banyo

so, i am finally writing about a station on the shorncliffe line! my visit to banyo station wasnt the first time i had visited a station on the shorncliffe line. i have visited shorncliffe station itself once in the past. i visited shorncliffe before i started writing my blog however, and so sadly have no photos of the outing. the only proof i have of my visit to shorncliffe was the log on my translink go card. so banyo is the second station on the shorncliffe line that i have visited, though it has the honor of being the first station on the shorncliffe line to make an entry in trainspotting!

in very late april, there was an event held in banyo for pharmacy students interested in pursuing their internship and ultimately, their careers with chemist warehouse. since i am in my fourth and final (hopefully!) year of university, my internship should begin next year, so the evening was particularly relevant for my friends and i. it also gave me the opportunity to collect another station!!! i had been blogging for a few months now with promises of an upcoming entry about a station on the shorncliffe line, and had until now failed to deliver (just like my many unsuccessful attempts to visit traveston! i will get there eventually!!) this was entirely my fault of course, and i am pleased to say that after this entry, all of the major lines will have been represented by at least one entry! (i say major because i still havent visited a station on the airport line. the airport line is private, with more expensive fares. hopefully sometime i will get to catch an airport train to the airport. i would prefer to catch it for an actual event though, such as meeting a friend for example, because to collect one of the airport stations it will be expensive, and to blog about going to the airport just to collect a station will look a touch sad i think, even for me. perhaps you agree?

so, i finally got to stop at a station on the shorncliffe line, other than shorncliffe itself, thanks to this information evening. the event kicked off at 6:30pm on nudgee road, which on a map didnt look like a very long walk from the banyo station. in reality, the map was correct (yay google maps!), because it didnt take long to walk there at all. i have been blessed with short femurs, so i will never be a long striding fast walker, but i scurried along tufnell road which essentially linked the banyo station with the meeting venue almost exactly! during my time at the station, which was probably between 45 minutes and an hour, i managed to get quite a few photos (naturally!). people who have never visited banyo station will probably still have heard of it. most of australia has probably heard of it. banyo station is probably more famous for its level crossing, and an accident that happened at that crossing, than for anything else. i am not sure if my photos of the crossing will do it justice. probably not. im five foot two, so i dont exactly have the ability to get many elevated shots of stations unless i am on footbridges. banyo station doesnt have a footbridge, so i was limited to photographing from ground level for the entire station. i think banyo is the second station i have visited that doesnt have a footbridge linking the two platforms; wulkuraka being the other. it doenst have a subway either, but it does have a level crossing....

the crossing at banyo station is probably best viewed from above to get a real essence of just how bad it is. this crossing is an accident waiting to happen. not only is it incredibly poorly designed, it is also insanely busy. while i was at the station getting my usual quote of photos of anything that is worth photographing, i had major trouble getting shots of the crossing without passing cars spoiling my shots. i think i spent more time photographing the crossing than i did the station, for that reason. there are plenty of photos of the crossing and the accident involving a truck carrying a transformer available on google images, so i know for a fact i cant rival these images. there was no point in even attempting to. for starters, i dont have my own helicopter! i could however use a drone...perhaps i will return some day with my camera attached to a drone and attempt to get a better series of photos, but that will have to wait until after i graduate i think!

my journey to banyo started, as so many do, at dinmore in the morning, where karen and i caught the caboolture train to central for our regular cup of tea. after tea, i caught a beenleigh to dutton park to go to class at pace, where i spent a bit of time before class chatting to friends and lecturers alike. after class, i caught a ferny grove back to central to visit karen and get something to eat, before heading back to central to catch a shorncliffe from platform 4. i had a small wait, nothing major, for the shorncliffe, and when it arrived at central i was greeted with a wifi enabled train. totally awesome! such an unexpected surprise! and a surprise i employed to the fullest, using the free wifi to check emails and check the stats to see if anyone had been reading this blog...

since queensland rail decided to change the rail corridor colour codes for the updated timetables, the training inbound from cleveland generally continue to shorncliffe. in the past the trains coming from cleveland would be either doomben, shorncliffe or bowen hills trains. since the shorncliffe and cleveland now share the same rail corridor, a decision was made by someone, to colour coordinate the two lines into the same colour. this is why the cleveland is no longer purple, and is now blue to match the shorncliffe. this took a heap of adjusting on my part, but i finally updated the colours in all of my past blogs over the last few months, and am almost to the point of being used it to it now. almost. i dont think i ever will quite be used to seeing cleveland trains in blue!

