G'day all, been out of circulation lately and will be again very soon as I'm off to the Kimberley on the weekend so I thought I'd better post something to show that I'm still drawing breath.
I've belonged to the Association of Railway Enthusiasts for 50 years now, well maybe there was a bit of an hiatus back in the '70s and '80s, but I did join 50 years ago when I was a beardless youth and now I'm a whiskery senior.
On the 23rd and 30th of July the ARE ran a couple of trips to mark its 50 years and I travelled on the first one and renewed acquaintance with many of the other originals, most of us had at least a few nicks and scratches and other odd evidence of wear and tear.
So I thought I'd leave the Queensland 1964 epic for a while and put up a few photos of the trip to Ballaarat. I had a great day and I'd Like to thank the ARE and the organisers, Graeme Cleak and Bruce McLaren
We travelled to Ballaarat via Bacchus Marsh and returned via North Geelong and at Ballaarat we visited the Tramway Museum and rode No 40 with Motorman Bill Kingsley and Conductor Neil Lardner.
The railway station at Ballaarat has always been my favourite in Victoria and the first time I saw it in the late '50s that magnificent trainshed arch was blackened by years of locomotive smoke and many times I saw "The Overland" stretching way out beyond the western end and across Lydiard Street while a little single truck tram waited for the crossing to clear. That hasn't happened since 1971 when the tramway closed and "The Overland" misses Ballaarat now.
I suppose that spelling Ballaarat with the double a might be thought of as a bit of an affectation but that's how it used to be spelt and I like it that way.
Back in a month or so,
Best regards,
Peter Bruce.
