Woke to some disturbing news over here this morning for us that like history, particularly railway history and old engineering history. I don't discuss politics as is in the Guardian rules, but there was an article in one of our Sunday morning papers about a government decision to reclaim the old Newport Railway Sheds from their current inhabitants who lease it from the government. They are currently leased to the Steam and Diesel Rail Restorers, a voluntary organization of mainly retired railway workers who restore and maintain old steam, diesel loco's and old carriages. A lot of the skills that they learnt were from doing apprenticeships with the old Victorian Railways, and a lot of the apprenticeships they learnt no longer exist, so the only way they will be continued is from these highly skilled older men passing them on to any younger members that are volunteers of the society wishing to learn and help out. This is a photo of the original factory from 1900.
Some of the previous photos i posted were of locomotives restored from this factory. They don't just sit idle, they have many excursion train trips around Victoria every year. Just last month they had 2 that were fully booked out, and one of them went through and back through my local station, and to see hundreds of little and not so little kids going off there heads and waving to the trains just says to anyone prepared to listen that they have a place and are still relevant in today's society. Once these iconic machines and buildings are gone, they are gone forever, you only have to look at the change around Sheffield that we can all see in the photos that Jack posts, i know times change but that does not mean some things should not be preserved, especially organizations that are run by volunteers passing on their skills, living on donations, members subscriptions and the smell of an oily rag, bad pun,
. This is a photo of 2 old railway men teaching a younger female volunteer some of their skills at the workshop.
Hope everyone is having a good weekend, especially all the Mums out there on this special day and you all have a good week. I know a lot of you like your history and photos, and i have been told by quite a few of you that you like some of the posts on Australian history and photos, that is why i posted this, hope i haven't waffled too much, but when i get on my soapbox i do let fly.
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As well as the drama with my phone, I went all the way across town to pick up the back-logged mail from the mail service I pay for. They just shut their doors at the start of the first lockdown, and have been an absolute disgrace. I received an email from them last week saying they are now opening one day a week - Friday, between 9.00am and 3.30pm - But when I got there the building was closed
. The Charlie Lamb is looking very nice. What a fine blade it is!
Went in to see my Oncologist for a follow-up visit. She's a very beautiful girl so I lost myself briefly 
until she said she was concerned with a possible nodule she felt whilst palpating an area on my wrist where I had surgery about a year ago
. Had to get an ultrasound on the area and then go in to a surgeon for a biopsy
. Turns out that the surgeon had his own ultrasound and found nothing. He pretty much gave me a clean bill of health. However, during the week that I was waiting for all this to transpire I think I aged 10 more years.