the shorncliffe i caught, i presume had come in to the city from cleveland. the shorncliffe line runs through several major stations on the north side of brisbane, and officially becomes the shorncliffe line at the first station after northgate, which is bindha. banyo is the station directly following bidha when heading towards shorncliffe. when continuing along the shorncliffe line, the station following banyo is nudgee. i have not collected either of these stations yet, but i will eventually for my blog.

after taking my banyo photos, i walked to the meeting on nudgee road. i didnt have long to wait before some friends arrived, and we went inside to hear all about what this chain of pharmacies had to offer. i will use a star wars analogy to help those of you not in the pharmacy industry to understand a little about what we learned. as a jedi you are taught the ways of the force, there is a dark side of the force which consumes you and is generally very bad. as a jedi you do what you can to keep the peace, protect the light side of the force and ignore the power of the dark side. as someone who had worked on the light side of pharmacy, to be tempted by the dark side of chemist warehouse would be seen by many to be treacherous. however, just like the dark side, they are powerful, successful, and invest well in their own. they dont appear to be the dark side at all, simply another way of looking at the force. a different angle if you like. like anakin skywalker, i was keen to learn the power of this force, and with my friends, we asked many questions of the representatives long after the night had finished as we were the last group to leave; and this meant a late night was in order! i was more than happy to walk back to banyo station and catch a train from there, though one of my friends wouldnt hear of it, and kindly took me to darra, which was on his way home. yes, this is the same friend i visited springfield central with! so many of my adventures with trains involve him! so i waited for an ipswich train from darra at 10pm that night, for karen to pick me up at dinmore 6 stations later. it was an eventful evening, completed with starting an assignment at 1am that was due for submission in a few days time. i was awake, so why not do it to get it done?

my very first photo at banyo is the first photo i have taken of a station on the shorncliffe line.  i had just disembarked the shorncliffe at the nudgee end of the station, and couldnt believe my luck that i could get a shot of two trains waiting at the station. the shorncliffe train is on the right of the picture on platform 2, and the manly train is on platform 1 which is on the left of picture. the manly train had just arrived at banyo station. manly is a station on the cleveland line, and cheryl from work who featured heavily in my cannon hill blog, is keen for me to visit her again to help her with her computers. i have been to visit her once before, and got to collect manly station on that occasion. it is convenient to know that manly is occasionally a terminating station on the cleveland line. on the extreme left of the picture you can see a fence, i am behind the fence i promise! im just hyperflexible and can contort myself into convenient positions for photographing trains. i think i had good evidence of that in my clayfield entry.

the shorncliffe train is on platform 2 of banyo station, about to depart bound for nudgee. the manly train is visible in the background waiting on platform 1. i got this shot at the nudgee end of platform 2, just before the shorncliffe departed. 

the shorncliffe travels off into the distance, bound for banyo, leaving me alone on platform 2 to capture its departure. the manly train has also since departed from platform 1 on the right (sadly no photos of that, since i was concentrating more on the shorncliffe!) it was a lovey time in the afternoon at banyo station for capturing photos for trainspotting.

the banyo station sign. excellent bold font, definitely gets a tick for me! i really like how the sun decided to make itself prominent in this shot despite being hardly even visible. this banyo station sign is on platform 2 towards the nudgee end. 

taken on platform 2, looking across at platform 1 to get this shot of the banyo station sign in front of this building. the brick building is the back of a small supermarket which is on st vincents road next door o the library. there is a library to the left of the photo, not visible in this shot. i love books and i love libraries. perhaps on my next visit to banyo station, i might so in for a visit.

i always try to get as many station sign photos as i can in case some of them look so incredibly dodgy that they cant be published. the result of this is that i often have quite a few to include in each entry. i quite like the framing of this shot of a banyo station sign though, and the lighting is really lovely behind the sign as well. this shot is taken from platform 2. the nudgee end of the platform is to the right, and the bindha end is to the left.

still on platform 2, this time looking across at platform 1 to get a shot of the station sign which featured a few photos ago, and the shelter beside it.  banyo station is beautifully decorated with artworks which are slightly more conservative than those artworks seen at wacol station which i featured heavily in my previous entry!

