clayfield

the first time i got to catch a train on the doomben line was on christmas eve when i went to visit a friend to help her wrap her christmas presents. the day started with a trip to the fruit shop crisp on creek, when karen and i stocked up on fresh fruit and veges for her family to enjoy over christmas. after stopping for a quick maccas breakky, i dropped her to work in the city, then went home to unload emmys boot which was full from our visit to crisp. after unloading the purchases and spending a good half hour playing tetris arranging them into an already full fridge, i then took to the road again to catch a train to visit my friend who lives at clayfield. feeling guilty as i drove past dinmore, i headed to norman park station; so we would have a short train ride and a drive home that could include getting petrol (exciting lives we lead!) after boarding a shorncliffe train at norman park, i disembarked at central since i had to drop off a parcel in the city. i then returned to central and caught a doomben train, bound for clayfield station where i would meet up with my friend who lived nearby in her apartment. 

i had been on the shorncliffe line, caboolture line and the ferny grove line, but never on the doomben line before. as the train pulled out of eagle junction station, i was heading into uncharted territory on my way to the first station on the doomben line: clayfield. not far from eagle junction, i was looking out the window and realized the doomben line was only a single track as it headed towards clayfield. i had seen this before on the cleveland line, since it is a single track in a few segments.

after disembarking the train at clayfield station, i managed to get a few photos while the train was still on the platform, before it continued on its journey. clayfield station is followed by hendra station outbound on the doomben line heading towards doomben. when heading inbound from doomben the next station after clayfield is eagle junction, which my friend told me was named eagle junction because of an eagles nest being located there that eagle farm was named after. i had been to eagle junction before on other journeys for my blog, and on this particular day, would also get to return to eagle junction to collect a fourth station for the day when my friend dropped me off at eagle junction since there are more trains running through eagle junction station more frequently than they run through clayfield. the doomben line usually runs every half hour.

after getting my photos of clayfield, i met up with my friend and we proceeded to wrap christmas presents, before taking a trip to the clayfield markets. she assured me these markets are famous, and the fruit and  veges did look beautiful. it seemed that fresh fruit and veges were following me after i had been to crisp on creek earlier that day. after completing our shopping, we hurried back to her apartment, where her son was waiting after arriving from the gold coast on the city and airport line and walking from eagle junction station. after a quick lunch to sandwiches, they dropped me to eagle junction so i could get back to central to help karen close the store. once we closed at 5pm, we took a cleveland from central to norman park and were on our way home fairly early. and so ended another day where i collected 4 stations without much effort at all!

i got this shot of the doomben train as soon as i disembarked at clayfield station. this shot is from about halfway along the platform, looking back towards the eagle junction end of the station. clayfield station is an island platform, with only one track.

this is another shot of the doomben train before it departs clayfield for hendra. again, this shot is taken from about halfway along the clayfield platform.

the train didnt linger very long at clayfield, and when i turned to get this shot of the station sign with the train, it departed the platform, bound for doomben. next stop: hendra!

the doomben train departs clayfield station. this shot is looking in the direction of hendra station, the next stop outbound on the doomben line. it isnt entirely obvious in this shot, but clayfield station only has one functional platform, which is on the right of this shot. there is a single track running through the station, visible in the photo. when i pointed this out to my friend when she met me on the platform, she said she had never noticed before! since its her station, i found that bizarre she hadnt noticed this before, but to be fair, she is not a regular train user.

this is one of the shelters on the clayfield platform, looking towards hendra. the doomben line is visible on the right, and if you really look, the doomben train is still just visible as it makes its way from clayfield to hendra.

i went a bit further up the platform towards the hendra end to get a shot of this clayfield station sign from the disused side of the platform. as you can see, there is no track running alongside this edge of the island platform.

the doomben line track leading east away from clayfield to hendra. the train is still just visible in this shot as well.

this is a slightly more zoomed in version of the previous shot. no i was not on the tracks (that would be really bad, and i discourage people from doing so). i held the camera out as far as my arm would reach over the track  to get this shot of the doomben train as it headed towards hendra from clayfield.

