3/11/21 Again the Trains: Adelaide

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I gave blood this morning.  The thing I like about giving blood in the morning is that you get to indulge in a totally guilt-free (indeed, medically recommended!) second breakfast, as well as sitting in a comfortable chair and having nice chats with nurses.  I dragged it out as long as I could, but eventually I had to wander home in the mizzling rain.

Later in the day we walked up to the Railway Museum and made the most of our discounted entry, spending several hours wandering around the exhibits and displays.  T'was a fine collection of memorabilia and well-presented information, although I have to admit that by the end of it I had definitely reached my railway information saturation point.

The white one on the right was the Tea and Sugar train.  It ran the western line (Port Augusta to Kalgoorlie) regularly to bring provisions to all the railway camps along the line.  It carried everything: a butcher (sheep carried live, butchered on the day, eaten lickety split due to minimal refrigeration); Post Office and Commonwealth Bank Branch; grocery store (grocery orders collected by wheelbarrow from the train).  As tracks and trains improved the lines didn't need as much maintenance and the permanent railway camps disappeared. 

We went for a ride around the site on the little sight-seeing train, and what a ride it was!  The driver was obviously keen to get to his lunch break and we roared around the track (twice) with no time to look at things: just hold on tight and hope for the best!

Some of the random railway stuff past which we roared.

The days of steam are viewed with a certain nostalgia nowadays.  Groups of steam rail aficionados gather and spend large amounts of time, energy, and money refurbishing steam engines; people dress up in period costumes and go for romantic steam train rides; photography buffs engage in hair raising pursuits of steam trains in order to get the perfect photo angle.  

Steam trains weren't always viewed so positively...

 
Of course if the 'foetid gas' wasn't bad enough, you could be served Fricassee Sheeps Tongues for dinner in the dining car...

Okay, you've probably reached your saturation point for railway information by now too, so that is the last of Railway Museums for now.  Only the Maritime Museum remains to be explored, but that's an adventure for another day.

Gratuitous rose photo, because I'm tired of trains.



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