1954 FIRST VISIT TO MELBOURNE - PROPRIETY IN JOLIMONT

1937 THE SPIRIT OF PROGRESS is introduced in a blaze of publicity - no immediate effect on me.

However from the earliest days after my 1940 birth, there began to build up in my little boy's mind glamorous images of the Spirit of Progress- all blue and gold and sleek. The brilliant new large window carriages made of Corten Steel got plenty of publicity as did the round ended observation lounge car that brought up the rear. It wasn't until many years later that I got to discover that the locomotive was actually 1928 Mutton dressed up as Spring Lamb!  But you will understand I just HAD to visit Melbourne.

"And so it came to pass" that in 1954 at the end of my Lower Secondary Schooling with a schoolmateWallace Simpson, whose parents owned the Milk Bar on the Southern Side of the Lidcombe Arcadia Theatre (Picture Show) where I worked at weekends with Wallace, we spent our built up savings from our pay on a trip to Melbourne with my Mum coming along to see we did not get into any trouble at 14 years of age!

The First Division of the MELBOURNE EXPRESS is hustled South by the great C 38 Class locomotive.

The first part of our journey was on the MELBOURNE EXPRESS to Albury on the border, where the gauge changed from N.S.W. standard gauge (4 feet 8 1/2 inches)to Victoria's broad gauge ( 5 feet 3 inches) a legacy of the persuasive powers of Isambard Kingdom Brunel in the previous century and the relatively easy country in Victoria compared to the frequently hilly and tightly curved territory very frequently encountered in N.S.W.  The MELBOURNE EXPRESS was made up of very large and heavy teakwood clad carriages each running on two six wheel bogies.The carriages had side corridors half on one side , half on the other side of the carriage with compartments coming off the corridors in the British/European fashion. There was no airconditioning. Leaving Central Station in the early evening she ran through the night arriving in Albury in the early morning, when everyone transhipped down the long platform to the Victorian tracks and train.

The air-conditioned carriages  and compartments of the Spirit of Progress were a revelation , the great wide picture windows of the compartment were impressive. Our seats were near the side corridor rather than the window, which slightly dampened the enthusiasm. The journey was principally noteworthy for the continual bleating of the Diesel loco's horn as we approached the repeated  level crossings so much a feature of the VR track. 

The Chocolate Box image of the Spirit of Progress kept the glamour alive,

long after the steam locomotives were all gone to ignominious scrapping yards.

We arrived at Spencer Street Station and took an electric train out to Jolimont where we were booked into a very nice small hotel which I think was called the Cliveden ( the name is preserved in the Dining Room of the Hilton Hotel which now occupies the proximate or even precise site.)The hotel was brilliantly presented, clean and crisp as its linen and the white capped, black aproned with white lace trimmed waitresses. We made our way down to the City and by some miracle of Guardian Angelic care found the Hopetoun Tea Rooms, where we had a light lunch of really delightful Pin Wheel sandwiches. Over the several days of our visit we saw all the sights, rode the trams, and explored the Bookshops which I found to be a particular asset of the City. At that time, my interests in books centred on History and Steam Locomotives. In those days nearly every book available in Australia was published in England. This was an unfortunate result of the Commonwealth licensing arrangements which locked out European or American published books which generally were produced on high quality paper and featured high quality, even colour photography . How did we know? Well, some importers bypassed the big agencies and brought American and European titles in directly. The price was very high because numbers were small - but what a joy. However, mostly we got by on British blotting paper and cardboard - slight exaggeration - but only slight. Australian published books were printed here, dear and approx. English quality.

There was always much talk by Melbournians about the wonders of the Myer Store - but we were underwhelmed. It had the appearance internally of WALTONS Sydney store - an American chain that had takenover Murdochs ( I think)  and turned it into a junk bazaar with merchandise hanging off tables cluttering every aisle - and that is just how Myers struck us. MYER had their revenge on us, coming to Sydney after a few years and taking over our beloved, staid FARMERS Department Store on the Corner of George , Market and Pitt Streets and raping it until it too was another WALTONS.

So we did the return trip without incident and that was Melbourne - I was unchanged, it was unchanged,but I was at least oriented for future trips . Both Wallace and I had a good time and I think Mum also enjoyed herself all going well and the pace only moderate.

Not quite St Mary's Basilica, but St. Patrick's 
is a very beautiful Cathedral.

A light lunch of Pin Wheel Sandwiches 
at the Hopetoun Tea rooms has stayed in my memory,
 57 years later.

