A LONG LIFE FOR AN ANCIENT ROMAN!

1905 -  Baby Elsie Georgina Beckmann - beautiful innocence and, perhaps, a tad apprehensive before the camera.

1927 - The demur and beautiful Bride to be.

1928 The recently married Mrs and Mrs Jack Dixon

 Around 1944 - hard times  - (Taken with a Kodak Box Brownie Camera)

Forty years was a good long lifetime for the average ancient  Roman. 

To-day , 30th August,2011 marks the 40th Anniversary of the death of ELSIE GEORGINA DIXON (nee BECKMANN). It had been a hard knock life for the eldest child of the large Beckmann family. The little child Elsie's parents faced severe financial hardship as the young German immigrant husband and father struggled to find work in an Australia which found it difficult to climb out of the 1890's depression. When Influenza struck every member of the family , it was the child Elsie who nursed them all, parents and children back to health as her Father fondly recalled in his Memoir.

Only a little more than a year after her marriage to John Joseph ( "Jack") Dixon, the Great Depression destroyed the economic life of much of Australian society. Jack could not find work , but Elsie was able to do so in Vicars Woollen Mills at North Parramatta . World War II saved the Australian economy , as well as its freedom. It also gave Jack Dixon a job in the building of the vital Garden Island  Graving Dock.

The enjoyment of the post-war peace was blighted for Elsie by the stress of looking after her own and her husband's parents and mother respectively, and by her own succession of debilitating illnesses. Through it all she never failed to help others, to be loving and kind and a selfless peacemaker.

Her death from a serious heart attack was entirely  unexpected. Her 66 years of life left her fondly enshrined  in the hearts of all who knew her, and certainly of me her younger son.

Late 1960's - a totally informal early morning snap.My dear Mum and Dad

Requiescant in Pace.

                                                                       Can it REALLY be 40 years?

HERE TO THERE......AND BACK AGAIN - " TAKING THE CARS" TO BRISBANE

16.8.11.          As we learn from reading the history of the American Civil War, in those early railroad days, Americans did not speak of "taking the train", but of"taking the cars".And that is what I am about to do.

A journey of a thousand kilometers begins with a single .....suburban train ride from Pymble to Hornsby  (well two train rides actually, but that's another story.)

Big Nanny looks down as the Pymble Indicator promises a train to Hornsby.

A set of "cars" bound for HORNSBY

At Hornsby, as the evening chill descended on the Platform, the XPT arrived exactly on time and left with the same promptness. These trains are 1960's English best practice . The contrast with to-day's Freccia Rossa , TGV and ICE is quite marked, not only as regards speed, but also ride and appointments.The train consists of seven cars and it is topped and tailed with diesel locomotives of the same styling as the 

cars, save for the sloping front and rear.

No Big Nanny cameras , but the Indicator Board on Hornsby's Platform 3 announces the imminent arrival of the Brisbane bound XPT.

THE XPT BOUND FOR BRISBANE,  ROLLS SMOOTHLY INTO HORNSBY STATION

The purpose of the trip is to finish off some business in Brisbane, and friends have very kindly invited me to stay with them on Wednesday evening. So you will see that the XPT takes quite some time to reach Brisbane. Leaving Hornsby at precisely 4.46 pm on Tuesday it is due to complete it's 1,000 Kms journey at 6.30 am(ugh!) on Wednesday.13 3/4hours to cover 1,000 Kms. The sort of journey the Freccia Rossa would toss off in about 4hours! But we don't have the population density or,as yet, the national debt that makes such things possible. So, having just crossed the beautiful Hawkesbury River as the evening light of this Winter's day starts to fade ,we begin the climb northward.

I have not travelled these tracks since my adventure as a teenager, riding the Footplate of a C38 class Steam Locomotive as far as Hamillton in the suburbs of Newcastle.It is a great opportunity to see something of the countryside without the preoccupations of driving, or from thousands of feet up in a jet. Now we enter one of the tunnels my Grandfather wrote about, when describing his honeymoon trip in 1904, noting theirRomantic possibilities! Speed is increasing markedly but still primitive by European standards.

