dinmore

it seems only fitting that my next blog entry be about our new primary station, dinmore! the dinmore station is on the ipswich line and is absolutely no where near where we live, yet has become the most convenient station for us, as i shall now outline. an advantage of living at emerald hill, happens to be the proximity to the highway to brisbane. the close access to the highway means that getting to work of a weekend becomes a much faster process, by simply driving along the highway to brisbane city and winding my way along the beenleigh line and cleveland line to carindale. another advantage, is that where the ipswich and toowoomba highways meet at dinmore, there happens to be a train station with a rather large carpark. while geographically speaking, there are several stations which are actually closer to our house on a map: karrabin, wulkuraka, thomas street, ipswich, east ipswich, booval, bundamba, and ebbw vale; we have chosen dinmore as our primary station. make no mistake, we did persevere with the ipswich station for several months, but found that dinmore just suited us a little better.

the dinmore station is located between riverview to the east, inbound towards the city, and ebbw vale to the west, outbound towards ipswich. we worked out that if we drove to dinmore of a morning along the highway, it took almost as long to get there as it would to drive to the ipswich station. the main problem we had with ipswich was that the carpark was not exactly close to the station, and walking up the hill of a morning when we were running late became a case of  'drop karen at the station and drive to the carpark and run up the hill as fast as i can so i don't miss the train'. (essentially i am euphemistically saying that i am lazy.) the return journey was also a bit tedious, as we were tired after our days at work and uni and by the time the train had glided into ipswich and we had gotten up the ramp, down the hill and to the carpark and driven home, we could have already been home if we had gotten off at dinmore and driven along the highway to home. we actually timed the tow journeys on a few occasions and this was what helped us to determine that dinmore, despite being further away, actually worked out to be the best station for us. we get there faster, can get an earlier train, and get home faster. we had found a new home base at dinmore.

quite often of a morning while waiting for the train to central, we could see small lumps of coal on the inbound platform, a sign of the coal trains which travel along the ipswich line to corinda where they turn and join the beenleigh line to yerongpilly where they travel past PACE to join the cleveland line at park road. it was always nice to keep the occasional small lump of coal for the beginnings of my element collection. some day i hope to have a collection of elements to rival theodore gray - yes theo i am coming for you!

sometimes of an evening when we got off the train at dinmore, we would get to see a diesel waiting on the tracks for the commuter trains to clear. i was always excited by the diesels, and i still am (more on that later). sometimes the diesels were empty coal trains heading back towards ipswich where i presume they then go up through toowoomba and gowrie junction which is behind where i used to live. other times there would be empty cattle trains, as there is a large cattle yard just next to the station. of an evening when we had seen a diesel with cattle cars at the station, you could be pretty certain that the next morning when the train left dinmore and was heading to riverview, you would see cattle in the pens.
i must also make a mention that the guard at the dinmore station has always been great to us, and brightens our morning when we arrive in a rush to top up our go cards before rushing up and over the footbridge to catch our train.

a diesel! actually, two diesels together!! these little diesels have no carriages and were casually heading through dinmore one evening after we got off the train. naturally, i had to get a photo of them just for this blog! i still stand by the statement that it would be so fun to ride in one of these diesels! maybe some day one of the drivers may blow the horn/whistle as they go past, that would be wicked! this photo is taken from platform 1, looking across at platform 2.

far from my best photography, but after the diesel had chugged its way past us, i thought it would be cool to get a photo of the dinmore sign from across the platform. i have often wondered why the dinmore name is in italics. if anyone can tell me why, it would be nice to know. i have noticed a lot of stations with their signs in italics. i think it is a bit hard to read, especially when i am not wearing my glasses. a nice strong bold font would be good i think, especially for the half blind people like myself!

the carpark! yes, it is seriously that big! that green thing in the distance is an overpass from outside the station to the nearby school where one of my friends went. this photo was taken mid morning just after i arrived and was resigned to parking right at the end (this is why i hate starting class late!) though if you do have to start late, at least you know that at dinmore you are still likely to get a carpark, which cannot be said for ipswich or norman park (though at least at norman park you have a chance to park in the street, unlike ipswich, which has the added hazard of flooding potential). my car emmy even managed to sneak into this photo!