The ugly truth -  by 1954 The Spirit of Progress
 was hauled by one of VR's double-ended 
(rather ridiculous) Clyde - built GM Diesels,

*1954 FIRST VISIT TO MELBOURNE - PROPRIETY IN JOLIMONT

1937 THE SPIRIT OF PROGRESS is introduced in a blaze of publicity - no immediate effect on me.

However from the earliest days after my 1940 birth, there began to build up in my little boy's mind glamorous images of the Spirit of Progress- all blue and gold and sleek. The brilliant new large window carriages made of Corten Steel got plenty of publicity as did the round ended observation lounge car that brought up the rear. It wasn't until many years later that I got to discover that the locomotive was actually 1928 Mutton dressed up as Spring Lamb!  But you will understand I just HAD to visit Melbourne.

"And so it came to pass" that in 1954 at the end of my Lower Secondary Schooling with a schoolmateWallace Simpson, whose parents owned the Milk Bar on the Southern Side of the Lidcombe Arcadia Theatre (Picture Show) where I worked at weekends with Wallace, we spent our built up savings from our pay on a trip to Melbourne with my Mum coming along to see we did not get into any trouble at 14 years of age!

The First Division of the MELBOURNE EXPRESS is hustled South by the great C 38 Class locomotive.

The first part of our journey was on the MELBOURNE EXPRESS to Albury on the border, where the gauge changed from N.S.W. standard gauge (4 feet 8 1/2 inches)to Victoria's broad gauge ( 5 feet 3 inches) a legacy of the persuasive powers of Isambard Kingdom Brunel in the previous century and the relatively easy country in Victoria compared to the frequently hilly and tightly curved territory very frequently encountered in N.S.W.  The MELBOURNE EXPRESS was made up of very large and heavy teakwood clad carriages each running on two six wheel bogies.The carriages had side corridors half on one side , half on the other side of the carriage with compartments coming off the corridors in the British/European fashion. There was no airconditioning. Leaving Central Station in the early evening she ran through the night arriving in Albury in the early morning, when everyone transhipped down the long platform to the Victorian tracks and train.

The air-conditioned carriages  and compartments of the Spirit of Progress were a revelation , the great wide picture windows of the compartment were impressive. Our seats were near the side corridor rather than the window, which slightly dampened the enthusiasm. The journey was principally noteworthy for the continual bleating of the Diesel loco's horn as we approached the repeated  level crossings so much a feature of the VR track. 

The Chocolate Box image of the Spirit of Progress kept the glamour alive,

long after the steam locomotives were all gone to ignominious scrapping yards.

We arrived at Spencer Street Station and took an electric train out to Jolimont where we were booked into a very nice small hotel which I think was called the Cliveden ( the name is preserved in the Dining Room of the Hilton Hotel which now occupies the proximate or even precise site.)The hotel was brilliantly presented, clean and crisp as its linen and the white capped, black aproned with white lace trimmed waitresses. We made our way down to the City and by some miracle of Guardian Angelic care found the Hopetoun Tea Rooms, where we had a light lunch of really delightful Pin Wheel sandwiches. Over the several days of our visit we saw all the sights, rode the trams, and explored the Bookshops which I found to be a particular asset of the City. At that time, my interests in books centred on History and Steam Locomotives. In those days nearly every book available in Australia was published in England. This was an unfortunate result of the Commonwealth licensing arrangements which locked out European or American published books which generally were produced on high quality paper and featured high quality, even colour photography . How did we know? Well, some importers bypassed the big agencies and brought American and European titles in directly. The price was very high because numbers were small - but what a joy. However, mostly we got by on British blotting paper and cardboard - slight exaggeration - but only slight. Australian published books were printed here, dear and approx. English quality.

There was always much talk by Melbournians about the wonders of the Myer Store - but we were underwhelmed. It had the appearance internally of WALTONS Sydney store - an American chain that had takenover Murdochs ( I think)  and turned it into a junk bazaar with merchandise hanging off tables cluttering every aisle - and that is just how Myers struck us. MYER had their revenge on us, coming to Sydney after a few years and taking over our beloved, staid FARMERS Department Store on the Corner of George , Market and Pitt Streets and raping it until it too was another WALTONS.

So we did the return trip without incident and that was Melbourne - I was unchanged, it was unchanged,but I was at least oriented for future trips . Both Wallace and I had a good time and I think Mum also enjoyed herself all going well and the pace only moderate.

Not quite St Mary's Basilica, but St. Patrick's 
is a very beautiful Cathedral.

A light lunch of Pin Wheel Sandwiches 
at the Hopetoun Tea rooms has stayed in my memory,
 57 years later.