pretty as a peacock, this shelter is on platform 2 towards the bindha end of banyo station. after visiting wacol in my last entry, it is nice to see banyo is in keeping with the theme of stations with art work in their shelters. the shelters at banyo were not as psychedelic as those at wacol, but i really appreciate the detail which has gone into this piece. i saw a peacock when i was a child once, such an elegant and graceful bird.

taken on platform 2 looking across at the small shelter on platform 1 at banyo. this shelter has a ticket machine (visible under the 1). these are particularly handy because you can purchase tickets, check your card balance and also add money to your card. anyone who knows me knows how much i despise automated systems at the supermarket, department stores and similar places. i will always wait in a queue (despite hating queuing!) so that i can have a human put the sale through for me. i still do prefer to have a human add my money to my card for me, however i have found an interesting correlation at dinmore: whenever either of us have wanted to top up money onto our cards, the eftpos machine wont work if i am standing to close to it. it has happened so many times now that it is surely beyond coincidental. perhaps it is because of my heart murmur? no idea, but whether it is my card, karens card, or some other poor unsuspecting commuter, i can shut down the eftpos machine in the station office just by my sheer proximity to it. it is for that reason, that i find these machines useful!

a double shot of station signs. yes, i am starting to get a touch creative. look at that sky as well! such a beautiful time of day. i am still on platform 2, looking across at platform 1. i have been inching my way down platform 2 towards the bindha end ever so slowly in these last few photos. here i have managed to capture two banyo station signs, a shelter and also the station office (right hand side in the background). one thing i notice is that despite these signs not being overly tall, i am always looking up at them from such a severe angle in all of my shots. i am pretty short, but i think i will have to address this for future stations so people reading this can have a different perspective other than from my extreme lack of height!  

getting warmer. i am closing in on the infamous crossing. i knew this was going to be a special moment. banyo is a station famous for its level crossing, and to finally get to see it in person was going to be pretty significant for me. i catch a lot of trains. most days i would catch at least 4 trains: dinmore to central, central to dutton park, dutton park to central, central to dinmore. so despite how many trains i catch, to get to see this controversial crossing was going to be a big moment. taken on platform 2, looking towards the bindha end of banyo station, the crossing is to the left, at the end of the platforms. this is where the truck carrying the transformer was hit by the shorncliffe train. there is a pretty good animation of it here on youtube.

the suspense is killing me too, thats why this is the last shot before the crossing is featured. this shot along the shorncliffe line in the direction of bindha is quite nice though. maybe the calm before the storm. the shorncliffe line is on the right, and the line to the city which usually continues to cleveland is on the left. i got this shot from platform 2 at banyo station. the crossing is just out of shot, it would be below the bottom of the photo. the crossing gates are still visible on the right. bindha station isnt visible in the photo, but the factories which back on to the station are very prominent on the left.

here it is. the banyo level crossing. i was seriously considering leaving it just at that for my comments, but i think i should put in a little more effort than that. platform 2 is right in front of me, i still havent ventured to platform 1 yet. platform 1 is on the left, just out of picture. the crossing may not look so bad from this shot, but photos can be deceiving. just out of picture to the right there is a major t junction, where cars wishing to turn right will have to wait for traffic to clear in both directions. while they wait, a traffic queue can easily form, and since there is not a lot of room cars easily back up through the crossing. the fact that trains on the shorncliffe line run every half hour as opposed to every 15 minutes is a blessing for this station in particular, since the traffic would be unbelievable if the boom gates went down twice as frequently as they currently do. i would foresee many more accidents and near misses. the tiny banyo station carpark can be seen towards the upper left of the photo. i have never tried parking at banyo station, but i would imagine this small park would fill up rather quickly.

looking back along platform 2 from the bindha end towards the nudgee end of the platform. the crossing is behind me as i get this photo. platform 1 is on the right of the shot. 

taken from the crossing itself looking back along the banyo station from ground level in the direction of nudgee. i got similar shots at wulkuraka, cannon hill and wacol stations. platform 2 for shorncliffe is on the left, platform 1 for the city and cleveland is on the right.

