nerang

i finally got to collect my first station on the gold coast line when i visited nerang to watch a game of footy at metricon stadium. i have been further than dutton park before, the first time was when i visited corinda (which was the same day i visited cannon hill), and i also got to visit coopers plains before it was demoted from a stopping station for the gold coast line. i had also even dared to venture as far as beenleigh on the beenleigh line one day (not using a gold coast to get there quicker, since i wanted to see each station, and also it was a super hot day, so the free air conditioning of the train was particularly nice on that outing!) just wait for the blog about beenleigh!! (i need to make a few more journeys to get some more photos though, so it may be a while!)

this particular outing had had a lot of planning go into it. once we realised that the nab challenge would be starting soon, we checked to see what games were going to be on at metricon. sure enough, as luck would have it, the bombers were coming up to play the gold coast suns. brilliant! my team coming to queensland, all i had to do was hope like hell i wasnt working that day. as it turned out, the rosters fell in my favor (no i didnt ask for the day off. i could have, but i didnt, and my boss would vouch for that if you asked her. hi di!!)

the day was to be a day of multiple stations, but seriously, which of my journeys are not multiple station journeys? today i was going to catch a gold coast train to a station farther than beenleigh. this was uncharted territory for me, and naturally i was super excited (not just for the train ride either, there was the small case of the footy, and i love my footy!)

we had organised the following which in theory, should have run almost like clock work (note the phrase in theory! a great phrase!) i was to drive to norman park and leave emmy there for karen to catch a cleveland train to norman park so that she could drive to altandi to pick me up after the game, where all i had to do was catch an inbound airport train which would run express from loganlea to aldani, then from altandi to park road (but that part of the journey was for the purposes of this blog, irrelevant.) all i had to do was get to norman park then change trains at park road for a gold coast train to nerang. 

the journey didnt start well. when i got to norman park, naturally there were no spaces in the car park. this is not altogether an uncommon event at norman park. i figured it was no big deal, i would park in the street where we normally get a park in this situation. however, for some ungodly reason, the street was full too. this was starting to look bad. i seriously considered parking at maries place and walking back to the train, which i would have been happy to do if i was taking the train back from the footy to park road then changing to a cleveland to norman park myself. but poor karen would hardly have felt up to walking from the station to maries after a long hot day at work in a store sans air conditioning. besides, she would be carrying a few bags with her, it hardly seemed fair. i rolled the imaginary dice in my mind, and decided on parking at the very end of the street. there was after all no yellow line painted there (i actually checked!). karen tells me yellow lines means you cannot park in that area. i had never known that before and had often parked on yellow lines before. i am still yet to be finned but i have erased this habit from my driving and parking now you will be pleased to know. i parked emmy and left her in grave fears for her back end being clipped by some maniac taking the corner too fast, and walked to the norman park station where i didnt have long to wait before a shorncliffe was due to arrive on the platform (hallelujah the new timetables!). i caught the shorncliffe as far as park road, where i detrained on platform 2 and walked up the stairs and over the bridge to platform 1 for my soon to be arriving gold coast train.

i didnt have long to wait, the gold coast arrived within minutes. luckily the train was equipped with wifi, so i could whip out my ipad and keep the translink website running during the journey in case of a delay along the line (yes i really am that tragic!). the drawback of the wifi is that i cant play spider solitaire while i am connected to it because it is somehow in breech of the wifi agreement. i dont really understand how, it is a card game after all, so i had the entire journey from park road to nerang sans solitaire, but yes, i survived, and it was actually very enjoyable since this was a journey i had never been on before. i was quite impressed with ormeau station when the gold coast train stopped there, and cannot wait to get back on a gold coast so i can visit this station. however, this journey was all about nerang. 

the nerang station is towards the end of the gold coast line, located between helensvale and robina stations. nerang is preceded by helensvale to the north when heading inbound on an airport train, and robina is the next station outbound when heading south on a gold coast train. the footy was being played at metricon stadium, which is a very short bus ride from the nerang station as i found out. after disembarking the train and getting my customary photos of the station, doing my best to avoid capturing humans in them, i found my way to the bus interchange which joins the station. it wasnt too long to wait before the correct bus arrived and i was on my way to metricon. bear in mind if you will, i was there pretty early, which meant i had a descent wait before the stadium even opened. it is always better to be early than late, and besides, i am always hearing of delays on the beenleigh and gold coast lines, so i didnt want to have to blog about sitting in a train which was stuck between two stations unable to move and making me late for the footy; hence, an early arrival. so far i have been pretty lucky with the amount of trains i have caught that i havent really been involved in too many delays; however if you have read my corinda blog, you will know that i have not been immune to the occasional delay!

once the stadium opened and i was inside, i settled in and was able to enjoy the game. well, i enjoyed the first half, the 3rd quarter wasnt our best footy, and when the suns kicked a super goal it actually broke the score board. needless to say, the game ended up going down to the wire. it was scheduled to finish at 8:30pm. karen had requested if it were at all possible, for me to leave at 8pm since she was picking me up from altandi and then driving back to emerald hill, so really didnt want to have to have an unnecessarily late night. me leaving the footy early is unheard of, i love my footy, so needless to say, it was never going to happen (sorry karen!) the luck of the non functional scoreboard was on my side, since the suns were making a run at my bombers, and the game was tightening up, i text her saying that if it was close in the final term, i would stay til the end. well, scores were level in the last minute, so it doesnt get any closer than that. of course, the best player in the league, who happens to play for the suns, gathered the ball in front of where i was sitting very late in the final term, and snapped for a goal. i could see it wasnt going through for a goal from my angle, but was worried it would be rushed for a point. as it turned out, the suns downed up by this single point, and in despair i had to leave to catch one of the "high frequency buses" which were running from the stadium to nerang station. 