from the footbridge looking toward the riverview end of the dinmore station as the ipswich train arrives. this shot also gives a good view of the carpark on the right of picture. it is massive! it is difficult to see, but the cattle pens are to the left of the ipswich train as she is rolling in to platform 1 on the right side of the photo.

i moved further down the footbridge as the ipswich train arrived on the platform. the ipswich train arrives a few minutes before the city train as a rule.one thing i like about the layout of the station is that when you are waiting for a city train on platform 2, you get a great view of the ipswich bound trains as they are approaching the station on platform 1.

the dinmore station sign, this one is on platform 2 behind the footbridge staircase.as i have mentioned, i do not understand why the name is written in a small italic font when there is a beautiful big sign to be used. fill it up with the text of the station name i say!! in this shot you can also make out the speaker at the end of the sign, this is where the announcements for approaching trains are broadcast. there is a speaker at each end of the signs.
 

looking along platform 2 towards the ebbw vale end of the station. the platform is not overly wide, but there is definitely heaps of room for all the passengers. the platform is always packed of a morning with all the commuters heading in to the city. we noticed this even when we used to get on the train at ipswich when we first moved to emerald hill. each morning as the train pulled in to dinmore, no matter which morning train we got, there were always a lot of people piling on to the train. it is a very busy station as it services a large area and this is why (i guess) it has such a big carpark.
you can see the ipswich train is still on platform 1, about to depart for ebbw vale. as it heads towards ebbw vale, it will pass under the traffic bridge, which is visible right of centre, near the top of the train. i have a few photos from that bridge coming up in a moment!

here it comes! the train arriving on platform 2 is the brisbane city and caboolture train, stopping all stations. this photo is also a descent effort to capture the footbridge linking the platforms. the white building to the left of the photo on platform 1 is the dinmore station office, where the friendliest guard on the network operates every morning. he is used to us running in to put money on our cards before departing for another day in the city. i took this photo from the riverview end of platform 2.

the caboolture train arrives on platform 2 for me (and the other commuters as well of course!) i think this is a pretty good photo of the train as it arrived on the platform. i always like riding in this model of train, as you can move from one end of the train to the other, without having to go through the doors joining each carriage. another advantage of the lack of doors between carriages, is that you can see from one end of the train to the other, and it is pretty neat to watch the train bend as it goes around corners, like when approaching central from roma street.

the dinmore sign from the riverview end of the station on platform 2. there is a small carpark next to platform 2, but the main carpark is on the platform 1 side.

another day, another train! this time i wanted to capture an ipswich train approaching platform 1 from the riverview end and capture the carpark and the tracks as it approaches dinmore station. this shot kind of shows the vastness of the parpark on the platform 1 side. the parking is certianly an advantage of the dinmore station!

the ipswich train as it approaches platform 1 from riverview. i have also captured the signal in the shot for the city bound train. i have a theory that if the light is green, nothing has been through recently, so a train could be due soon. i just havent worked out how to define the "soon" yet without the use of a timetable!

the ipswich train as it is departing platform 1 of dinmore on its way to the next station ebbw vale. we have used the ebbw vale station before; but usually reserve it for thursdays when we have a later start and the dinmore carpark has unfortunately filled (yes it does happen!), or on the occasion the karen drives, as she prefers to drive through the city than the highway with her car, and so in that instance, ebbw vale is the closer station.
in the background here is the green footbridge which goes over the highway towards to the dinmore station and is often used by students of the nearby school.

looking from platform 1 towards the carpark at the ebbw vale end of the station, you can see the top of the green bridge, which i had never used before until i did some research for this blog!

i really like this shot, could only have been improved if i had a train in the photo! this is platform 1, ebbw vale end of dinmore station looking across at platform 2 from behind the footbridge. you can see some of the art work on platform 2, as there is a small mural along the platform.

platform 1 heading towards the carpark, you can see the green bridge a little clearer here. platform 1 is to the right of the shot, but not visible. this entrance to the station is about halfway along the station, near the station office.

this is a better shot of the bridge from the upper level of the dinmore station carpark.

the entrance to the green bridge over the highway. its pretty elaborate hey. as i was walking towards the bridge for the first time, i heard an announcement that an express train would be passing the station in approximately one minute. thinking ahead, i decided i would try to photograph the express train, regardless of what it was, from the traffic bridge at the ebbw vale end of the station.

