Re: Bogies & Bogie Exchanges and a FareWell

[Rod Young <berlina@bigpond.com>]

SNIP
> Bogie exchange was one of the main reasons the Irish
> gauge in Victoria and SA was doomed.
> Clapp knew it, so did Webb, but in their time nobody
> was listening.
> The Sydney to Melbourne Standard Gauge was the
> beginning of the end of a Colonial "stuff up" that
> Australia will carry into the next milleinnium.
> 
> Cheers
> 
> ----Tell
> Alice Springs NT
But dont forget with whom the real blame lays. Most New South Welshmen
forget that they caused the great stuff up by converting Victoria and 
South Australia to 5'3" after they decided to go 4'8" originally.
Victoria ordered Rolling Stock etc and it was on the water when NSW
sacked[?] its Irish Engineer and the decision was made to go 4'8.5.
    As it turned out the Engines did not arive from Stevenson [?]
in time and Melbourne Machinery company rigged a temp. engine or two
to get the new Railway up and running on time.What a pity this rivalry
stopped them from changing the gauge then, but of course they did not
have the forsight to think that they would ever need to join the outher
States Networks.They only needed to beat big bad Sydney!
New South welshmen sat around twiddling their thumbs telling every
one,even then, that they were the first, therefore the best!
   In the meantime First Train,Cable Trams, Electric Trams and Electric
Trains, and even our first Parliament all went elsewhere .
   So our forefathers have a lot to answer for. This rivalry continues
even today, as the Sydney Elders with a lot of help from  Keating,
a New South Welshman, stole any chance of Melbourne winning the Olympic
Games in '96 and so setting themselves up for 2000, Good luck to them.
                             Rod.

Diana,
      I was never a royalist, never appreciated our lack of
Independance..Never thought much of England, but you were a breath of
fresh air, and I enjoyed your smiling face, your love of ordinary people
especially the sick and disadvantaged . I cried when you held the
injured children torn apart by mines, or disease. I felt ashamed when
you comforted a man, near death with Aides.  
      I dont know why you had to go, but I know why you needed to be
here, and I thank you. I will never forget your lessons. As your brother
reminded us at you funeral, a truly wonderfull,unique person.
                                          Rod Young