karen had text asking me to aim for the train that departed nerang at 9.19pm. i figured this wouldnt be too difficult, that was until i saw the queue of people attempting to do the same thing. it was as if the entire stadium wanted to go to nerang station. then there were the buses! i was expecting a bus like the buses i catch from central to carindale during the week. you know, door at front, door at side, seats a descent amount of people, and heaps of standing room. alas, no. these were tiny buses, and the "high frequency" was not exactly high by my standards, with a bus taking as many humas as it could fill to capacity, dropping them to nerang, then returning for more, in a continuous process until they were all dumped at the train station. my idea of high frequency was multiple buses doing this, so that the queue would move a touch faster. as it turned out, we were crammed onto the bus in a manner which was not in keeping with my rules of personal space, but i was at least on the bus. however, i did have bigger problems to face than the proximity of the humans on the bus: the time! it was getting unbelievably close to 9:19 by now. as our bus came close enough to nerang station for me to be able to see it, what should i see, but the airport train lit up beautifully, pulling away from nerang on its way to helensvale. damn. i dont know if i was more annoyed to have missed catching the train or missing the opportunity to get a photo of the train as it was leaving, it looked really beautiful. 

a text to karen to say i had literally just missed the train was never going to be fun to send, however the worst was still to come: the next train was half an hour away and would be running late. double damn. i tried to make the best of a bad situation, and got a few more photos of nerang, which are visible below. i even got a photo from in the toilets just to kill time.  

eventually the airport train arrived at nerang, and i boarded, bound for altandi. the journey to altandi seemed to me to take no time at all, though for karen who had been stranded at altandi waiting for me since 8:30, it seemed to take forever. albert einstein was right: time really is relative. i got to altandi sometime around 10:45, meaning we didnt get back to emerald hill until a touch before midnight (i drove, so we made descent time). one amusing thing happened at altandi: when i had detrained and was looking for karen, since i  had no idea where she was (i was expecting her to be on the platform...) while i was searching for her, some teenagers came up to me asking for directions. this was my first time to altandi station, it was pitch black, and i really had no idea where i was going, but as a team we found our way, and i eventually found karen who was less than pleased with me, but alas, i was less than pleased with the footy score. i had been hoping to blog about an amazing train ride and a fabulous preseason game of footy where we had wiped the park with the suns, then caught the train back to altandi and had a swift journey home. the best made plans always come unstuck. in theory it was a great plan; though i should have known better. the writing was on the wall when i got to norman park and couldnt get a car park: that was not a good omen! oh well, looking on the bright side, at least i had collected another two stations in one day!!

my first photo at nerang! check out that platform, it is actually paved! the only other station i have seen like this so far is roma street, and i havent blogged about roma street yet. so this is a first for my blog, since all of the other stations i have written about have not been quite this fancy. dinmore has a little bit of paving on platform 1, but not much. it looks as though nerang, like springfield central, was built from the ground up as it only opened in 1997, so it is a fairly new station in comparison to all of the others i have visited so far (obviously springfield central is exempt from that statement!) this shot is looking north in the direction of helensvale, and i managed to capture the gold coast train still on platform 1 before it made its way to robina. this was the train i caught from park road to nerang. 

this is the view from platform 1 down to the carpark on the eastern side of the nerang station. the bus interchange is to the right of this shot, out of picture.

this shot shows that nerang is an island platform, withe platform 1 to the right of the shot and platform 2 on the left. this shot is taken at the helensvale end of the station, looking north just after the gold coast train had departed nerang bound for robina. how wicked is that paving!?

the nerang station sign, by now these shots are to be expected in my blogs, and i actually really enjoy shooting them. this station sign is also at the helensvale end of the station, this time i have tried to capture the western car park and station sign in the one shot. tricky hey. platform 2 is visible behind the sign.

i simply shot the same sign from the other side, so that this time platform 1 is just visible and the eastern car park is in shot. as you can see, the sky was relatively clear, making it good weather for the footy. it was pretty hot at the time i got these shots, but it cooled down pretty well by the time the game started.

the western car park at nerang station. platform 2 is visible in the foreground. this is the platform for waiting for inbound services. the next stop is helensvale. check out that paving work. i was very impressed that a train station platform could be this decorative. it makes the bitumen of platform 2 and the small amount of paving on platform 1 at dinmore look so inadequate in comparison!

taken from the helensvale end of the nerang platform looking northbound towards helensvale. the track on the left heads north towards helensvale. this is used by the city and airport train. the track on the left is the southbound track which heads to robina and varsity lakes where the gold coast line currently terminates. one thing that stands out in this shot, is how dry the surrounding area is, i had expected nerang to be a lot more green than it was since it is in relative proximity to the hinze dam.

taken from the same position as the previous shot, just 180 degrees rotated, looking back at the nerang station island platform from the helensvale end of the station. platform 1 for the gold coast train is on the left, and platform 2 for the airport train is on the right. nerang is a really modern looking station; maybe not quite as space age as springfield central, but it runs a descent second out of the stations i have photographed in terms of its modernity. im totally loving the paving. this shot reminds me of roma street station, do you agree?

this is a shot of the gold coast line track as it approaches nerang from helensvale. i dont really know why i took this, but i suppose because the gold coast line had been so allusive for me for so long, to finally be on a gold coast station platform, i wanted to make the most of my photo opportunities. the eastern car park is visible on the right. 