so i have finally decided to make my way over to platform 1. i got this shot from the crossing on the platform 1 side looking back at platform 2. the traffic goes past to the left of the photo as it crosses the shorncliffe line. the intersection is partially visible in the background, where the traffic on the crossing needs to wait for the traffic from royal parade (visible behind platform 2) to clear before turning. 

the crossing isnt very wide is it. the intersection of st vincents road and royal parade is to the right. they are essentially the same piece of road, they just have a different name on either side of the banyo crossing. royal parade runs beside the station, and st vincents road runs along beside the shorncliffe line until it meets the level crossing at banyo station. to the left is also called st vincents road. it isnt well represented in the photo, however, i have further shots of it later on. the banyo station car park, is a tiny designated area just off the portion of st vincents road that is to the left of this shot. 

i love getting shots of station signs, and this one is just another addition to the banyo station sign collection. im still not sure what the function of the yellow part way up the legs of the sign is for. my only guess is that it is there to make the poles more visible so people like me who dont tend to really look where they are going can see them clearly. please correct me if i am wrong! this station sign is on platform 2, and i took this photo from platform 1 at the bindha end of the platform. the crossing is to the left out of picture.

so i am finally on platform 1, looking back at platform 2 for this shot. taken from the bindha end at banyo station looking over at one of the shelters on platform 2. the crossing is to the left out of shot.

i have had a long debate within myself about whether or not to include this photo. the reasons against inclusion are obvious: the humans. however the lighting is really good in this shot, and it made it really hard to not include it. if i can get back to banyo at a similar time of afternoon where the sun is in the right position and there are no humans on the platforms, i will try to replicate this shot. sadly though there has not been the time to do this since i took the photo, as my assignment commitments have been nothing short of insane. the workload is so intense that i am actually looking forward to exam block.

taken from the crossing itself on the platform 1 side of banyo station looking in the direction of binda, this shot looks right along the tracks. the banyo station carpark is not visible, but is to the left of the photo just out of picture. the track in the foreground leads inbound to the city, which is mostly used by trains that travel from the city on to cleveland. this shot sort of gives an idea of how wide the level crossing is. the t intersection to the right is immediately in front of the crossing, making it a particularly awkward crossing.

my eyesight must really be ghastly, because i got this shot of what i thought at the time was a lovely photo of the gardens and a sign showing that this was banyo station. it wasnt until afterwards that i realised someone has thrown something at the sign and it is stuck to it, ruining my shot! it was still there on my second visit to the station a month after my first visit. perhaps if i make a third visit to banyo i will take a scrubbing brush to clean it off! it would make my o.c.d. feel a lot happier! this garden is lovely apart from the goo that has been hurled at the sign, and is located behind platform 1. there is a little path that leads up to it which makes the platform accessible to people with disabilities, people pushing prams or other objects with wheels that are suited to smooth flat surfaces. (i dont think skateboards or rollerblades count though sadly!)

this is a better shot to show the paths through the garden that lead up to platform 1. the station office is the grey building in the photo. the banyo garden sign with the goo thrown at it is back to the right. i cant believe i didnt notice it when i got the photo.

not exactly a shot of the banyo station itself, but i thought it would be ok to include this one since i put a similar shot of mitchelton in the blog i wrote about that station some months ago. the sign is on st vincents road which runs behind platform 1 of the station. i like the way the tree managed to creep into the shot and become a focal point.

same sign, no goo. this is the back side of the banyo station sign in the garden behind platform 1. this garden area is fairly new, and i think it looks really good, i think anything that adds character to a station is a great idea.

there is a path which leads up to platform 1 from the nearby shops, and this is the view from the path as you approach the platform. this shot looks in the bindha direction along platform 1. the crossing is obviously not in view, but is at the end of this platform.

this is one of the shelters on platform 1, keeping up with the peacock theme of course to match the one on platform 2. it was difficult to get this shot because people were on the platform at the time, and i think they thought i was strange. i am used to people thinking that about me! perhaps i should design a shirt saying: i have aspergers, what is your excuse?

despite the people looking at me, i managed to stay on platform 1 long enough to be able to witness the arrival of a cleveland train coming in to banyo from nudgee. i got this shot from the extreme nudgee end of platform 1.

after the people waiting on the platform had boarded the train, i walked further along platform 1 and got another shot of the cleveland train as it departed banyo, bound for bindha. the trains always manage to look so clean in my photos!

i had barely moved when the shorncliffe train arrived, so naturally, i photographed it. taken from platform 1, looking across at the shorncliffe train on platform 2 in the direction of nudgee.

the shorncliffe has deposited its human cargo at banyo and is on its way to nudgee. taken on platform 1, looking along the platform in the nudgee direction to show the shorncliffe as it departs platform 2.