yay i was a diesel! and not just one deisel, but two!!! bargin! these two diesels were travelling in opposite directions, and just happened to be passing through dinmore at just the right time for me to get a photo. what are the odds? this shot was taken from the bridge that all vehicular traffic uses to travel over the train line just near the station. you can see dinmore station right of the centre of the shot. the lovely big carpark is on the right, but not really visible. this shot is at the ebbw vale end, looking towards the riverview end. i just couldnt believe my luck!

its a shame i hadnt been faster running the length of the bridge to get the two trains side by side from this angle like the one above, but i'm not the fastest runner in the world, so i didnt stand a chance. the empty coal train is heading towards ebbw vale, the fully loaded coal train is heading towards riverview. it is a shame the vandals always paint the train carriages like the one in the foreground.

all gone. i waited until both diesels were out of shot range to get a photo of the empty tracks and the dinmore station. i think it looks great from this angle and elevation. the carpark is a little more visible now on the right. platform 2 is on the left, platform 1 is on the right.

ok, so now back to the green bridge! this was what i had set out to photograph before being easily distracted by the two passing diesels! this artistic sign is at the top of the entrance to the green bridge. i like that the r in dinmore has a train on it. i was genuinely surprised that the gaps between the green metal were as large as they were, because from a distance they dont look big at all.

this sign is at the bottom of the staircase leading up the the green overpass from dinmore station to the other side of the highway. i like that is has the tree branch on it, it looks really pretty. im not sure what the empty space below the dinmore sign is for, perhaps if something goes in that space in the future, i will have another photo to add to this blog.

i decided to go up the steps, it is sort of a multi level staircase, so this shot of the carpark and the dinmore station was from the first level looking across at the station office.

the next level, so a little more elevation to see the dinmore carpark. i really tried to get a better shot of the carpark to show off its vastness and also tried to capture the cattle yards towards the middle right of the shot.

from the top i managed to get a shot of a cargo diesel on its way through dinmore heading towards ipswich. i was a bit slow to get the shot so most of the carriages have gone, but it just shows that many different types of cargo trains go through this station.

i walked to the end of the green bridge then turned around to look back at where i had come just to get this shot. this is looking towards the dinmore station. i can remember when we were moving to emerald hill we werent sure of any of the suburbs, and as we went through each one on our way, we both had said that we could probably get away with using 'the green one' when referring to potential train stations. at that stage we didnt even know its name was dinmore, and referred to it via the colour of this bridge. i can now officially say that i have walked over 'the green one' and that 'the green one' is actually our primary station. i really like the architecture that has gone into the design of this bridge and all the others like it along the highway for other train stations. one thing that appeals to my obsessive compulsive side is that dinmore is 'the green one' and the ipswich line is also green. i like that.

coming off the bridge, this is just a little shot of the stairs looking down from the top. i think the only reason i took this one was for completeness. you cant seen the dinmore station, but it is to the right of picture and the tracks are pretty much in the middle of the shot. the bridge where i got the photos of the diesel is to the right, behind the trees. 

this is the same photo again, but this time with a diesel heading through the dinmore station, on its way from ebbw vale towards riverview and onwards to the port of brisbane. this photo was actually taken on a different day in case it wasnt obvious. 

ok, this series of photographs has a rather amusing story to tell. how can photos of a diesel possibly be amusing you may ask (if you have read this far!)
well, as the ipswich train departed dinmore for ebbw vale on this particular afternoon, i happened to be having a glorious text message conversation with a friend (yes, it was about trains! hence it was glorious!) and as i got off the train, i saw a diesel with cattle cars chugging its way through dinmore on platform 2. i was excited to finally see one in the afternoon where the light was still bright enough to get a descent photo...or series of photos!
so excited was i that i threw my phone into my bag without locking it, and reached for my camera and started to take a few snaps, this was my first shot of the diesel.

excitedly, i ran up the top of the foot bridge to get a shot of the diesel as it came through the dinmore station. the whole time, my poor phone was unlocked in my back, and with each step, my books in my backpack added random letters to the unfinished text to my friend. i managed to get this great shot though, while totally unaware of my phone situation.
  

