*1954 CONFESSIONS OF A STEAM LOCOMOTIVE ADDICT

"RAILWAY TRANSPORTATION" - WHILE OTHERS WERE READING FOOTBALL MAGAZINES

Just exactly when I became addicted to steam locomotives is a question I have never considered until now, as I write this. The 1952 school prize shows that I was already hooked then,and by that time I already had several books about "trains" as non-addicts would say. As a little boy at Christmas 1945 I believe it was, I was given a Hornby Train Set with a little four wheeled, clockwork, red  locomotive and two chocolate and cream passenger carriages. It was to last until the great railway disaster of about 1950, when the spring broke hurling the upper part some distance from the wheels!

It wasn't anything to do with my Grandad Beckmann having been a Signalman, because I don't recall any glimmer of the addiction in him. I think it must have been spontaneous. And there is just SOMETHING about a steam locomotive. It seems ALIVE.Its Brake Compressor 's panting seems like breathing, its Coupling Rods and Connecting Rods are like muscles flexing and its exhaust is a human like indication of effort and just like a human body it is warm and its whistle and Safety Valves are like human roars! At the beginning of the classic film documentary "A Steam Train Passes"made by the famous Australian Cinematographer Dean Semler, a retired Steam Locomotive Driver speaks about the feeling when the Regulator (Throttle) is opened up, the steam released into the cylinders and "life"is breathed into the locomotive which begins to move under the driver as all the complex forces come into play.

TRACKSIDE JUST EAST OF LIDCOMBE

The photo above is one I took one morning, having climbed through the fence to get right beside the track with my pathetic camera, to see what I could catch , when along came 3670 at a nice clip leaning slightly into the long gentle curve behind the rarely used Rookwood Station headed East. That was before the days of the Nanny State with its more serious fences , CCTV and heaven knows what else to prevent ANYTHING HAPPENING ANYWHERE,EVER! In those days the Railways contented themselves with printed Regulations displayed in every Waiting Room, making all sorts of things an Offence and threatening all manner of death and destruction if you disobeyed. But when you are young in the 1950's you know that it doesn't mean you....and if it could have, there was no-one to police it anyhow!

AND BY SHE RUSHES WITH MAGNIFICENT NOISE AND THE SMELL OF STEAM<OIL<SMOKE AND COAL- WHAT MORE COULD YOU ASK FOR?

Coming and going it was a great sight and experience! I used to write off around the world to different railway companies when I was about 10 years old for photos and details of their Locomotives and quite often got very good replies. I would carefully monitor the Shipping Notices for ships arriving from the U.S.A . which would be carrying the mail - international Air Mail was too expensive. And often some days later a nice fat letter would arrive full of the right stuff - I particularly remember one from the Norfolk and Western Railway full of pictures and info. on their magnificent locomotives with a Business Card from "Ben Bane Delaney"- there was a name to conjure with! His reply was generous in the materials supplied - I still have a Blotter ( ok folks, one used it to blot up excess ink when writing with pen and ink....no, you can just find out about that yourselves!) with a colour photo of a sleek "J "Class 4-8-4 on the back.

Another thing about steam locomotives is that each Class made a distinctive noise. So from miles away I could tell just what Class of Locomotive was passing. The C36 had a quite distinctive noise especially when coasting or just regaining speed after coasting - it was a hollow clanking sound, which I think was called Piston Slap and came from small amounts of condensation in the cylinders caused when coasting.

The love of steam locomotives is "in the blood"somehow. I have known two brothers in Brisbane to be badly ( wrong word actually, its a virtuous thing!) addicted , and a third brother unaffected! Poor fellow!