i walked from the helensvale end of the platform to the robina end, and tried to get a shot of these two signs on my way. there were people around so i had the complexity of having to avoid getting them in the shot as well as not taking too long to get such a photo as to make people begin to stare! this was taken on the platform 1 side looking across to platform 2.

again, not my best photography, but this is meant to be a shot from platform 1 looking down towards the bus interchange where i would be heading momentarily for my bus to metricon stadium, which is actually pretty close to the nerang station. possibly 2km, so technically walking distance, but since i had never been there by train before, i kinda had no idea how to get there. next time (i am sure there should be a next time!) i will try walking it since walking is good for us all! people dont walk enough in this country. 

i walked to the robina end of the nerang platform to get a shot of the tracks leading away from the station, and got this one on the way just so i could include another station sign. its funny, when i was attempting to get this and the next few shots, there was an elderley chap who was in my shot and i didnt know how to politely ask him to move out of my picture. then the worst happened: he casually lit up a cigarette on the platform! horrified, and knowing i should do something, i did what any person with aspergers would do: i quickly got my shot and left the situation since i hate confrontations and speaking to people i dont know is not a skill i have ever had (if you have ever encountered me on the train and tried to sit beside me, only to have me say "if you must" then perhaps this may explain that a bit!). thankfully i managed to get the shots without including the smoking old man. i dont know who thought who was the strangest: him thinking i was strange getting photos of the station, or me thinking he was strange for looking at me like i was an alien when he was the one smoking on the platform, and all i was doing was taking photos! perhaps i should have got a shot of him to send in to queensland rail, but i didnt want to have him yell at me and threaten to take my camera with my train photos on it!  

i got the shot i wanted, despite having the smoking old man standing beside me, just to my right as i got this photo. thats why it is slightly off center, sorry about that, but it was out of my control. this is taken from the extreme robina end of the nerang station looking along the gold coast (outbound) line on the left and the airport (inbound) line on the right. by now awkward eye contact had been made, and the smoking old man must have thought i was insane for taking such a photo, while i was still horrified he was smoking on a station platform! yes, i should have said something.

as the airport train approaches nerang, i get a shot of it coming in to platform 2. i had really tried to get a shot of it from a bit further out, but the smoking old man was walking along the platform in my shot which made that impossible, so i did the best i could to preserve my humanless photo record (broken only once at springfield central). still, all things considered, this isnt a bad effort. 

the smoking man is just out of picture on the far left of the shot as he finished his cigarette before he boarded this airport train. i must say i did extremely well to avoid including him in these photos, particularly as he was walking along the platform directly in my line of shot. i quite like this photo of nerang, it may not quite be wikipaedia material, but is not far below that standard. how cool do the wifi trains look as they arrive on platform 2?!  

with the smoking man finally on board the airport train, which was by now heading towards helensvale, while he was heading towards lung cancer; i got another shot of the nerang station sign at the robina end of the platform before heading back towards the middle to get a few more shots before catching the bus. look at that sky, perfect for footy!

nerang station, like mitchelton, has the overhead notification screens which display the trains due to arrive at the station. i like these and the screens like a telly which are prominent at major stations like roma street and central among many many others. itd be nice if more stations at least had these, since they he incredibly helpful, though i imagine they are somewhat expensive. as you can see, this shot is taken looking along platform 2, where the airport train has just recently departed.  

naturally for completeness, i got a shot of the display screen over on platform 1 also! it shows that the gold coast train which travels to robina and varsity lakes, is due to depart at 2:42pm. yes, i am at nerang station a touch early!

looking along the nerang platform at the staircase which leads down to the exits from the station. platform 1 is on the left and platform 2 is on the right. this shot reminds me a lot of roma street station.  

i took this shot while walking down the steps at nerang station. again, i see so many similarities with roma street station in this shot. perhaps once i have written about roma street you can compare for yourself. as with most of the stations i have visited, nerang also has an elevator facility, but as anyone who knows me knows, i am not a fan of elevators!

so the lighting wasnt on my side in this image or the next, but i am not going to alter my photos in any way, even though i technically could have used photoshop to lighten this image. this is the view towards the western exit of the nerang station. platform 2 is above this exit. the gates are there to ensure people are not fare evading, though having said that, there was no one monitoring the gates while i was there. there was no risk of my not touching the sensors: i wanted to officially collect nerang station! 

this was the shot from the exit to the east at nerang, which was the way i exited since i was going to catch the bus to the footy stadium, and the bus interchange is on this side of the station. platform 1 is above this exit.

it may be a touch blurry, but this shot was taken in a hurry because i was super excited to see that the old translink map was still on display at a station. check out the cleveland line, it is still purple in this map. i miss this combination before they changed the cleveland line to blue (and i had to change my entire blog around!) and before they altered the shape of the lines to simplify it a bit more (the shorncliffe for example...). i much prefer this map, and i wonder if queensland rail still have any large ones like this they they would be wiling to donate to me? this is the new map here. which one do you prefer?

i dont know what it is about this shot, but it reminds me of a resort foyer. you know when you arrive and check in at some resorts? they have the tiled areas, the token indoor plants, sometimes a fountain to occupy the small children while their parents are checking in. this shot reminds me of that. this is on the lower level of nerang station. the platforms are actually above this. the bus interchange is just outside of here, i was heading towards the buses when for some reason i got this photo. i dont even remember taking it, but it has given me some cool memories of when i was little and we used to check into resorts (not something we did often, so it was a rare enough event to be imprinted on my mind).