 

still on platform 1, this time looking at the library which is located behind the station on st vincents road. such a shame the tree is in the way showing that it is the banyo library, though since this is a blog about banyo station, it is no small stretch that this is the banyo library. alas, i dont get to visit libraries for leisure very often anymore. gone are the days of rocking in to a library and enjoying rows and rows of books just for fun. because of uni being so full on, i spend most of my library time doing assignments and research for assignments. actually, thats what i should be doing at the moment, but writing about banyo has been so much more fun! i feel guilty looking at this photo for the fact that i didnt visit the library when i was this close to it. considering my history with books and bookshops, that is a particularly damning statement. perhaps on my next visit to banyo station, i will get to enjoy some library time? i could be so lucky!

a nice human free platform 1 after the cleveland has gone towards bindha, and the shorncliffe has also vacated bound for nudgee. platform 2 is on the right of the photo. the library is behind me to the left.

time for another shot of a station sign, and look how beautiful this shot is taken on platform 1 looking across at platform 2 in the afternoon sun, the banyo sign with its lovely bold font stands proudly on the platform.

this is the little path that had the banyo sign in the garden that someone had thrown goo at. the station office is to the right of the photo. the crossing is to the right, but out of picture. this path leads from platform 1 to st vincents road which runs behind platform 1 of banyo station.

the crossing at this station is just so prominent, that i have to keep referring back to it to show as many angles of it as i can. it really needs to be seen in person to be truly appreciated. obviously i am on platform 1 as i get this shot at the bindha end of banyo station, looking inbound along the shorncliffe line towards the platform exit down to the level crossing itself. platform 2 is to the right, not in picture.

the banyo station carpark. it isnt exactly massive is it. still at least it has a designated car park unlike wulkuraka where parking on the side of the road is the official carpark. perhaps one day parking may be more generous at banyo station. at least there is not a long walk to the station from the car park. there is however the task of negotiating the crossing, which is no easy challenge. it is not the most direct way, but one of the safest ways would be to use the two zebra crossings that link the car park to the station by crossing tufnell road and st vincents road.

this is a familiar style of photo, made famous in my very first station blog at wulkuraka and replicated at every station with a level crossing since then. this time, it is the infamous banyo level crossing, but looking along the shorncliffe line in the direction of bindha with the crossing behind me. i am actually on the bindha side of the crossing, where there is a designated human crossing (visible in an earlier photo). i do promise that i am not suicidal, and not crossing the tracks by any means other than those intended. i do really like these sorts of photos though. im not sure what it is about them, perhaps it is the perspective of looking down the train lines into the distance, or perhaps it is looking at the fact that parallel lines do meet in non euclidean space that appeals to much to my mathematical brain. when i work it out, i will let you know.

i think this photo is deceptively valuable in highlighting the banyo level crossing and how narrow it truly is. while this shot is probably most likely to be remembered as the shot with the bent street sign, look beyond that, and look at the amount of room between the intersection itself and the width of the platform. bear in mind that st vincents road runs directly behind platform 1, which is visible on the right of the shot. cars queued through this intersection really do have nowhere to go if the boom gates begin to fall to signal an approaching train. there is very limited room between the intersection and the shorncliffe line itself.

similar to the previous image, again showing the level crossing, but this time showing how close st vincents road is to the tracks. combine the two images, and you get a better idea of the sheer narrowness of this stretch of road as it crosses the shorncliffe line. the outbound shorncliffe line is in the foreground, and the inbound cleveland line is in the background. in the video on youtube, the truck is stranded across the level crossing as the shorncliffe train approaches and crashes into the stranded trailer.