i zoomed in to get a better view of the diesel from the top of the footbridge. the platform to the left of shot is platform 2. at the top of the shot you can see the cattle cars snake around off the main city bound tracks. there is a spare track here next to the cattle sale yards where i can only but presume the diesel was unloading cattle prior to the city bound train departing platform 2. the city train and ipswich trains usually arrive at a similar time at dinmore, so my guess is the diesel waited on the side track for the line to clear before resuming its journey, which happened to coincide with the arrival of my ipswich train, and enabled me to get these photos!

i had to come back down to platform 1 to get a few close up shots. the whole time, yes, my phone was still unlocked, and by now had managed to send my friend several quickfire texts of an incomplete message with a few random characters attached to the end. while he was worried something had happened to me, i was in my element admiring the diesels.
when i was a child the majority of the diesels i saw were painted like the second one here, the blue and grey colour scheme. i remember that i liked them then, and still like them now.

here is a close up of one of the cattle cars as the diesel rolls through dinmore station in the late afternoon. you can tell by the cow dung that some cattle had been in the car recently!

its pretty long hey! from the riverview end of the dinmore station, looking east. i had never seen the cattle trains come through in daylight before, so this was quite a thrill for me!

just a slightly zoomed in shot of the photo above, this time i managed to show the side track a little clearer, where the diesel waits for the tracks through dinmore to clear. the cattle yards are to the left, not visible, but i assure you they are there! 

this shot is from the riverview end of the dinmore station, looking back at the ebbw vale end. by now the diesel had started to pick up some momentum, and my phone had managed to send about 30 or so copies of the same incomplete text message to my friend. slightly embarrassing, but something we still laugh about today. you can see from the sky that the sun is almost set, so i couldnt have timed this any more perfect even if i had had a timetable for the diesel!

this is the perfect photo to finish this blog entry with, and it isnt exactly a part of the station, but i think it sums up the area nicely. dinmore really is the gateway to the ipswich city, and it certainly feels like that when you are driving home of a weekend, as im driving over the ipswich train line between riverview and dinmore, i know that i am almost home. its a good feeling. this sign is on the opposite side of the green overpass to the dinmore station, facing out onto the traffic intersection. i saw it one afternoon after leaving the dinmore station to go and get petrol, and thought it would be great to get a shot of for more blog.

i didnt realise until i finished writing this entry, just how many photos and how much there is to say about this train station.t has been an epic, and i am sorry it has taken so long to write. the photos were taken over a series of many outings, and i hope you have enjoyed reading about this station as much as we enjoy having dinmore as our primary station, our new home base.

norman park

the norman park station had been our home base station for the first three years of my degree. living at upper mount gravatt, there are no trains that service this suburb, though there are plenty of buses. since i like trains though, we decided that the train to uni would be the best option. my aunty marie lives rather close to the norman park station, and so we initially decided we could drive to maries house, and park there and walk to the train. this was our routine throughout most of 2010 when i was studying biomedical science for a year at uq. when i changed degrees for 2011 into pharmacy, we decided that since classes started earlier, we were better off parking at the norman park station itself. karen particularly enjoyed the train that went though norman park at 8:30 because she could always get a seat and it was mostly empty so it was always quite and relaxing for her.

the norman park station is one of the most beautiful stations on the network in my opinion. maybe i am biased because it was my primary train station for so long, or maybe because it is the station i have had the longest rapport with - whatever the reason, i still think it is a beautiful station and any other station that wishes to challenge for the most beautiful station title will have its work cut out to impress me. the artwork all around the station is truly nice to look at while waiting for a train to the city or to cleveland. this station is on the cleveland line, between coorparoo inbound and morningside outbound.

while norman park is no where near where we live now at emerald hill, it still serves us well. we visit this station every so often, whether we are planning on visiting marie to drop off some dvds or books for her, or we have some shopping to do on that side of town, or i have placement at carindale - there can be many reasons for us driving from emerald hill, all the way to norman park station. when we first moved to emerald hill and were catching the ipswich train, we both commented how it felt like we were on the wrong train, and we were laughing as the names of the "new" stations were announced to us for the first few times. we really did feel like we were on the wrong train, and that we had been spoilt by having norman park so close to us at upper mount gravatt. even now after having been on the ipswich line since october, the cleveland line still feels like home on the odd occasion we get to take it "home" to norman park. incidentally, norman park is the home of australias former and now current prime minister, kevin rudd. aunty marie once told us years ago before he was elected prime minister, that one day she was walking home from the train and had just started to cross the road, when a car came flying around a corner and almost ran her down. the driver stopped and wound down their window "sorry marie" said mr rudd. maries response was "oh, mr rudd!" and shook her head. they both laughed. krevin rudd had given marie many awards for her work in the green reserve, so her knew who she was. the story always used to make us laugh, especially when marie tells it.

