Do you ever have random flashbacks? I don’t mean of harrowing events. It would be understandable to recall a war, physical assault or natural disaster.
Sometimes I remember things randomly from the past. Little things, like finding a dead cow on the farm at Pambula. Or riding a bike in the rain.
Some of these memories correspond with photos. The line between actually remembering something and a photograph is sometimes blurred.
Does the picture prompt the memory or does it become the memory?
Anyhow, the latest flashback is unrelated to any photo.
It concerns me being on a train at night, an old “red rattler” between Drouin and Traralgon.
From the time I was about 10 or 11, I sometimes took the train 40 miles to Drouin, where my grandparents lived, and Uncle Jim and Auntie Molly.
The first time was an interesting experience, because I misread the timetable. The train I took was an express from Warragul to Melbourne. Drouin is the first station after Warragul.
There I was, young and shy, watching helplessly as the train rolled through where I wanted it to stop.
I had to explain my situation to a conductor, who organised for the train to stop at Longwarry (the next station) and Uncle Jim picked me up.
I might have taken the train to Drouin two or three times after that, without drama.
To be returning at night on a red rattler it must have been winter because I wouldn’t have taken a late train.
I’m one of those people who prefers solitude and personal space, if it’s available. If I walk onto a train I’m happy to have an empty seat next to me.
On this particular carriage the compartments were all empty. I had the whole carriage to myself. I walked up and down, changed seats and inspected everything.
Red rattlers are actually Tait trains. According to Wikipedia:
The Tait trains, also referred to as the “Red Rattlers”, were a wooden bodied Electric Multiple Unit train that operated on the suburban railway network of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. They were introduced in 1910 by the Victorian Railways as steam locomotive hauled cars, and converted to electric traction from 1919 when the Melbourne electrification project was underway. The trains derived their name from Sir Thomas James Tait, the chairman of commissioners of the Victorian Railways from 1903 to 1910. The first cars were built during 1909 with the last entering service in 1951.
They were decommissioned in 1984. My trips would have been in about 1978-79.
UPDATE: I researched this a little more. It was almost certainly a “W type carriage” I travelled on (see comment below).
I’m not a train spotter or enthusiast, so I don’t know why this memory came back to me. It’s a pleasant one, so I can’t complain.
The picture below shows a retired Red Rattler by Rossco on Flickr.
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It’s a very interesting question as to why some memories persist or emerge spontaneously when most of our lives are lost to conscious recall.
I’ve heard of Red Rattlers but I never bothered to find out exactly what they were. I don’t know about the geography of Victoria. If Red Rattlers are suburban, why were you riding one to a country town?
I’ve got a few favourites stored up. I think what may make them remain is that they are revisited for some reason. If you have to recall something for some reason in the days and weeks following the event it probably pushes it into long-term memory. For example, you may have told various people about overshooting on the train in the succeeding months. You wouldn’t remember the retellings because it was a series of one-offs. But the story which you had to keep recalling in order to tell it would stick. Then some cue would trigger it. Like a red truck going by, or a sound like a train clicking over tracks. In fact I just had a flash from the past when you wrote of the dead cow.
I remembered a school camp I went on for geography and biology study in 1975 or ’76. While on a farm excursion I sipped some water from what looked like a pristine river. As I and my companions proceeded a couple of hundred metres further upstream, we discovered a dead sheep caught on a snag in the river. Thanks for the memory, Mike!
)aagghhh
Twitter: mgorey
says:
Thanks for the thoughtful remarks and question.
Lord Wiki, as Dina calls it, is not always right. The Traralgon line (100 miles) is the only electrified country line in Victoria.
I think red rattlers lasted longer in the country than they did in the suburbs.
Thanks, Michael. And here’s your chance to correct Wikipedia! Best to point it out to whoever edited the article most or put a note on the discussion page behind the article.
I often have random memories. I think usually it comes from an association. Every time I make a collage or glue pictures to something, I think of Shannon Doherty. I think this is because one time I worked on a photo book project while watching her in a movie.
Often I have random memories and I don’t know the origin. I mean I don’t know why I’m having them. I’m guessing though that there’s some association that my subconscious picked up.
I would have been nervous if I missed my train stop as a child. Actually, I’d probably be nervous as an adult as well.
Twitter: delmerw
says:
Something happened the other day that brought up something I’d not thought about in decades. Naturally, I don’t recall it now but I’m guessing the ‘refresher memory’ I had recently will make it more likely to come up with the appropriate stimulus.
Sometimes I wonder if I’m having actual memories or memories of memories. That is, do I actually remember owning a cat named Herman? Or do I remember telling someone about a cat I’d owned named Herman. (That’s not the best example. It’s hard to explain. And I remember Herman like it was just yesterday — he had a bit of diarrhea down the front of my shirt and a person doesn’t forget things like that.) I believe this goes along with your memories-vs-photos thought.
Twitter: mgorey
says:
Delmer, I know what you mean. It’s hard to articulate.
Rail buffs will probably find their way here. I think it was a “W type carriage” I travelled on, not a Tait train.
Wikipedia says when built, they seated six people in each of the six compartments (one reserved for ladies and two reserved for smoking), plus two more people at each end for a total of 40 passengers. I don’t recall a ladies section in the 1970s, but the carriages had first class and second class compartments, smoking areas and non smoking.
Here’s a good link to the history of rail transport in Victoria.
Reading the above comments did it for me….especially in reference to the dead cow and sheep.
I was 5 years old, visiting my uncle Des’s farm between Gladstone and Laura.
I was pushing my younger cousin in her stroller, around the farm and somehow ended up in the slaughtering shed. I witnessed my first death. A sheep getting its throat cut…I was in awe of all the blood and guts pouring out as my uncle cut the intestines so professionally..that they magically lobbed on the floor at my feet in a big heap.
I did not eat meat until years later…but it was that moment….the blood thing, I had decided on my future career as a theatre nurse.
It may well have been a BPL saloon car which was of the same era as red rattlers but with and end door to walk between carriages.These cars where built as excursion cars but in the scheme of things seemed to end up over the years on many country trains to build up accomodation.
Interestingly suburban Tait red cars of Melbourne did at hoilday times ie Easter,(the traditional busiest day was Easter Thursday(Black Thursday,every spare carriage was pressed into service to move Melbourne to the country) end up on country trains.They where classified as G cars and had provision for both electric lighting and pinsch gas for country lighting.The carriage shown photographed by Rosco appears to be a NSW example.
I have fond memories of the red rattlers.Going somewhere of a night,a few others and myself,used to open the suicide doors and then climb out and then along the ‘running boards of the train,and try and go as far as we could along the outside of the train.Going between carriages was tricky but you held on for grim death.
Sometimes the train would stop when the ‘driver would see something,then move of when there was nothing he could do.The trains were not as fast then,and were a dare for adventurous boys.
Don,t know how,but I came across a pair of the fancy metal ceiling lights that were in these carriages some time ago.
Size around two feet long with the light area that held two globes being around 10 inches dia.Should there be somebody restoring one of these carriages they may like to buy them from me