the photo earlier that i was not going to include was very luck to survive the final edit because of the presence of this photo, which i think is actually a better shot of the banyo station, however the lighting isnt quite as nice as in the previous shot (21 photos above here i think it is) so thats one reason why that photo survived despite this one being slightly more descriptive. i got this photo from the path on the bindha side of the crossing, so that i could include the crossing in front of the banyo station, unlike the other photo which was taken from the banyo side of the road, not the bindha side. the shorncliffe line is on the left and the cleveland line is on the right. the upper left of the photo shows quite clearly how little room is between the t junction and the shorncliffe line. there is essentially no room for traffic to queue over the level crossing safely. i really was quite surprised by this when i was there. of course i had seen the news with the footage of the truck carrying the transformer and how the shorncliffe train ran into it, but to see the crossing in person was indeed eye opening. despite my fabulous photography, it is still definitely better to see this crossing in person if you havent already been to the station and are interested in seeing just how dangerous it really is. another thing i should point out is that i had to stand here for quite some time in order to be able to get a photo that didnt have cars streaming through it ruining my shot. this is after all a busy intersection.

i took a photo similar to this at mitchelton station on the ferny grove line. wow, it feels like such a long time since i was there taking those photos. i think university does that to you, it has its way of distorting time to make it feel like it has sped up unbelievably fast. for example, it is almost exam block and i have hardly had time to study due to assignments. if anyone tells you that 4th year pharmacy at university of queensland is a walk in the park, please dont listen to them. 4th year is not easier. it isnt so much harder content wise, but the assessment workload is significantly increased! why else do you think it has taken me so long to write this poor entry on banyo? i actually really like this photo despite the fact you cant see much of the station and there is no sign of a train. this time of afternoon is perfect for photographing train stations, and hopefully i can visit future stations in mid to late afternoon to capture this epic lighting because i think the time of day i was here at banyo station has enhanced its appearance in these photos. i got this shot from the chinese shop across the road, looking back at banyo station from across st vincents road. the crossing is to the left out of picture.

taken from a similar position to the photo above, but zoomed farther out to capture more of the road this time. the blue things are the bicycle storage units which were featured in my wacol entry last month because they were painted with images of animals on them. i must say i am a touch disappointed the storage units here at banyo dont continue with the peacock theme like wacol did with the animal theme, but perhaps that is asking a bit much. the crossing is to the left, just out of picture. the station office is the wooden building just left of the center of the photo.

creeping further and further back along the road towards the bindha end of the station to the ultimate reveal of the banyo level crossing, you can still see the banyo station office between the trees and the trademark white fencing of the station. the solid blue bicycle sheds are also prominent in this shot like the one above. the crossing is to the immediate left of the photo.

there it is: the banyo level crossing. the station carpark is to the left of the photo. parking at banyo seems theoretically easy, though i can see the potential for walking the short distance from carpark to station being a real nightmare of a morning. im not sure if that is the case, but it looks likely to be so. it took me ages to get this shot because of the traffic. finding a traffic break to get a shot of the crossing sans cars driving through it was incredibly frustrating, and i was very close to giving up when suddenly i had this opportunity (i am not known for being patient). that explains the poor framing of the photo, but it was incredibly rushed (oh my, finally no cars, quick! snap! relax...) what would have been incredibly cool would have been if i could have taken a shot of the banyo crossing with a shorncliffe train arriving at the station and the booms down over the road, with no cars blocking the shot. a very unlikely scenario considering i had to wait a good 10 minutes between getting the previous photo and this one due to the constant passing traffic! just look at that crossing though. i dont think i would like to drive over that for fear a train would be coming while i was stuck behind another vehicle. i wouldnt want emmy to take on a train, because i know the train would win. just look at what the shorncliffe did to the truck with the transformer!

contented with my previous photo and knowing that i have finally got a shot of the crossing intersection, i was seriously considering heading to the chemist warehouse meeting by now, but thought that a few last moment photos wouldnt hurt. taken from across from banyo station looking at the station office behind platform 1, i managed to avoid passing cars ruining my photo. dont be fooled though, there was plenty of traffic around at this time, i was just incredibly lucky to get these photos without cars photo bombing my shots.

