Re: Harris Trains

[Michael Walker <wk@cgsc.vic.edu.au>]

In article <3975c5d1$0$11212$7f31c96c@news01.syd.optusnet.com.au>,
  "Rod" <freight_man@hotmail.com> wrote:
> Michael, you just reminded me of the old Watsonia station! and Thank
you!
> I lived in Elder Street for 30 years before moving to Wodonga. I
> particularly used to enjoy riding the old Red Rattlers, the "swing
doors"
> that used to finish their lives on the Hurstbridge track.
> I seem to remember they were 6 car sets, and during the morning peak,
the SM
> would sometimes have to ask the Driver to move ahead a few yards to
enable
> Passengers to get off. The doors would bind if the driver stopped at
the
> wrong place, and the easiest way to get them to open was to move the
train
> slightly. I presume it had something to do with the crest of the
hill, as a
> simple hole in the perway would have been fixed.

Hi Rod,

Alas I was a bit young for the old Watsonia station, I would no doubt
have been through it many times, but they lowered the track when I was
in primary school, and my memory doesn't remember much of those days.
My chief memories were the level crossings at Grimshaw Street and
William Street (surprisingly I don't remember the one at Watsonia Road)
and the old wooden Main Street road bridge near Greensborough station.
There were other memories such as the time a Harris train derailed near
Greensborough station and they just shoved at least some of it beside
the track because we travelled past in a red rattler (exciting for
a young kid plus it was on the news that night), and a few other
miscellaneous things. We used the red rattlers a lot because we were a
no car family living in Apollo Parkways, 10 minutes walk from the
station (plus the 566 bus which ran between 8.23am and 4pm). I have
many fond memories travelling to the city with the window open (and
sometimes door jammed open) and the breeze blowing through. You'd feel
jibbed if you got the seat on the side without the window and myself
and my sister would fight over the window seat... It wasn't the same
when they got rid of them, although you don't appreciate that at the
time...8^( My other regret is that my parents never took us for a ride
on the red rattler to Hurstbridge, that would have been a good memory.

--
Michael Walker
Email: wk@cgsc.vic.edu.au
ICQ: 78913383


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