Re: Penguin saved by Train Driver

[desktop@pipeline.com.au (Frank Jones)]

On Thu, 04 Feb 1999 09:10:56 +1030, Neil Waller
<nwaller@dehaa.sa.gov.au> wrote:

>This story reminds me of the only trip I ever had on the Port
>Lincoln Division of the old SAR back when Model 75 Railmotors
>ran a passenger service.
>
>On the down trip the train stopped at one of the stations and
>a long discussion with Train Control took place.
>
>A little way into the next section the train stopped and the
>driver and guard hopped out and went picking mushrooms in the
>adjacent paddock.
>

One one occasion in the early '80s a friend and I were riding a Batlow
- Gilmore goods. The driver stopped at the top of the big horseshoe
bend near the beginning of the 1 in 25 grade to let us (and the
fireman, IIRC) off as he'd seen some mushrooms there on the Down
journey. The driver drove the train (48 class + van) around the
horseshoe while we walked the relatively short distance across, and
met us on the other side!

I have seen this horseshoe bend described as being so tight that the
driver and guard could shake hands as the train went around... an
exaggeration of course. I think it was in a book of railway folklore
somewhere (Patsy Adam Smith??).