it is quite amusing when we drive to norman park from emerald hill - because we get to follow three train lines! we follow the ipswich line inbound along the highway, then we follow the beenleigh line inbound near rocklea, where we actually go past the moorooka station. following ipswich road inbound, just after the princess alexandra hospital where we turn right, the cleveland line goes over the road as it goes from park road to buranda, so there we have it, we travel along three train lines! sometimes we are lucky enough to see a gold coast train cruising through moorooka when we are stopped at the lights since this is an express train and it doesnt stop at the moorooka station. i still havent caught a beenleigh train any further than dutton park, but i will be working on that in coming weeks.

i have a number of photos of the norman park station that i would love to share, with many shots of trains and the beautiful artwork. i am terrible at art, i cannot draw to save myself, so i really appreciate the effort the local artists have gone to at painting this station. all the images are of native wildlife, and i think they are pretty lifelike. well, most of them are anyway! i think these shots so a small way towards justifying my view that norman park is the most beautiful station on the network.

as you come to the norman park station off the street, there is a ramp leading to the station platform 2, which is handy for people with prams or wheelchairs or scooters. the artwork along the ramp is just gorgeous. the first level is "underwater" and shows all sorts of marine creatures from fish, to tadpoles. 

the second level is "land" and shows ibis and cockatoos in trees. i always love looking at the art work.

the third level is "sky" and shows all sorts of flying creatures such as bats and birds of species i am unsure, but will ask marie and she will tell me (and be disgusted with me that i dont know). a cleveland train pulled up at the station just as i was about to take this photo, you can just see it at the top of the shot.

the norman park station has a wooden footbridge that goes over the train lines from platforms 1 and 2. there is also a subway going under the platforms as well for people who cannot use the stairs. this shot of a cleveland train leaving norman park was taken from the top of the footbridge. the train was just leaving as i got to the station so i ran up the stairs to make sure i got a shot of it.

after capturing my shot of the train, i had to get a photo of the station sign. this sign is at the top of the ramp with the artwork on platform 2. i am not sure why the name for norman park is in italics and an unbolded font. i have noticed a number of stations have their names this way, notably central, roma street, south bank and dinmore of the ones i use the most. i am determined to find out why by the end of the train project.

looking across the inbound platform 2 to the outbound cleveland platform 1. you can see the artwork behind the station is visible. this artwork on the fence stretches the length of the station. of course, i managed to get a shot of a station sign as well, just for good measure.

the cleveland line shares something in common with the ipswich and beenleigh lines - and that is the transport of cargo that goes out to the port of brisbane. this track in the foreground is not for the commuter trains, but for the transport of cargo, be it grain, coal or other products (i dont know what we export as a country!) here you can see a closer shot of the artwork on the fence. this shot was taken from platform 1.

further along platform 1 towards the morningside end, the cargo line still visible. this shot is of particular interest because it shows the ducks. of the entire artwork, it think the ducks were the least realisitic, though they are far better than i could do. there is a small amount of graffiti on the mother duck and the duckling behind her bum, which is a shame. now i dont want to offend anyone, but seriously, if you want to graffiti, why do it over some artwork? there are plenty of other places to do it (though not on trains, the trains look nicer without the graffiti as far as i am concerned.) 

this is another shot of the cargo line from platform 1, which shows a lot more of the artwork. alas i didnt have a chance to capture the whole thing in a single shot, it is far too long. this may seem totally random to mot people (though you must be pretty random to still be reading this blog in the first place) but i would really like to go to the port of brisbane. i am interested in the way the trains are unloaded, and what happens from there. how is the cargo loaded onto the ships? i dont know if you are allowed to just drive to the port. i would really like to know. i have been living here in brisbane since the end of 2009 and i am still yet to see the mouth of the brisbane river. (can you even visit the mouth of the river? if someone can tell me, i would appreciate it! because i want to see it!) i dont know anyone else who would be fascinated to see the port, but i am. i have always had a fascination with ships and the large vessels that carry the cargo from this country to wherever (china??) would be awesome to see. 

