Gerringong Railway Station - Shunting

Shunting

Gerringong used to have a siding for the Dairy Company, which consisted of a single lead trailing to Sydney bound trains.

This meant that it was easy to shunt to pick up loaded wagons bound for Sydney, but not easy to leave empty wagons from Sydney.

A special method was therefore used to shunt the siding in the Nowra bound direction. The train would stop before the turnout to the siding and both ends of the milk wagon(s) were uncoupled. The train would rush forward, giving the milk wagons a momentary tug, and as soon as the front part of the train had cleared the turnout, the turnout would be changed into the siding and the milk wagons would coast into the siding where the guard would apply the brakes at the appropriate time. The locomotive would then reverse to pick up the remainder of the train.