I really cant explain quite why I have such a passion for trains. Its been with me since a boy, and its always held me captive... The only explanation I can offer is that its in the blood, and it goes back a fair way too....
We have quite a disjointed and fragmented family tree, and some of the details are pretty vauge but...
In the photo on the left, the bloke in the back row on the right with moustache is some ancient relation named Claude. He was a porter and a guard.
We have quite a disjointed and fragmented family tree, and some of the details are pretty vauge but...
In the photo on the left, the bloke in the back row on the right with moustache is some ancient relation named Claude. He was a porter and a guard.
The bloke on the left in this photo is my great Grandfather named William, he was also a guard, and spent time based at many strange and exotic locations such as Auckland, Outram, Kaitangata, Ohai, Clarksville and others before seeing out his railway days in Taumarunui....
I think this is where I get my nomadic tendencies from..
I think this is where I get my nomadic tendencies from..
Clarksville station, in the middle of nowhere. I think William was SM here for a while..
Scanned from a photo in the family archives.
Scanned from a photo in the family archives.
I dont know where this is, but that little dot standing on the tracks center left is my great great grandad...
And great great grandfather is one of these fine looking chaps, believed to be the bloke fourth in from the right on the back row...
Taken in Auckland in 1930 something.
Taken in Auckland in 1930 something.
There have also been two uncles before me who were train drivers, one now long dead Jim Hamblyn who drove in Waikato somewhere, and the second was Ross Hamblyn, a Tauranga driver for many moons. Ross held his steam ticket to the end and drove several of the steam excursion trips in the bay area.
He now has a flower buisness in the coromandle.
So really, my poor mother had no hope of bringing me back from the "dark side", especially in my younger years when I was nothing short of being woefully obsessed with all things trains.
Now I am older, all growed up (!!) with a family to care for, life is lot more balanced...
:)
AH
He now has a flower buisness in the coromandle.
So really, my poor mother had no hope of bringing me back from the "dark side", especially in my younger years when I was nothing short of being woefully obsessed with all things trains.
Now I am older, all growed up (!!) with a family to care for, life is lot more balanced...
:)
AH
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