 

i couldnt believe my luck, i was about to head to the chemist warehouse meeting when i noticed the crossing was vacant again, and so i got a slightly better framed effort of the level crossing. buoyed by this i thought a few extra minutes at the station wouldnt hurt! this banyo crossing is certainly the most unusual level crossing i have visited since i began my odyssey of visiting all stations on the one translink card. i really hope that it is redeveloped at some point in the near future, not only will that make the roads and station a lot safer, but it will also provide me with an opportunity to visit banyo station again for a follow up to this blog!

i was on my way to the chemist warehouse evening when i got one more photo of the station where no cars were passing. this was going to be my last photo of banyo station, but it felt like a shame to leave the station on such a weak note by getting a photo as i was walking away. im not sure what made me do it, but something inside me said i needed to go back and get another shot of the tracks, from the bindha side of the crossing, so i did!

im just so glad i went back! i was standing on the crossing to get another photo like my famous wulkuraka photo, when i saw that there was a shorncliffe coming from bindha and thought it would be awesome to wait and get a shot from the crossing with the train coming towards me in the distance (similar to my wacol photo that i got from the footbridge, though i didnt actually see the train in the distance. at least i could see this one! and besides, this time i was on the same level as the train!) naturally i couldnt linger for very long because the train was on its way, so it was a case of noticing the train was coming taking a quick snap and getting the hell off the crossing!

and here it is less than a minute later! the shorncliffe train is arriving at banyo station. here it is about to enter the crossing as it arrives from bindha. the sky is particularly beautiful at this time of afternoon in april in queensland. i got this photo from the bindha side of the level crossing on the platform 2 side of the shorncliffe line. there were people nearby while i was trying to get this photo. i am sure they thought i was mad, but i am so glad i went back for a few extra photos. i would have actually been happy to end my banyo entry on this photo, but i think i topped it with the next two.

 

with a photo like this, i am really glad i spent these few extra minutes here at banyo! i wasnt exactly running the risk of being late, i may be little but can scurry fairly efficiently, so there was very limited risk that i would be late to the meeting. besides, to get a great shot like this of the shorncliffe on platform 2 at banyo station from the level crossing on the bindha side, was really worth the wait. such a shame there is a woman in the photo, but the main attraction for me and most of you reading this will surely be the beautiful train. the lights are flashing and the booms are down and gates are closed to prevent anyone entering the crossing. i always enjoy riding in this model of train, these trains are equipped with wifi, which is always handy when i have my ipad since i cant really use my laptop on the train (i have very short femurs, so it isnt practical to use my laptop; i dont have a lap!) i figured that when the shorncliffe had left banyo, i would too, and head to the meeting, however, i was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to get the following photo before i left.

without doubt, this is shot of the day. it is pretty close to being shot of the blog actually, because my favourite photos from each of the other stations seem pretty insignificant compared to this beauty. even my beautiful wacol at 5am photo and the quaint ebbw vale station office shots cant rival this shot of two trains at banyo. perhaps i should actually start having a favourite photo entry in every blog, because the last few entries i have written have all had standout photos (i guess this is proof that my photography is actually improving!) i got this shot from the infamous level crossing at the bindha end of the banyo station. there are two crossings for people to use, one on either side of st vincents road. this shot was taken from the southern crossing, as the northern one is visible in the foreground near the two suburban multiple units. the shorncliffe train is waiting on platform 2 and the cleveland is waiting on platform 1. i was at the station for 3 separate train stops: the one when i arrived, one about 15 minutes later and this one above. this one was by far the most spectacular. now i had never been to banyo before this day, so i dont know the frequency of getting two suburban multiple units at the station at the one time, but on all of the other stations i have visited, it has not happened yet. to have the trains synchronised arrivals is one thing, but to have them both the same model, thats even cooler. i love this photo! i also love how the cleveland looks like it is winking at me as its lights alternate flashing.

this is probably the second best shot of the day. the lighting is perfect, as the cleveland is making its departure from banyo station, bound for bindha. the shorncliffe had left moments ago, meaning i was lucky enough to get this shot of the cleveland train at banyo in the afternoon sun of a late april day. if anyone tells you trains are boring, show them these last two photos!

the cleveland is heading to the city. next stop inbound on the shorncliffe line is bindha. the lighting at this time of afternoon makes this train look particularly beautiful i think. i still havent moved since taking the last few shots!