this was an awesome treat - and i am going to say that queensland rail must have known i was at norman park yesterday when i took these shots because they sent me an empty cargo train to photograph going through my favourite station. i thought this was wicked, so i got a few shots of it from platform 1. i would have loved to be in that diesel! 
 

look at that! twin diesels pulling empty coal carriages, going through norman park station on the commuter line. it doesnt get much better than that! oh wait, it could - someone from queensland rail please let me ride in a diesel to the port!!! marie had said that quite often the goods trains used the commuter lines through norman park, though i had not seen this until i took these photos!

this shot was from the wooden footbridge of the diesel with empty coal carriages, heading inbound to coorparoo. the diesel will follow the cleveland line to park road where it joins the beenleigh line and goes behind PACE (i can hear a diesel going along there now as i type this! yay!) and then at yerongpilly station the train lines deviated and join the beenleigh to the ipswich line which comes out at corinda. there, it will follow the ipswich back to wherever it came from. between yerongpilly and corinda there is the tennyson station, which is no longer used. this station was only a short platform, long enough for a 3 car train (or single train).   
 

this shot is looking from the wooden footbridge at the empty coal carriages as the diesel heads from cleveland inbound towards park road. i think a lot of the coal trains would go through to acland coal mine, which means they pass through the gowrie junction - just down from where i used to live. platform 1 is on the left and platform 2 is on the right. it is interesting to see inside the coal carriages, I presume the uprights in the inside of the carriage are for stability as they would carry a significant number of tonnes of coal. 

here looking across at platform 1 at the morningside end of platform 2, you can see more of the artwork. that butterfly and bird on the pink panels are simply stunning in their detail.
 

what a treat! not long after the diesel went inbound on the commuter tracks with empty coal carriages, another one went outbound on the cargo line with full carriages of coal. this coal would have been going to the port of brisbane and could be in china by now. 
 

i had to get a shot of the coal train going past the norman park sign with fully loaded coal carriages! this was taken from platform 2 looking at platform 1.

another shot of the coal train, i love the smell of the coal. this carriage has a lot if graffiti on it, which is a shame. again, i had to get the norman park sign in the shot. 

this shot shows some more of the artwork at the station, this painting is in the shelter on platform 2 at the morningside end of the platform.

again platform 2, looking towards the morningside end of the platform. I tried to get the shelter and the sign in the same shot, though because it was relatively early in the morning, the sun sort of ruined the shot.

coal!!! ok, you are probably thinking, why on earth is there a photo of coal? well, the significance of this is two fold. maybe threefold. there are a lot of coal trains that go though this station, and a lot of the other stations i use a lot. as an avid chemist and element collector, i was happy to take this sample with me to add to my collection for carbon; and finnally and most significantly, i found this sample on platform 2. how on earth a lump of coal found its way to platform 2, i am not sure, as the fully loaded trains would use platform 1 or the cargo line behind platform 1, and the empty ones would use platform 2 or the cargo line. I am guessing this little lump must have been still in one of the empty carriages as it went through while I was on platform 1 taking photos and jumped out onto the platform just for me. i'll never know, but it was a mighty cute lump of coal and is now safely in my element collection.

this shot of the norman park station is from the coorparoo end of platform 2 looking at platform 1. the mural behind platform 1 doesn't extend this far.  

the cleveland! this cleveland train arrived on platform 1 while i was waiting for my brisbane city and shorncliffe train. i can remember that the usually the cleveland arrives first, which it did in this case. it may be a while since i had caught a train from here, but i still remember the schedule and timetable! 

farewell cleveland! the cleveland train departs platform 1, and heads on to its next stop - morningside. the station was rather busy in the short time i was there!