It is often forgotten that in the 1890's ,in England, the railways running to the South of London were achieving average speeds of 75mph hauled by steam locomotives. Nothing was allowed to impede the trains speedy progress, water was picked up by a scoop attached to the tender, from a trough laid between the tracks (this became common in England and later in the United States. But wait, there's more as they say - Passengers had booked seats, and for certain destinations, the rear car was detached "on the fly", and brought to a stop at the appropriate Station by the careful judgement of a guard in the car applying the manual brakes!! Those were the days!

Darkness is settling in as we climb out of Gosford,after a brief stop. Time for a pause and some reflection.And a little night music courtesy of the I Pod.Not much sleep in my seated position, even though the Seniors Discount has made First Class possible!
Five minutes to Four am. We arrive in Casino. The night has been spent in fitful "sleep". The track beyond Hamilton in the Newcastle suburbs increasingly deteriorates as the XPT heads further north. Occasional very heavy shocks and sharp noises penetrate the carriage's interior and at one spot the unevenness of the track sets up a  gyration in the carriage that caused it to creak unpleasantly. The reflection of the other side of the carriage on the very large windows which cover the space of two seats, creates for long periods, the effect of a ghostly other train pacing beside us. Unfortunately I could not capyure it properly with the camera - the light was far too weak. 

A RATHER UNSUCCESSFUL EFFORT TO CAPTURE THE REFLECTED IMAGE  CREATING THE "GHOST TRAIN" - BY CLICKING ON THE IMAGE YOU MAY BEGIN TO GET SOME IDEA OF THE IMPRESSION CREATED.

This is pathetic! North ofCasino the track is so poor it is setting up regular vibrations through the carriage causing alternately regular squeaking from all the seating and fittings and then a heavy irritating vibration noise. Oh well only 1 hour and fifty seven minutes to go!( My son, still resident in Brisbane, was later to remind me of how badly flooding rains had affected these tracks in the last few months!)

Five forty five a.m, I was enjoying the gradually lightening sky, when suddenly the carriage lights were all turned on, the outside world was at once invisible. Ah well, so much for the reflections on the problems of a man I  know with his beloved and grown up son - how shockingly some sad turns of events affect some folk! The day is dawning with heavy cloud cover it seems - maybe the clouds will clear away - let's hope so, for it is Ekka  Holiday in Brisbane.

As the XPT enters the outskirts of my dearly  loved- Brisbane -  "Urbs  Beata"  - I have clearly in mind that it was necessity that led us to move back to Sydney -  and nothing else could have done it.

There is a lot to be said for rail travel, but above all, it seems conducive to clearer thinking, and provides a sense of order that is not obtained in air travel - or is this merely the musing of a sleep deprived brain!

We just passed through one of the new Rail/Bus interchange Stations called PARK ROAD -  very impressive .Now rolling through SouthBank and mere minutes from Roma Street Station and the end of our journey -about ten minutes early!




After an abortive attempt to hire a car from ABEL ( office closed &not answering phones) , Iater a good breakfast at Jimmy's on the Mall and then went to HERTZ and picked up a car and drove out to our former home and threw myself into the work of preparing a vast quantity of books for transport. By Lunch time (BTW , when I was a boy, present day "Lunch" was called "Dinner" and present day  "Dinner" was called"Tea" - interesting) I had gone as far as I could for the day. I received a most welcome phone call from my son, inviting me to dinner at their home in Flagstone in the outer South West. Unfortunately I could not make it due to commitments with my hosts who had gone to a lot of trouble. But I suggested that I come to him and his wife and children at Browns Plains Shopping Mall - a half way point. We had a good get together , though the two youngest children were still in day care.It was so good to see them again , and all looking well.




What a busy day and a bit I spent in Brisbane! Our dear friends in Toowong - we have known them for over 20 years - gave me a right Royal welcome and treated me to a truly grand Dinner. Sadly I cannot have been a great guest : firstly I was exhausted due to lack of sleep on the train, and busy work at our previous home all morning and thirdly due to the worst Sinus problems I have had in many years. 