this little path comes in to clayfield station from the suburb at the hendra end of the station. this is also the way to my friends place and we walked back this way once she arrived on the platform.

looking back towards eagle junction from the hendra end, this is the disused side of the clayfield platform. it seems it is more popular with vehicles! perhaps the queensland rail workers use this as an access point for track maintenance.

this is a shot of the doomben line as it passes clayfield station from the hendra end of the station looking towards the eagle junction end of the station. again i was not on the tracks for this shot, just held my arm out as far as i could to get the photo.

this is another shot looking towards hendra, similar to the one 5 shots above, but this time, the doomben train is out of view.

this is a shot of the clayfield station platform looking back at the station from the hendra end towards the eagle junction end. the doomben line is visible to the left of the shot.

here is another shot of the waiting area at clayfield, this time taken from the disused side of the platform. the awnings give descent shade as visible in the photo. this image is taken looking in the direction of eagle junction.

heading back towards the eagle junction end of the clayfield station, there is a translink machine where passengers can purchase a ticket or if they have a go card, can add funds to their card. there is another covered waiting area at this end of the station. i also managed to get a station sign in this shot too.

no, this is not a repeat photo of the one 2 shots earlier, this is the waiting area at the eagle junction end of the station, and the ramp which leads to the clayfield station office is visible in this image. clayfield station doesnt have a staircase.

token shots of the ramp and clayfield station office from either side of the platform, this one from the disused platform looking towards the eagle junction end of the station.

this time from the doomben line looking towards eagle junction. the ramp leads out of clayfield station to sandgate road, which is one of the major roads of brisbane.

looking back along the doomben line as it passes clayfield station. this shot is taken from the eagle junction end of the clayfield station looking towards hendra.

this shot is from the ramp leading out of clayfield station to the station office which is on sandgate road, one of the major roads of brisbane.

taken from the clayfield station office looking down the ramp and along the clayfield station platform. the doomben line runs along the platform on the right. the platform on the left is disused.

this is a shot of the clayfield station office, showing the doomben line timetable. the entrance to the station office is on sandgate road.

the station office at clayfield, this shot was taken from just near the top of the ramp leading down to the platforms.

clayfield station as seen from sandgate road. this is the station office, the platforms are not visible from this shot.

being small has many advantages, and being flexible has a few as well. i held on to the camera and got this shot of the doomben line as it passes clayfield station. this was taken from the station office, where i discovered it is possible to reach through a gap with a camera.

for reasons of symmetry, i got a shot of the disused platform using the same mechanism as the previous shot. i notices that the clayfield station office has a door and a balcony where a station master could sit in the breeze and watch the doomben train roll by the station. that sounds alright to me!

i walked down alexandra road to get a shot of the station from the side, to try to capture the platform and the ramp of clayfield station. did a great job with the ramp in this shot, pretty poor effort at getting the platform though.

this is a slight improvement. looking along the clayfield station from alexandra road. the ramp is still visible, and this is a much better view of the platform, though sadly the doomben line itself is barely visible. this is taken from the eagle junction end of the station, near the intersection of sandgate road and alexandra road.

i scurried across sandgate road (no easy feat) to get a shot of the doomben line as it weaves its way from eagle junction to clayfield. i then had to make my way back across sandgate road to the station in order to meet my friend who by now was probably wondering where i was!

while i was at the station office, i was lucky enough to see the train arriving at clayfield after coming back inbound from doomben. this was the same train i had been in earlier. here i have captured it as it is aproaching clayfield from hendra.

the train arrives at clayfield, and i managed to get a shot of it from the station office where i earlier got a nice shot of the platform. see, being small definitely has its advantages!!

the brisbane city and roma street train as it sits at clayfield station before making its way to eagle junction.

i got one more shot of the roma street train as it was about to depart the clayfield station platform. for some reason the roma street sign on the train isnt visible in the shot. after getting this photo i went down the ramp to meet up with my friend and we went back to her apartment to wrap christmas presents before heading to the markets. it was a wonderful day of trains, friends and food. the prefect way to spend a day off from work!