Today we are remembering travelling by train 🚂 from Bunyip to Drouin, while others went beyond.
At Bunyip, as you walked the path from Main Street to the railway station, you would pass two railway homes. One I remember had a beautiful garden.
The railway homes were two of four homes. The other two were on Nar Nar Goon–Longwarry Road and can still be recognised today.
As you approached the station, you would often see smoke. No, not from the kids smoking! Stan Hemphill would have the office wood fire burning, which was wonderful for cold travellers. Not for us kids though, as we were stuck outside or in the open waiting room.
The Red Rattler, or the blue train with its beautiful chrome racks, stained timber, grey shutters and lovely black upholstery, would pull up at 8.19 am, and off we trundled to school — making sure we didn’t sit in someone else’s seat!
At Drouin, the kids would hop on the bus waiting at the station. Some would walk, but most would bus it. Our bus driver was a nice chap, Mr Cobbledick.
More on the train 🚂
The train often had silver foot warmers that were used on those early frosty mornings. Unfortunately, some of these ended up in the Bunyip River. So did Lydia’s chunky sandwiches with their big slabs of cheese! Hungry kids would have loved those.
If you were rich enough — and quick enough — you could leave school as fast as you could, run to the fish and chip shop and get back to the station in time. How yummy for them! But the smell would drift down the train and make the poor hungry kids even hungrier.
A couple of Warragul Tech teachers would travel on the train too. Chook, in particular, would patrol the carriages — probably grabbing a hot chip off a kid!
How lucky were we all to travel on the train, with no cost to our parents either.
It was a great way to grow up and be a little bit independent too.
The famous photo in Denise Nest’s Call of the Bunyip book shows just how busy the station was at that time.
Do you remember travelling to school on the train?🚂 Happy Friday everyone #lovealwayshenry♥️#storybydaffy📝#picbyai