this is the view from the bus interchange looking up at nerang station. this is the robina end of the platform. it is partially visible, but the interchange is paved as well.  

this is a slightly better view of the bus interchange, including the paving, but this is not a blog about buses. i am not really a fan of buses to be honest! i used to get terribly bus sick, and car sick for that matter, the topology of the road is usually no match for the suspension of a bus and so not only do they lurch forward and back with sudden cessations of momentum and the sudden acceleration, but they also bounce up and down along the road. to me, riding in a bus is like riding in a tumble dryer, constantly tossed around. in fact i actually feel nauseous writing about it! (nothing to do with the caramello koala i just ate, i assure you!) trains on the other hand stop and start so much more smoothly, they always follow the tracks and dont tend to be rough to ride in. (i can actually stand on a train sans holding onto any publicly touched surface of questionable hygiene, since they are so smooth. perhaps it is because i am short with big feet, i dont know, but give me a train over a bus any day!) 

how fortunate! while waiting for the bus, i managed to get a few shots of the gold coast train as it arrived on platform 1 at nerang. i suppose this says that i had wasted a good half hour getting photos of the station! 

the gold coast train as it sits on platform 1 of nerang station. only two more stations to go: robina and varsity lakes, before the train terminates. i had heard a rumor that some day the gold coast line will be extended past varsity lakes down as far as tweed heads. i hope that happens some day, it will allow more people to use the train, and also give me a few more stations to explore!

i didnt know it at the time, but this was going to be my last photo of nerang station in the daylight before i returned to the station after the football game. i had been expecting a big win to my boys, and excitedly riding the train back from nerang to altandi. oh well, not many things go to plan in this world, and it gives me something to blog about! this shot has the gold coast train ready for departure from nerang station. my bus came not long after i got this shot. this made me extremely early for the game; though thankfully i had my ipad and could play spider solitaire for a good few hours. i was actually one of the first people to arrive at the ground (a touch embarrassing i must say!) while i was waiting for the gates to open, i was chatting to another guy who supported the bombers, he rocked up in thongs, board shorts and a bombers jersey, and said proudly that he had driven 5 hours to be at the game. now thats dedication! such a shame we lost by a point.

after the bus had dropped us all off at the nerang station, i got this photo while in a crowd of people as we approached the station. considering the number of people around at the time, and the fact i was walking while i got this photo, i think i did remarkably well to not only capture a clear shot of the entrance to the station, but to also manage to not include any humans in the shot. this is almost wikipaedia worthy. sadly though, the 9:19pm train i was meant to catch had left the station only a few minutes before. i saw it. i was on the bus as it took off along the tracks to the north, bound for helensvale. it looked beautifully lit up and would have made a great photo. alas, i had to wait just over half an hour for the next train since it was running late. eventually i would make it to altandi though where poor karen was waiting for me!

since i had some time to kill, i figured i may as well continue to explore since it was going to be really unlikely that i got back to nerang any time soon. i got this shot from in the toilets since i was fascinated that they had this block glass which allows a significant amount of light in, but doesnt really let the people outside see you inside with any descent amount of clarity.

the view from the platforms of the toilets. see how you cant really see inside? i think that is for the best. i for one am not a fan of public toilets (as the people i work with if you dont believe me!). there is no point indicating which platform is which, since i managed to get the photo to do it for me. im noticing the no smoking sign nice and prominent here in this shot. still feeling guilty about earlier at the robina end of the platform. honestly, i had no idea how to handle that situation. perhaps next time i will just say something, since it is prohibited. 

from platform 1 looking at the nerang station entrance where i photographed just after getting off the bus. it looked a lot more spectacular when entering from the ground than it does looking at it from this angle i must admit, though i wanted to show the sign indicating the fine for trespassing on the tracks. i am not a fan of capital letters (obviously) though i think they do serve a purpose here. one thing that is kind of lost on this message though is the choice of font. i mean, if you are trying to get an important message across (important enough to use capitals and all) then comic sans ms is not generally the font of choice. perhaps the signs are trying to be modern and draw in your attention, though i think a bolder font would be more effective. being on the tracks is pretty dumb, having done high school physics will tell you that. one thing i dont understand is that, unless you are suicidal, why would you even be on the tracks anyway? 

the gold coast train turned up on platform 1, so i photographed it. we had to wait for it to get to varsity lakes and come back again before i could board it bound for altandi and a tired karen who had been waiting for me for more than 2 hours....

looking along platform 1 again at the gold coast train. after it left an announcement came over that the airport train was going to be a few minutes late. naturally i text karen who was less than pleased! i broke out spider solitaire for a while until the train arrived. one thing i must mention, is the stopping pattern of the airport train. i had never heard announcement like it before, despite catching the trains inbound from dinmore each morning, which have a stopping pattern of all stations to darra then express to milton stopping only at indooropilly. this stopping pattern tops that by far: brisbane city and airport train running express from beenleigh to altandi stopping only at loganlea then from altandi to park road. wow. the first time i heard it i almost laughed because it sounded so foreign. i really need to get out more! i eventually got to altandi, which is the station my friend dolly uses, and i found karen waiting for me. i drove us home, we didnt get home til about 11:30pm, making it a very long day indeed for us both. 

