Re: Preston station torched

[L & D <daisyw@ozemail.com.au>]

MarkBau1 wrote:

> <<<<<<<<<When I was a kid in Melbourne in the 1960s and 1970s, there was indeed
> a
> stationmaster (and often many other staff) at every station. As well as
> selling tickets to passengers from their little windows, they checked
> the tickets of everyone leaving the trains, and waved little green flags
> to the driver and guard to say it was safe for the train to leave. Many
> stations also handled freight and parcels... there were funny
> single-carriage electric freight trains that went from station to
> station delivering parcels.
>
> The Victorian Railways were the state's largest job-creation scheme in
> those days, that's for real>>>>>>>>
>
> Not EVERY station had an SM, lots of little station came under the control of
> another station. Jacana, Glenbervie and Middle Footscray spring to mind.
> Also, station staff waved white flags

If we wanted to do

> , only a guard could wave a green flag.
> The only time station staff waved a green flag, (or light) was when they were
> relaying the guard's "right away" signal to the driver. This happened at places
> like Sunshine and Ballarat on The Overland, because of curves and the train
> length the loco crew could not see the guards van.
>
> Mark.
>
> Visit my train pic website at:
> http://home.earthlink.net/~markbau/