THANK you, Barbara Linton, for your query about the old wooden turntable for locomotives at the Dandenong railway station.
It was back in the day when the steam locomotives were turned around to return to Melbourne — a fascinating thing for young and old commuters as the steam belched with a hiss and a cloud of white smoke swept across the platform.
I can still picture the trains and the fireman in the train’s cabin busily shovelling coal.
Barbara’s father drove steam trains in India and her family members came to Australia in 1949.
“I remember walking past the turntable when I caught the train from Noble Park to Dandenong to work on Saturday mornings at Woolworths in Lonsdale Street, back in the early 1960s when I was still at school,” she writes.
“When the Southern Aurora hotel was built the turntable was pulled down. That’s a pity, because the historical significance would have been so great for Dandenong.”
Barbara recalls seeing the old train trestle bridge that crossed the Princes Highway to take mourners to the Springvale Cemetery in the 1950s.
The train picked up passengers at Springvale railway station. With regret she writes: “How things have changed! I’m in my 60s now and the Dandenong and Noble Park I remember have long gone.”
Rekindling memories
Barbara’s memories of steam trains evoked further memories of the hissing monsters that my late father took me to see at the Lyndhurst railway station as a child.
Mrs Bolton was the resident station mistress and my father used to drive a faithful horse in a spring cart to the station, just round the corner from WJ Enticott’s general store.
He carted the cans of separated milk to go to the Dandenong butter factory in Stud Road, a supplier to residents of the Shire of Dandenong. The hissing steam-ejecting beasts were — to use a modern term — “awesome”.
Scottish Heritage Day
Tartans and kilts are the order of the day at the Dandenong Agricultural and Pastoral Society’s Scottish Heritage Day this Sunday at Bennet Street showgrounds.
The annual show, now in its 11th year, runs from 9.30am-3pm and will this year include a senior and junior competition for the best kilt. Visitors can enjoy barbecue lunches and Devonshire teas.
This year, there won’t be sections for highland cattle, but Scottish highland ponies, Clydesdale horses, Shetland ponies and miniature ponies will be again on show.
“A Scottish piper will pipe all the section winners as they enter their sections of the parade,” society secretary Lynne Ferris said. “Some of the Clydesdales are from Tasmania this year.”
For information, call 9796 8267.
Do you have a milestone, memory or question for Marg? Email easteditorial@mmpgroup.com.au or post submissions to A Moment with Marg, c/o The Dandenong Journal, PO Box 318, Dandenong 3175.
What do you think? Post a comment below.
For all the latest breaking news, stay with this website. Also, follow the Weekly at facebook.com/dandenongjournal or on Twitter @DandyJournal.
