-turn of the day was performed when I saw this in profile:



I drove into the sample area and parked out of the way before asking the RC's owner if I could take a pic. He was a nice chap from Bellarwi who had been hoping to make it to WW with his fourth load of the day before the silos shut. He was a bit late so his missus was coming to pick him up and he was back on the header tonight. With waiting pizza in mind, we had a quick chat and he told me the White has a 350 Cummins blown out to 400 coupled to a 15 sp RR. She's road train rated but he reckons she'd struggle with a second trailer. She gave him a bit of strife yesterday with blocked fuel filters. He certainly had a bit of passion for the truck and reckoned she was going all right given she'd been sitting around for a year. He's contracting at the moment and waiting for his crop to dry out a little but he said it's slow going harvesting due to everything laying down from the rains. Can't win sometimes.



This was parked in front of the White (and casting its shadow on the RC ... bloody Volvos). This is the N10 I saw this morning going through town:



This was behind the White and is something I hope to see more of - dinky little outfits pressed into service.



Guess what I'm doing after work tomorrow?

What about the 1419 and hopper pig trailer?
The thing's 40 years old and still got its original DB mirrors!

Wonder are the Mack and the little Benz stable mates going on the close rego plate numbers. Maybe in the rego office on the same day.

I thought she was pretty cool, Rufo, not that I know much about them - driver was nowhere to be seen, the RC's owner was the only person around till the KW in the background of the Merc pic arrived. All going well I'll bump into her driver in the near future and find out something about her - just depends how often I can get out there. Wouldn't mind seein how she looks on the inside too. This region never ceases to surprise me with its number of Mercs particularly up around the Forbes/Parkes area.

Bloody well spotted, Coupe. Pat (Melonreo) might know.

Andy,
Well done. Think you'd better chuck a sickie tomorrow just to make sure we've got plenty of pics to look at.