i had planned that the next day was going to be earmarked for traveston, and that nothing could stop me. nothing that is except the fact that the trains werent running past nambour! i patiently waited on platform 3 at central, watching the gympie north train roll up the screen, only to be greeted with an announcement that it would be departing platform 6 not platform 3, and that it would terminate at cooroy instead of gympie north. i could collect cooroy i thought for a moment; but it was traveston i really wanted. this was until the termination of the service was then revised to nambour. damn i thought as i boarded the ipswich home to dinmore with my tail between my legs. i thought it would be so cool to have been to nerang one day, traveston the next; you know, opposite ends of the coast lines. alas, it wasnt to be! just like blogging about a fantastic win to the bombers against the suns on my first journey to nerang! in theory, it was a good idea. in theory! such a good phrase!

corinda

corinda is a very large station with 5 platforms which is part of both the ipswich and springfield lines. the station is preceded by sherwood station inbound on the ipswich and springfield lines and followed by oxley outbound on the same two lines. it is also preceded by tennyson station, which is now a disused station that linked corinda to yeerongpilly on the corinda via south brisbane line. the freight trains and coal trains often pass through corinda and take the corinda via south brisbane line through tennyson to meet up with the beenleigh line at yeerongpilly before following the beenleigh line inbound past pace at dutton park.

this station has often given some interesting experiences, such as the night during second year of pharmacy not long before exam block (it must have been early october 2012) when karen as i were on the train home from central to ipswich (this is before we decided on dinmore as our primary station) and for some reason the train broke down here at corinda. people in the carriages were getting restless, some were angrily talking on the phones, others sighed heavily and did the usual knuckle or neck cracking ritual they do on trains when bored. karen decided to read the paper and munch on some twisties (yes we know we arent meant to be eating, but it is self contained food, and it was dinner time and she was hungry). i was lucky, thankfully that day we had had a drug discovery lecture and i had my notes in my bag which were thankfully up to date (a rare event, i must say!). so here i am sitting in a broken down train at corinda reading my notes about schizophrenia to keep me sane in the crisis (i later told our lecturer about this and for memory she found it amusing; hi jacqui!)

about a year later in october 2013, the train on the ipswich line broke down again, and again ironically karen was stranded at corinda. this time sadly i wasnt with her, i was home studying because we were about to commence our third year exams (it must be an annual event, october 2014 will be interesting!). i got a call from her that the train was stuck at corinda with a chance to get to darra, and that i should try to pick her up from there instead of our trusty dinmore - as trains couldnt get any further than darra due to a train earlier bringing down the wires somewhere along the ipswich line. 

figuring this wouldnt be too difficult, i had been to darra before, i jumped in emmy and away we went. on the way, karen text saying they will now be able to get to wacol and a change of plans, i was to meet her there. so since wacol is on the way, that was no problem, and i drove to wacol. i had no sooner pulled up at wacol, when another text came through that she was still at corinda and it was unlikely she could get to wacol now, and to try to find corinda station. i figured 'ive got this' and decided to try to find the station. bear in mind if you will, i had no map, i had no gps, no smart phone with a mapping facility on it, actually not even really a phone since i can only text on my mobile - the speakers dont work (and no i am not updating my phone!) - but i knew the general direction to get to corinda, and figured how hard could it be? when leaving wacol, i had to drive over the rail crossing and ironically, as i was approaching the red lights came on and the boom started to lower and all i was thinking was 'how is this possible!? the trains arent even running yet now one decides to come while i am on the tracks!' it was an inbound train, as i saw it approaching wacol from the gailes direction as i forced emmy through the crossing at a velocity greater than i was meant to.  it wasnt even a diesel carrying coal, it was an electric train heading inbound! what the! it could only happen to me!

talk about an amusing journey. i went past the exit to get to darra, knowing full well i could get to that station but that karen couldnt get there, so i went on and met up with the beenleigh line near moorooka, which i figured i could follow and it would lead me to yeerongpilly where i could turn left and follow the old train line along past tennyson station, since the line meets up at corinda. i found tennyson (in the dark, without a map - i thought that was an achievement -and hopefully i can find my way back there as i really want to visit that station). i followed countless roads with large green signs directing me to suburbs that are on the ipswich line: graceville, sherwood, oxley - yet no signs saying corinda. i have always found that when you are lost, the rule of 'follow the green signs' to be almost as foolproof as the rule of 'use latin and greek' to figure out words oyu dont understand (particularly useful in pharmacy, i assure you!). however, there were no green signs saying corinda! beginning to despair, karen texts asking if i am lost. i replied back that i had found the train line again which linked tennyson to corinda, but wasnt sure how to get closer to the corinda station. i realised as i sent the text that there was a police car behind me and figured if they pull me over to fine me i can at least ask for directions. instead, karen texted that she was on a rail bus and to meet her at wacol. *sigh* i then had to navigate to wacol again from somewhere near corinda, which i did, and it wasnt long after i got there that her rail bus pulled up. what a saga! i have since looked at how to get to corinda on a map - and am amazed i got as close as i did. it is far much easier to get to corinda via the train when you dont live near the station! 

i simply have to include the map showing where corinda station is located in relation to the ipswich and beenleigh lines, to highlight the journey i went on to try to find the station by car. on the right hand side of the map is fairfield road, i followed that inbound (from bottom of map to top) past moorooka station, almost as far as yeerongpilly station, turned left at the blue 48 and followed that road past the tennis centre to king arthur terrace, tennyson station is not marked as it is disused (i think that is sad, poor tennyson) but it is right where the road goes over the tracks near the tennis centre. king arthur terrace became graveville avenue, though it didnt take me to graceville, turning in to oxley road didnt help but did get me a touch closer. sherwood road intersection had me thinking i must have been close to sherwood station, sort of true, but as for corinda, the closest i got was where the blue 35 is as the track joining the ipswich and beenleigh lines goes over the road. it was near here that i sent karen the text when she asked if i was lost; and her reply was that she was on her way to wacol on a rail bus. so near, yet so far!! i didnt think i would be back to corinda any time soon after all of this! i was wrong...
 