I slept like a rock and was up at 5.30 a.m. and on my way shortly after 7.00a.m. in the neat little Hyundai Getz 5 Door Hatch. First call was to make a delivery to the Good Jesuit and then I began the first of a planned 5 trips to Bellbowrie and back, ferrying books to their temporary home. I had forgotten to factor in the peak hour traffic and so had to fit everything into 3 round trips only! The Getz did a great job - quite surprising really. I arrived back at Roma Street Station with 15 minutes to spare.


THE WAY BACK


I don't understand why! The overnight  XPT Sydney to Brisbane returns the morning of its arrival in Brisbane as the Daytime Brisbane to Sydney service. However, to travel overnight from Brisbane to Sydney, it is necessary to travel from Brisbane Roma Street Station to Casino in Northern NSW to catch the Southbound nightime XPT to Sydney!! This includes a 1 to 1 1/2 hour wait in Casino for the daytime XPT to arrive from Sydney!! It is a bizarre and primitive situation. Why can't the daytime XPT to Brisbane go back from Brisbane as the overnight service??  The mysteries of Religion have nothing on the Railway timetablers in N.S.W.

Casino N.S.W. Red signal blocks the line to Brisbane - as XPT has just arrived late from Sydney.

Turn to the Left and we see the greater part of the train as it is being quickly prepared for the Sydney bound night service.My seat proves to be at the rear of the third window from the right.

As it happened the XPT from Sydney was running late so the several hundred passengers waiting at Casino in the cold and dark of night were unimpressed. Fortunately, the Railway staff managed to speed up the turn around and we left Casino only a little late - most of the 1/2 hour delay having been made up. Having despatched the gourmet Mrs Mac's Sausage Roll and an Arnott's Wagon Wheel I settled in to read and doze. About 1.30 a.m. (I think) , I awoke to find the train STOPPED and silent, and noticed a couple of men walking to and fro with Torches. Something was amiss. after about 20 minutes the XPT slowly REVERSED onto another track before resuming its Southbound journey. It turned out that we had pulled into a loop to let another train pass on the mainline. But, when the time came for us to rejoin the main line, the set of points ( switch in US parlance) would not work. Our Driver had to walk back to the reverse end of the train and back us onto the mainline. This delay made us 28 minutes late in all. There were I found out, 40 passengers with major connections to make in Sydney. Our driver had the XPT going at a spanking pace for the rest of the journey, finally reaching Sydney ( well Hornsby anyway) only 5 minutes late! We flashed through some Newcastle area stations at almost alarming speeds.


I arrived at Hornsby thoroughly exhausted by the exertions of the three day adventure, which proved surprisingly successful thank God and my Guardian Angel!


My dear wife was waiting with the car to whisk me off tour new home. She is a real star, up at the crack of dawn - earlier actually- to meet our 6.15 a.m. arrival - love makes us do crazy things!

A VERY MOVING EXPERIENCE

A MOVING SCENE

Having decided that we should move to Sydney for the remainder of our lives, to be with the majority of our family and oldest friends, we had the task of making the decision become a physical reality. It was our intention to move from our normal family- sized home to a two bedroom apartment/home unit and, as a consequence,we had to shed many familiar and even cherished ( for the memories they called up) possessions.Several items, or groups of items posed particular problems - because though valuable in terms of cost, they had no, or almost no, market value but could not be fitted into a two bedroom unit. We tried E Bay with no result at all . Accordingly the Saturday Garage Sale was unavoidable. Now, we live in such a way as to greatly value our real privacy.(Blogs notwithstanding.) The very thought of strangers pawing our ( even surplus) possessions did not appeal at all. But needs must, and with ads in the Classified section of the Newspaper and its websites we had our first visitors on the Friday evening. One was a lovely old Scots gentleman "George"by name who bought the Lawnmower(which happily started at first attempt), then turned out to be a model railway enthusiast and bought a railway print for his son. He also had a strong interest in old clocks and bought an inoperative old American Mantle Clock. He was a delightful gent - a painter and an enthusiast for the willdlife that abounds in the area.The Saturday brought hordes of folk who bought all manner of things. My two favourites were "Aaron"a solidly built young Chinese fellow who, with his Mum, bought stacks of items to help fit out a house he is renovating. He also agreed to buy extensive Steelbuilt shelving from the Garage which had held our  book stocks from the failed business. He came back to dis-assemble and take this away that evening about 6.00p.m. Aaron was a delight. He had a great personality and friendly smile, boundless energy and a very sharp analytical mind.And he was as strong as an ox with a great sense of humor. Down came the shelving , with some clumsy help from me, but in the most economical way thanks to him Up it went onto the truck with no fuss , and packed in such a way that its footprint on the truck was tiny AND he had managed to pack 25 plastic  storage boxes he had bought from us inside that racking. Then, despite my very factual warnings about the limitations of the large XEROX Photocopier we no longer required, after some deliberation, he decided to take it - to my relief- and then he demonstrated further practical skills designing a rope sling to lift the XEROX without damaging it - using the truck's rear end loading crane . Brilliant!