The ugly truth -  by 1954 The Spirit of Progress
 was hauled by one of VR's double-ended 
(rather ridiculous) Clyde - built GM Diesels,

BERALA STATION FOCUS OF MEMORIES

BERALA STATION LOOKING NORTH TOWARD LIDCOMBE

If only because I used it almost every weekday, from 1950 to 1970, BERALA Railway Station ( the Americanised "Train Station" only came into use with the "SESAME STREET"generations of the 1970's onwards) is the focus of many and varied memories. It looked different then, no blue seats and signs - the seats were Brunswick Green and the signs were Stone coloured with large black lettering. There were no spy cameras either - Big Nanny had yet to arrive.

Can you remember what you were doing on 7th May,1952?  O.K. - most of you were in no condition to do anything : the great "not born yet"majority. But I was walking toward Berala Station up Hyde Park Road just about opposite the three or four local shops ;I noticed something odd around the station.There seemed to be one long train stopped there, overhanging the Platform at both ends. The truth became quickly evident as police and emergency vehicles came into sight, and the full view of the Platform revealed carriages skewed at crazy angles and over the high embankment on which the tracks and Platform (accessed by a curved brick lined tunnel and stairs) stood.

The BERALA train crash cost 10 lives and injuries reported varyingly from 84 to 140. It had been a foggy morning and there was an eight car russet coloured electric train in the Platform heading toward Lidcombe and the City. Stopped at the Red Signal back toward Regents Park , was a similar following train headed for the City also. It was peak hour and there is always pressure to maintain the schedule. The second trains'driver slowly drove his train past the "Stop"Signal and was automatically brought to a halt by the trip lever at ground level. This lever raised itself whenever the Signal turned Red ,so that it would engage the trip lever on any electric train that tried to pass, stopping it(Steam locomotives had no such device). Drivers were allowed, in special circumstances to re-start their train and proceed with extreme caution. This procedure is called "tripping through". This is what the driver did. But here things become complicated to say the least.

The testimony of two men in a truck on the near parallel road observed the following train doing at least 30 -35 mph ( say,50 - 60 kph) at the moment of impact, and the force of the impact which drove the following train to telescope 4 carriages into the standing train attested to that observation. Yet, experts testified that the following train could not have accelerated to that speed from the "Stop"Signal. Press reports highlighted this contradiction. But I believe the following train's driver died in the collision and the mystery was left unresolved.

There were many heroes on that day, but prominent among them was Father John Gallagher from St,Joachim's in Lidcombe (the Parish in which my Mum and Dad had been married in 1927). Father Gallagher with stole about his neck and his Anointing Kit had climbed into the crazily skewed wreckage at considerable danger to himself, helping those in need and anointing those in greater need. He had done what any Priest should, but in those days it was reported, to-day , the reporting might be different.(He was a very interesting person, having brought to Australia the Canadian Antigonish credit union movement.) It was a terrible sight, a grotesque twist of everyday reality. The fact that outdated wooden carriages mixed with the normal modern steel carriages had been totally shattered in the impact, with great loss of life, was not lost on observers and investigators. Within a short time there were rows of them at the wrecking yards. Too late.

Happier Times

One of the great sights to behold at BERALA STATION was the MELBOURNE LIMITED EXPRESS thundering through the Platform on its way to Central Station in the City. Hauled in those days by the mighty green liveried C 38 Class Steam Locomotives and usually composed of very long and heavy Teak Varnished Carriages each  running on two big six wheeled bogies, it was a magnificent sight - especially on a Winter's morning when the exhausting of the 245 lbs psi steam would create quite a show. The great connecting rods of the locomotive used to flash around coming just above Platform level as they passed. This seemed to have an endless fascination for any dogs on the Platform, They would always try to keep up with the locomotive barking and snapping at the rods. Luckily for them they never made contact!



Two C38 Class Locomotives -5 were steamlined, 25 were not.

 To-day our Railway Stations abound with signs forbidding this, that and the other thing,warning that you are being watched and that Nanny thinks you should stand "Here"or "There"and urging you to be P.C. and save the world. 'Twas  not always thus. BERALA STATION like every other station on the New South Wales Government Railways had in its openish, austere Waiting Room two large signs with very fine print,which, when read after you had just missed the 7.30 am to the City and waited for the 7.45 am to the City, revealed that the Penalty for placing objects on the railway lines was up to "Life Imprisonment", and various other misdeeds like walking across the railway tracks carried similarly severe but rarely known penalties. The whole was presented in that marvellous, forbidding language that the lawyers of those days seemed to have inherited from Monarchs of the Middle Ages. Later in life I was to work for the Solicitor for Railways and inter alia ( like that??) had to serve Summonses from the Railway Court which included such phrases when commanding the Defendant's appearance as "Herein fail not!" Great stuff - that would scare the poor citizen witless!