"the train arriving on platform 2 is the brisbane city and shorncliffe train, stopping all stations" this is one of my best shots of the train arriving on the platform, as you can see the whole train, the platform and the artwork in the background. 

finally! the shorncliffe train arrives to take me to park road where i change trains and catch the beenleigh to dutton park for uni. well, that was the plan....as we pulled in to park road station there was a train waiting on platform 1, which could have been either a beenleigh, gold coast or cleveland train. clearly it wasn't going to be a cleveland as the cleveland had only recently been through norman park, which narrowed it down to a beenleigh or a gold coast. alas, as i ran up the steps of platform 2 at  park road, i could see it was a beenleigh train. at the top of the stairs were the friendly transit officers who wished to check tickets and go cards of the passengers who had just disembarked the shorncliffe service. by the time i fished my card out of my pocket and had it scanned by their machines, the beenleigh had closed her doors and was slowly pulling away before i could get to the other side of the overpass to descend the stairs to platform 1. bugger. oh well, nothing changes, trying to change trains from cleveland to beenleigh at park road is still almost impossible! thankfully, the dutton park station is only about a 7 or 8 minute walk from park road!

recently we had to drive to the norman park station to catch a city train, which turned out to be a brisbane city and ferny grove train. after uni i had to go to work for a training night, so norman park works out better than catching the train from dinmore and then having to go back to dinmore to get my car to drive all the way to carindale. it is surprisingly frequent that i get to do this, so norman park is most certainly our secondary station. and yes, we got our trusty 8:30 train which we always can be guaranteed a seat. while we were there on this morning, i got a few photos of the newly finished garden at the entrance to platform 2.

i think this garden looks awesome now that is has been finished! this is on the platform 2 side of norman park between the carpark and the station.

here is another photo of the garden from the ramp on platform 2 leading up to the station. previously this was pretty untidy, so it looks wonderful now that it has been cleaned up. this just adds to the overall effect of norman park being the most beautiful station on the network.

while we were waiting for the ferny grove train, i thought i may as well get a few more photos for my blog about norman park. this had been published weeks ago, but after completing dinmore and having so many photos in that entry, i thought a few more for norman park wouldnt hurt! this is a shot from platform 2 at the coorparoo end of the station looking west towards coorparoo. you can see the diesel track is on the right of the photo.

this shot was also taken from platform 2, looking across towards platform 1, at the coorparoo end of the station. here you can see the subway linking the two platforms. the subway is full of beautiful artwork, again, reinforcing my view that by far, norman park is the most beautiful station on the network. wait until you see my upcoming photos of the subway if you dont believe me.

before i put in some photos of the subway, here is a photo to show the tracks leading towards norman park coming from the coorparoo end, this time from platform 1. now for the subway...

the subway is depicted here in this schematic image of norman park station which is on platform 1 at the coorparoo end of the station. 

the ramp leading to the subway. you can see there is art all along it, which is just beautiful to look at when you are walking along there after a train ride. the diesel track is on the right.

this is the left side of the mural as i was walking down the ramp to the subway. look at the detail in that tree and bird. unreal.

and the right side. the diesel tracks run along behind the butterfly, not visible in the shot.

at the end of the ramp, this is the beginning of the most beautiful subway tunnel i have ever walked through.

by going to the right of the above photo, i am heading towards the diesel track, by going underneath platform 1, which is the blue sky at the top of the tunnel.

this is the ramp and artwork for the subway that goes up beside the diesel tracks. they would be to the right of the photo, but i couldnt get them in the shot. i love all the detail that has gone into painting this mural.

this is the right side of the ramp from the previous photo, the diesel tracks run behind this shot.
 

how cute is that frog! looking at the subway tunnel from platform 1 towards platform 2.

it is a shame about the sun putting a bit of glare on this shot, but it was the best i could do. this is underneath platform 2. i really love norman park, seriously the most beautiful station on the network. i may be a bit biased, but if any station can rival norman park in its beauty, i will look forward to writing about it!

this is seriously beautiful. the amount of work that has gone into this is amazing. i wonder how long it took to paint this? i also wonder if everyone who walks along here is as amazed by it as i am and that they appreciate it as much as i do. it deserves to be admired.

looking along the subway tunnel from platform 2 to platform 1.

i had to get the sign in the photo. this sign is on platform 2, directing commuters to platfrom 1 for the cleveland line.

this is a shot of a diesel approaching norman park on its way from coorparoo. i was walking to my car and i heard it approaching, so quickly got out my camera for this photo. couldnt miss such an opportunity! this is a good place to leave norman park for now.