READY FOR ACTION

My other favourite was a young English Jamaican migrant and her husband who were introduced by a neighbour and were happy to take a number of good quality items we were happy to see go at no cost. She was happy, appreciative and delightfully mannered.

The big day arrived. On Tuesday 26th July, 2011 the big day arrived - promptly at 7.30 a.m. the Removalists arrived. No Pantechnicon these days , but rather a muscle bound truck carrying a moderate sized Rail Freight Container, Our two young tattooed happy warriors set about the task with a will, and a humour so good that at times we thought they might be on something! But no - they were just nice, happy blokes and really hard workers

ONR OF OUR TATTOOED HAPPY WARRIORS AND A HEAVY CAPITAL

By about 1,00 p.m.they had catalogued and labelled everything and shifted it into the Container and with hearty waves ( encouraged by good tips) they had the heavy-laden brute of a truck on its way.Right on 1,00pm the Rubbish Removalist arrived to carry away all that had not been sold at Saturday's Garage Sale or that had been cast off in our rendering down, He was another good humour man and a barrel of energy. A large dead refrigerator was no trouble and seemed to rise onto his trailer with miraculous ease.Tons of unwanted magazines went the same way along with old lamps etc., etc., and so many other things that make you wonder why or how we all acquire so much in the way of unnecessary goods. It seems he specialises in trying to return many of these items to active service with the co-operation of the St Vincent de Paul Society.After being paid handsomely, only to be followed by the Carpet Cleaner. Using the "dry" method, he did a remarkably good job and the place came up like new, save for four small marks where the rubber feet of a computer sound system had somehow infused a stain..

Our faithful family car was very heavily laden with a variety of precious items including sewing equipment and computer equipment and other bits and pieces that came to notice as the house was emptied.By about 4.00 p.m. we were on the road to Sydney. As darkness fell we began the tortuous climb up toward Cunningham's Gap where the traffic is reduced to a single lane as repair work goes on to rectify the havoc caused by the torrential rains of our Summer of Disasters. At length we reached our intended overnight stay at provincial Warwick. We were thoroughly exhausted, but astounded at how well everything had gone and pleased at the number of fine people we had met in the complex process of arranging our departure.

We managed to get a worthwhile discount on a nice room in a good Motel, enjoyed a light dinner in our room and fell happily to sleep.

We rose early on the Wednesday morning and drove into Warwick for an early Breakfast At Macca's , refuelled at Woolies discount price settled the Motel account and headed out for Sydney some 750Kms South on the New England Highway. It was a crisp cold morning , but quite fine Queensland weather. The trip South was mercifully uneventful and we arrived at our daughter Justine's Pymble home tired and exhausted mentally, and physically. Stage One was ended. We fell happily into a loving , warm and generous welcome.

Stage Two would be the finding of  a new home. Stage Three would be tidying up loose ends in Brisbane ( my job) and bringing our new home to life.

With God's Grace we have so far achieved a great deal in a complex operation. We pray for His continuing support as we re-order our lives and begin trying to repay some little of the abundant and generous hospitality extended to us by friends and relations on our visits to Sydney over the last 20 years.