i mentioned in my cannon hill entry that the day i left the station after getting a good series of photos to be able to finish my blog, i caught a train inbound with aim of going to central, then heading home after lunch. on the way, as the train passed through park road, i saw an ipswich train heading along the tracks towards dutton park. thinking that was either a mislabeled train, or a train heading to ipswich via tennyson, i tried to see how the ipswich was represented on the overhead screens when our train got to roma street. unfortunately, i couldnt see it, so stayed on my shorncliffe until central. it was at central that i saw that the ipswich was indeed running express to corinda from roma street; meaning that the trains were running via tennyson. oh my god! tennyson! i simply had to catch the ipswich now, and that was exactly what i did! we duly went through park road, and i got to travel further than dutton park for the first time (how ironic it would be on an ipswich train!! this was perfect blog material!) we went as far as yeerongpilly then changed lines and went past tennyson (yes, i got photos! not many, but i got them!) and met up with the ipswich line again at corinda. it was here that i disembarked and officially collected corinda station for the first time. and how lucky was this; a diesel was passing the station at that very moment. it really was the most perfect hour of train travel! here is the diesel as it passes corinda station, on its way to meet the beenleigh line (it too will be going past tennyson). in my rapid excitement to get my camera ready again, i missed the front of the diesel as it approached, though i did manage to capture most of it as it chugged past corinda.

because of a bridge strike at milton station while i was at cannon hill getting the last few photos for my blog, the ipswich and richlands (now springfield) trains were diverted through park road to corinda. after all of my previous experiences with corinda station, i was finally on the platform, and had arrived there by train: a train that got to take me past tennyson. it couldnt get much better than that could it!? here the train is about to depart platform 2 of corinda to continue its journey.

the ipswich train dropped me (and other passengers) off at corinda before continuing along the ipswich line to oxley station. this was my first photo of the corinda station platforms, taken from where i disembarked the train on platform 2. the station has two island platforms and one side platform. 

the corinda station, like mitchelton, has elevators, and this station sign was on the side of one of the elevators on platform 2. like dinmore, corinda is in italics. i still dont really get this, it is a pretty major station, why not use a nice bold font so that the name stands out on the sign? even the westlander stops at corinda station. it runs express from roma street to rosewood stopping only at corinda and ipswich before continuing on its journey out west.

i had to get a shot of the corinda station sign on the platform. i still dont know why the font is so small and written in italics, it makes so much of the area of the sign redundant. (especially when compared to a station like darra or south brisbane and how well the station sign area is utilized) the diesel is running behind me as i am taking this photo across the island platforms.  

here is another shot of the diesel as it heads towards tennyson before joining the beenleigh line at yeerongpilly. australia must export a hell of a lot of coal, as i am forever seeing the coal trains along the ipswich line now that i use it so much, and when we are at pace we hear them passing dutton park station when we are in the library.

this is the view of platforms 3 and 4 of corinda looking across from platform 2. platform 5 is in the background. inbound trains travel to the right of the picture, outbound trains travel to the left of picture. platform 3 and 4 are an island platform (so are platforms 1 and 2).

i really like this shot for some reason. this is the view north from the end of platforms 1 and 2. platforms 3 and 4 are also visible to the left, but for me the real highlight of this photo is the track veering around to the right of the shot. this is the line that goes through tennyson to yeerongpilly! the train i arrived at corinda on had traveled through tennyson, and thus had arrived at corinda station via this track. not a bad effort really, my first time at corinda was courtesy of tennyson.

taken from the end of platform 2 looking back at corinda station from along the platform. platform 3 is also visible on the right. the ipswich train i caught to corinda had earlier arrived on platform 2 after passing through tennyson station. if you look super closely, the ipswich train is actually still visible as it leaves corinda on its way to the next station south: oxley.

the view of platforms 3, 4 and 5 from platform 2 of corinda station. the outbound trains travel to the left of the shot, inbound to the right. corinda used to be the terminating station on the corinda via south brisbane line (also known as the tennyson line or corinda yeerongpilly line), which is no longer in operation. sadly i never actually got to officially catch this train. it ceased to operate in june 2011, and we moved to emerald hill in october 2012 (easily remembered, because i missed out on doing halloween since we had so many boxes around our house, i couldnt find anything other than my large glow in the dark skeleton). i did however get to travel to corinda on this particular day on the tennyson line because of the bridge strike at milton station (seriously the bridge strikes are milton are actually rather common and very dangerous, imagine if your train is going over the bridge as it gets struck!!)
visible in this shot is the ramp on platform 5 and the elevator also on platform 5 which links up with the covered footbridge.

diesel aside, this shot was intended to show the covered footbridge, how it is enclosed to protect commuters from the weather. im standing on the sherwood end of platform 1 here to get this shot, looking south in the direction of oxley station. the diesel is passing corinda on its way towards tennyson to join with the beenleigh line at yeerongpilly.

looking along platform 1 from the sherwood end of corinda towards the oxley end. this time sans diesel passing the station. at the top of the photo is the footbridge which provides a lot of shade when waiting underneath it. no i am not breaking any rules by taking this photo, just held the camera out as far as i could in my left hand.

