The Railway Station
It's pretty obvious where this is, Sandgate which is a suburb of Brisbane in SE Queensland. I am coming out in support of railway stations, not the modern vernacular of train stations though they may be. Sandgate is the second last station on the Shorncliffe Branch and both locations are bayside suburbs of Moreton Bay.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandgate_railway_station,_Brisbane
This station is of particular interest to me as my family used it regularly up until 1972 as two of my maternal aunties lived at nearby Brighton and we used to visit very regularly. A lot of steam trains back then, at least until about 1968. Ah yes! We used to take the train and then taxi, bus or even walk to their place. I don't know how we did that, it was quite a long way as the crow doesn't fly and Mum had a serious heart condition.
Back then, life was slower and different. On the left side of this view and across the tracks was the Sandgate Gas works with its distinctive smell. The station had refreshment rooms in those days but they weren't always continuously open. If I remember rightly, about ten minutes before the train, the ladies would lift up these wooden windows with a bang, probably to let everyone know that they were opening. I wonder what they sold? Malted milk shakes and Jaffas for sure! Whatever else, we never bought any despite obviously being able to consume food on the train in those days. I guess a bit of spilled food was no worse then getting covered in soot and cinders from the steam locomotives. Ah yes!
Outside, the distinctive green and cream Hornibrook Highway buses would wait in a number of different "platforms" to depart for various destinations over the Hornibrook Highway bridge to Redcliffe. They never stopped anywhere to pick up passengers on the southern (Sandgate) side of the bridge, that was the responsibility of Black and White buses which ran the largest number of run down rattletraps anywhere in the south east. They did have one advantage, their timetables were very basic and unreliable and if you caught a bus that was supposed to connect with a train (didn't they all?), you could remind the driver and he would put the foot down like Phar Lap in the Melbourne Cup*.
The station was also a bit unusual in railway terms. It was the end of the double track and had two platforms but the inbound one (known as the new platform as it was a more recent build) was only used for a couple of morning peak trains. Otherwise all trains used the outbound platform which made it easier. With many more services these days, city bound trains always use the inbound platform and you either have to trudge over the stairs or use a lift, a totally modern facility that you can see in the left of the photo. The station also had a number of points and semaphore signals but was not afforded a proper signal box. It had a small corral on the platform near the station masters office and with a train due, the staff would fly out importantly moving the levers to change those points and signals, followed by a walk to the old fashioned gated level crossing on the city side to close the gates manually. And someone else would stand by the one exit door to collect tickets. Ah yes!
The station has had a number of makeovers over the years and as you can see, while the fundamental architecture has been retained, new fonts on the sign, solar on the roof, lifts, ticket barriers etc - the lever corral is gone, as is the refreshment room and the gasworks. It's now a site still waiting for full remediation (apparently).
Buses still connect to Redcliffe but not as many and Redcliffe now has its own railway. And those rattlers of Black and White Buses, they are long gone.....they merged with Red and White Buses and they continue a long line as Red and White Coaches (naturally smoother) and are still based at Sandgate for hire and tours.
Wow, that was a memory mouthful.
*
horsebetting.com.au/how-many-melbourne-cups-did-phar-lap-...
The Railway Station
It's pretty obvious where this is, Sandgate which is a suburb of Brisbane in SE Queensland. I am coming out in support of railway stations, not the modern vernacular of train stations though they may be. Sandgate is the second last station on the Shorncliffe Branch and both locations are bayside suburbs of Moreton Bay.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandgate_railway_station,_Brisbane
This station is of particular interest to me as my family used it regularly up until 1972 as two of my maternal aunties lived at nearby Brighton and we used to visit very regularly. A lot of steam trains back then, at least until about 1968. Ah yes! We used to take the train and then taxi, bus or even walk to their place. I don't know how we did that, it was quite a long way as the crow doesn't fly and Mum had a serious heart condition.
Back then, life was slower and different. On the left side of this view and across the tracks was the Sandgate Gas works with its distinctive smell. The station had refreshment rooms in those days but they weren't always continuously open. If I remember rightly, about ten minutes before the train, the ladies would lift up these wooden windows with a bang, probably to let everyone know that they were opening. I wonder what they sold? Malted milk shakes and Jaffas for sure! Whatever else, we never bought any despite obviously being able to consume food on the train in those days. I guess a bit of spilled food was no worse then getting covered in soot and cinders from the steam locomotives. Ah yes!
Outside, the distinctive green and cream Hornibrook Highway buses would wait in a number of different "platforms" to depart for various destinations over the Hornibrook Highway bridge to Redcliffe. They never stopped anywhere to pick up passengers on the southern (Sandgate) side of the bridge, that was the responsibility of Black and White buses which ran the largest number of run down rattletraps anywhere in the south east. They did have one advantage, their timetables were very basic and unreliable and if you caught a bus that was supposed to connect with a train (didn't they all?), you could remind the driver and he would put the foot down like Phar Lap in the Melbourne Cup*.
The station was also a bit unusual in railway terms. It was the end of the double track and had two platforms but the inbound one (known as the new platform as it was a more recent build) was only used for a couple of morning peak trains. Otherwise all trains used the outbound platform which made it easier. With many more services these days, city bound trains always use the inbound platform and you either have to trudge over the stairs or use a lift, a totally modern facility that you can see in the left of the photo. The station also had a number of points and semaphore signals but was not afforded a proper signal box. It had a small corral on the platform near the station masters office and with a train due, the staff would fly out importantly moving the levers to change those points and signals, followed by a walk to the old fashioned gated level crossing on the city side to close the gates manually. And someone else would stand by the one exit door to collect tickets. Ah yes!
The station has had a number of makeovers over the years and as you can see, while the fundamental architecture has been retained, new fonts on the sign, solar on the roof, lifts, ticket barriers etc - the lever corral is gone, as is the refreshment room and the gasworks. It's now a site still waiting for full remediation (apparently).
Buses still connect to Redcliffe but not as many and Redcliffe now has its own railway. And those rattlers of Black and White Buses, they are long gone.....they merged with Red and White Buses and they continue a long line as Red and White Coaches (naturally smoother) and are still based at Sandgate for hire and tours.
Wow, that was a memory mouthful.
*
horsebetting.com.au/how-many-melbourne-cups-did-phar-lap-...