when i took this photo of a departing cleveland train bound for bindha, i thought it may very well have been the last photo i got at banyo station. after i got this photo i figured i had spent enough time at the station getting photos, and since i didnt want to be late for the information evening, i figured it was time to walk to the venue. a short walk later and i was there. i was early, which was surprising, but gave me an opportunity to play spider solitaire on my ipad. i love spider! after the interesting evening concluded and my friends and i stayed until we were last to leave with all the questions we had, one f my friends kindly drove me to darra station which is on his way home. i got to darra at 10pm, and didnt have long to wait for an ipswich train to take me to dinmore where karen was waiting for me. i had hoped that my journey to banyo may lead to an opportunity for placement for term 2 or even employment or an internship. i emailed through my resume later that night when i got home (i think the email was sent at 1am...) little did i know that not long afterwards, i would be contacted for an opportunity with chemist warehouse, and so in late may i was able to make another journey to banyo station for this interview, and naturally took the opportunity to calm my nerves by taking just a few more photos of the banyo station. the more the better! perhaps banyo station will forever be the known for me as the start of something new and exciting for my career.

i got this shot as i got off the shorncliffe at banyo on the day of my interview for placement at chemist warehouse for second term of fourth year. this particular day was rather stressful, as we had a major group assignment due at midday, and my interview was at 2pm, meaning i wasnt going to be able to be at pace to submit a physical copy of the written assignment thankfully one of my team members was able to submit it. still, while nervously waiting at central for a shorncliffe to banyo, i was stressing over not just the interview but the submission of the assignment. thankfully a text message came through just after midday that calmed my nerves, she had got it in with a few minutes to spare. i was able to enjoy my train ride, and celebrated by getting this shot of the shorncliffe after i set foot at banyo for the second time. could banyo truly be the tart of a new beginning? i was about to find out. here the shorncliffe is on platform 2, and i got the photo looking along the platform in the direction of nudgee.

the last time i was at banyo i didnt get many photos with the station office, so i thought that this time i would make that effort to get a shot from platform 2 looking over at the office on platform 1. i have even managed to get a banyo station sign in the shot, total fluke of course because i really didnt linger on the platform for very long at all on this particular visit. the shorncliffe line is in the foreground and the inbound line for the city stations in the background.

this one is a double banyo, with two station signs in the one shot. i got this photo from behind platform 2. as i left the station after disembarking the shorncliffe train. I walked along the back of platform 2 towards the infamous level crossing. sadly there were too many people around to be able to get another shot of the crossing on this visit.

this is another double banyo shot, this time from the platform 1 side looking back at platform 2. i like the way the trees are around the signs in the photo. im not a botanist, but i think the tree at the top is a jacaranda. i went to a high school which had a massive jacaranda out the front and every time it was in bloom it would leave a beautiful purple carpet which was simply stunning. the only problem was that when jacarandas are in bloom, which signifies exams are imminent. thus i have forever associated a jacaranda in bloom with exams! hopefully the end of this year will be the last time i have to sit exams when a jacaranda is in bloom, and i can then enjoy their natural beauty without the stress of having to cram a terms worth of material into my brain! 

after my interview i walked back to banyo station, where i planned on spending a little more time in a (hopefully) human free environment so that i could get a few extra photos. sadly this wasnt to be the case, as there were other people on the platforms, and a cleveland train appeared not long after i arrived on platform 1. as it approached, i got this shot of the train looking in the nudgee direction as the train arrives at banyo station. with this shot i bid farewell to banyo station, and i rode the cleveland back to central to catch up with karen and celebrate with a slurpee from 7eleven. (i highly recommend the vanilla slurpee, just saying!) now i have finally visited and blogged about a station on the shorncliffe line, and i even got to visit the station twice during the time i was writing about it. i have also managed to get all assessment pieces submitted (somehow on time!) during this insanely hectic month. the worst assessment piece by far was the fictional pharmacy assignment for our business of healthcare subject. the amusing thing about this assignment, is that a group of friends decided to locate their pharmacy right next to banyo station. a touch ironic, dont you think! i sincerely hope that june isnt anywhere near as full on as may has been, but this is fourth year, it was never going to be easy! with this shot of the cleveland arriving at banyo, i bid goodbye to a station that has been the start of a new beginning. when i first visited this station in april, i was working in one chain of pharmacies, and as i boarded this train back to central, i was working for another. banyo has been the beginning of a new and exciting chapter of my life. and it all began with a ride on the shorncliffe to banyo station. i wonder where m next train ride will take me? you will have to wait and see…