further along the island platform, platform 1 is on the left, platform 2 on the right. this is getting further towards the oxley end of the corinda station. the island platform of platform 3 and 4 is visible on the left of the shot. the freight trains pass corinda station on the left of the shot on the tracks which dont have a platform.

towards the oxley end of corinda station, on platform 1 and 2 i found these lovely quaint wooden seats, the appear to have been recently painted up to look fresh and new. i am looking at them from platform 1. they are double sided, with the seats pictured facing platform 1 and the reverse side facing platform 2. in the background platform 3 and its track are visible.

taken from the extreme end of platform 1 and 2 looking in the direction of oxley station. the ipswich train has recently left corinda. this shot reminds me of my wulkuraka shots from last year. the track leading away from platform 1 is in the bottom left corner. the diesel tracks for the freight trains are on the far left of the shot. on the bottom right is the track leading in to platform 2. tracks leading to and from the remaining platforms 3, 4 and 5 are on the right of the shot. i also ventured over to platforms 3 and 4 to get a similar shot, which appears further down the page.

turning back around to get a shot of corinda station from the oxley end of platforms 1 and 2. this shot mainly looks along platform 1 and the freight train tracks. platform 2 is on the left.

from platform 2 looking across at the island platform of 3 and 4, and the side platform 5 at corinda station. the station signs at the oxley end of the station are visible in this shot. i love the mural on platform 5. its a shame i cant capture more of it in the photos. while not quite as impressive as norman park, it is still nice to see (though seriously can any station rival norman park for having a beautiful mural?) the end of platforms 3 and 4 is almost visible on the far left of this shot.

from platform 2 looking across at platform 3, showing the covered waiting area with the old wooden seats. in the background along platform 5 the mural is visible. while not quite as cool as the mural at norman park, the one at corinda is still lovely to look at. this shot was taken towards the oxley end of platform 2, between the end of the platform and the middle.

this shot was taken from platform 1, looking along the platform from towards the oxley end of the station, showing the tracks that the diesels and freight trains use. the walkways and footbridge are visible in this shot as well. this shot is looking towards sherwood, with trains heading through tennyson turning to the right as they travel past corinda station. i got some lovely photos from the ramp, which are coming up shortly.

the staircase on platforms 1 and 2 of corinda. which leads up to the station office and footbridge linking all of the platforms. platform 3 is visible to the left of the shot.

the corinda station office is located above the platforms, at the top of the stairs. as you can see, there are vending machines and phone facilities. there is a descent sized waiting area and a large overhead display of upcoming inbound and outbound train services.

i always find these displays incredibly helpful, and this one at corinda is a beauty, with the next three inbound and outbound services all listed with times, destinations and platform numbers. after getting a few photos, i ended up finding my way to the caboolture train on platform 5.

these next few photos were taken from the ramp which runs alongside the diesel tracks near platform 1. platform 1 and 2 is the island platform in the foreground on the left, with platform 3 and 4 the island platform behind that one, and is significantly longer. platform 5 runs along the back behind the island platforms. the tracks in the immediate foreground are for the diesels as the freight trains travel from corinda to yeerongpilly via tennyson. hopefully tennyson will reopen some day so i can get some photos of it. this shot is looking in a somewhat northerly direction from corinda to sherwood. it is almost wikipaedia worthy, dont you think?

looking north along from the ramp which runs alongside platform 1, you can see the diesel tracks veer around to the right to link corinda with tennyson. the end of platform 3 and 4 is visible on the far left of the shot. sherwood is the next station from corinda when heading inbound. if you have a descent zoom on your computer or ipad when reading this, if you look closely at the signals overhead the tracks between corinda and sherwood (red, green, red) there are two small white lines either side of the third red signal, these lines are the platform at sherwood station. i havent visited sherwood yet, but will get there some time for this blog.

this is a similar shot to the one above, just from a different position along the ramp to get a different angle of the tracks that take the freight trains from corinda through tennyson. as it turns out, this shot gives a far better view of sherwood station. again, if you have a descent zoom function, zoom in to the middle of this shot, and you will be able to see sherwood station fairly well. platforms are visible, so is the station office. this proves to highlight the proximity of the two stations.

again from the ramp near platform 1, this time looking across at corinda station itself. the island platform in the foreground is platforms 1 and 2. behind this is the island platform of 3 and 4, with platform 5 running along the back in front of the mural. platforms 3 and 4 are a longer platform than 1 and 2.

again from the ramp running alongside the diesel tracks at corinda station, this time looking back at the station in the direction of oxley. the tracks in the immediate foreground are the diesel tracks for the freight trains which pass the station and follow the tracks along past tennyson on their way to yeerongpilly. the island platform 1 and 2 runs alongside of these tracks, which is visible in the foreground. just behind this platform, the second island platform is 3 and 4 which is the longer of the two island platforms. platform 3 and 4 extend further than 1 and 2 in the direction of sherwood station.

i got this shot from the oxley end of the ramp that runs along platform 1. i mainly wanted to capture the tracks themselves leading away from corinda station in the direction of oxley. platform 1 is on the right. i think this is a nice photo of corinda.

from the ramp again, this time looking over at the platforms at corinda station, with the island platform of platform 1 and 2 in the foreground, platforms 3 and 4 in the middle and platform 5 running along the mural in the background. while maybe not the most legible, i have managed to capture the station signs on the platforms in this shot. perhaps if the name corinda were in a larger regular font it would be easier to read?

i got this shot of the elevator at corinda station which is on the same side as the ramp which runs along the freight train tracks in front of platform 1. this elevator links the sidewalk to the footbridge joining all the platforms. corinda really goes a long way towards catering for people with disabilities or who require mobility aids because of the ramps and elevators. i must prefer staircases though!
a friend of mine is due to start working at the corinda day and night pharmacy located on oxley road very shortly. when i told him i had finished my blog about corinda, he said the pharmacy is right near the train station, so i had to mention in here since oxley road is on the same side as platform 1. if you ever visit the pharmacy, say hi to richard for me!  

from the top of the ramp, looking in the direction of oxley, this shot was designed to show the sheer vastness of the corinda station. i got this shot as a train approached. this is the petrie train which was arriving on platform 4.

from the same position, this time the petrie train is just a little bit closer to the platform. 

when combined with the previous two shots, these photos hopefully prove to highlight how large the corinda station really is. on platform 4 is the petrie train. another possibly wiki worthy shot perhaps?

ok, so this one is definitely wiki worthy! this time i am on platform 3, looking along the platform in the direction of oxley station. this is a great shot looking along the platform of corinda station. platform 2 is visible on the left of the shot.

looking along platform 3 of corinda station in the direction of sherwood. platform 2 is on the right of the photo. the station office is actually above the platforms, and is accessed by ascending the stairs or riding the elevator (if you trust them. i dont, but you might. i have never liked elevators). the station office (which is partially pictured at the top of the photo) and footbridge adjoining it create some cover at the sherwood end of the corinda station.

this was my attempt at capturing the mural along platform 5 at corinda station. at least this was a partial success. this shot was taken from platform 4 looking across at platform 5.

i got this shot on platforms 3 and 4, looking in the direction of the oxley station. i wanted to show the undercover areas and the old style wooden seats which i think add character to the corinda station.

this shot was taken from the extreme oxley end of platforms 3 and 4 at corinda looking at the tracks as they come in to corinda.

taken from the oxley end of the platform, turning around to get a shot looking along platform 4 of corinda from the very end of the platform. platform 5 is on the left. this is actually a half descent effort to show the corinda station mural as well. wiki worthy maybe?

on the platform 4 side of the island platform, looking across at platforms 1 and 2. platform 3 is in the foreground, with platform 2 just behind it. in the background is the ramp (diagonal white thing) that i got some photo from looking in the direction of oxley.

still on platforms 3 and 4, looking across at platform 5. the end of the mural is visible on the left.

the richlands train arrives at corinda, approaching platform 2. you can see by the curve of the train, that it has come in from sherwood and not tennyson. this means that the earlier bridge strike at milton has been resolved and trains are running as per normal again. at the time i visited this station, which was just before my cannon hill blog was published, richlands was the terminating station on the richlands line. that line has now been extended by an extra two stations: springfield and springfield central. i have so far visited richlands and springfield central, but as yet, not been to springfield. it is because of the springfield line that i have had to code corinda the way i have in this entry, since it is a station on both the ipswich and springfield lines. when richlands was a terminating station, it was initially represented in green like the ipswich line. i got this photo from platform 3 of corinda station at the sherwood end of the platform.

still on platform 3, this is a reverse angle of the richlands train arriving on platform 2. this time i am looking in the direction of oxley.

the richlands has arrived on platform 2. this shot shows how much longer platforms 3 and 4 are than platforms 1 and 2. you can also see on the left of the shot the white ramp which i ventured over earlier to get some photos of the tracks leading away from corinda station, as well as some overview shots of the station to show its size.

from platform 3, looking in the direction of tennyson station. tennyson was closed as a station before we moved to emerald hill, so i never had the pleasure of collecting the station. i hope some day it is reopened, or at the lest, i am allowed in by queensland rail staff to get some photos of the station for my blog. tennyson station was a short platform, only long enough for a single 3 carriage train to fit at a time. i believe eudlo is of similar length. traveston on the other hand, can only fit a single carriage, it must be insanely small and cute. it is still at the top of my list of stations i really want to visit.

taken from the extreme end of platform 3 and 4 at corinda, looking in the direction of sherwood station. if you have a descent zoom on your computer, you can actually see sherwood station from this photo.

i got this shot on my way from platforms 3 and 4 to platform 5 since the caboolture train would be arriving soon. the yellow box is the translink reader where you hold your card at the beginning and end of each journey to register each station. i love collecting new stations on these things, since there at usually a few at each station. on this journey i managed to get from central to cannon hill, cannon hill to corinda (via central again without recollecting it, and also via tennyson because of the bridge strike at milton), then corinda back to central. all of this was classed as 'continuation' so it was all one journey. thus, it was mostly free. brilliant!!

from the top of the ramp leading down to platform 5 of corinda station, i got this shot as one last overview shot of the entire station in the direction of tennyson and sherwood. platforms 3 and 4 are running through the middle of the shot, with platforms 1 and 2 pretty much in the center.

looking up at the st aidans girls school which is right near the corinda station, this is taken from platform 5. i like the way the rock wall has been landscaped.

i do love my station signs, even when they are in small italicized fonts. this is one last shot of the corinda station sign on platform 3 and 4 towards the sherwood end.

the train arriving on platform 5 is the brisbane city and cabooolture train, stopping all stations. my time at corinda was almost up. i am sure i will be back again some time, you just never know! 

with the arrival of the caboolture train, i bid farewell to corinda station. after having traveled through it so many times, it was great to finally get to stop there and enjoy the station. though i think for me, the best part about this station was the journey i took to get here. after wanting to visit tennyson for so long, i at least got to pass through it on my way to corinda for the first time. for me, that was the perfect way to arrive at this station.