by Brian Hogan
Rabbit worked under the team leader which in those days was called the ganger. His gang worked out on the balloon loop constructing the earthworks and building the footings for the OHW structure portals. They went out in the gang truck to their worksite and returned to the depot for smoko (morning tea) and lunch every day. The gang ate together and finished smoko and lunch together, so they could all be ready to travel out back to the worksite as a team.
Rabbit however was always late finishing his smoko so the whole gang was constantly late returning back to site whilst they waited for him. The main reason he took so long was he spent an enormous amount of time in the toilet. On the Coal loader site no proper ablutions were installed. Being on a construction site we just hired portable toilets called Superloos which all the staff used including the managers like myself.
Photo 19 – Rabbit in picture hard at work
Rabbit would go to the toilet as soon as the gang truck entered the site compound and stay there for the full fifteen minutes of smoko then some more, even though morning tea was over. Why he took so long we do not know.
There were no mobile phones in those days so we knew he was not looking at Facebook or anything like that.
We needed a plan to speed him on his way as he constantly held up the rest of the gang while they waited for him to do his duty and come out of the toilet.
Not that the rest of the gang minded!
One day we had a crane on site to carry out some heavy lifting works and as the crane finished the works early we said we had a special job for him to do. We needed the portable toilet to be relocated. So, when Rabbit next went to use the toilet the crane operator quietly placed nylon slings beneath the Superloo and slowly lifted the toilet off the ground. The slings went across the toilet door so Rabbit who was inside at the time could not open it to get out. He was effectively locked in!
The crane then lifted the toilet high off the ground. It was left hanging from the ground for a good 3 hours. As it was a bit of a windy day he was gently rocked side to side while the Portaloo was off the ground. Not to say it was also a very warm day so it would have been quite hot inside the toilet as well.
Meanwhile the ganger arranged for the rest of the gang to go back to the work site as normal but this time without Rabbit. After three hours the crane lowered the Superloo. It was now lunch time.
What a difference three hours can make to a person. It certainly made a change in Rabbit. From that day on Rabbit was quick with his business and was always the first person in the gang truck when the gang had to return back to the worksite.
I am not sure if that is allowable as an industrial relations management practice today, but it sure worked with turning Rabbit’s life around.
A Proud Man
Prior to the Sydney Olympics I was the Project Manager for the largest infrastructure project in Sydney at the time. That project being the restrengthening of the existing rail network of the Sydney Rail Network. This work included the replacement of the timber sleeper track with concrete sleeper heavier rail track complete with fully reconditioned subgrade and new ballast structure.
This work was not only programmed in the Sydney metropolitan area, but we also worked outside this area providing the same finished product at selected areas around the state of New South Wales.
There were times when we had some float in our Sydney rail network upgrading program to assist in track upgrading in these other Regions. The strengthening work was carried out during track possessions of up to 4 weeks in duration but sometimes was as short as using a 48-hour weekend possession.
When I arrived at work one Monday morning I was approached by one of my track inspectors, Bill, who was very upset.
Bill said, “Our brand new 15 tonne crane truck had been stolen overnight”.
Apparently during the small hours of the morning there was an unauthorised entry into the work compound and the truck was hot- wired and stolen with it being driven straight through one of the compound’s the locked gates. These gates were completely smashed off their hinges.
The truck was a new Mitsubishi 15 tonne flattop with a 10m reach hi-ab crane on the back. What made this loss more of a concern was what had been loaded on the truck earlier on the weekend. On the back of the tray were loaded six rail clippers which were worth around $33,000 each. They had been loaded to allow transportation to the next worksite on the Monday for a possession on the coming weekend.
Once the police and others were notified all we could do was wait on any reports the police could provide. One of the staff in our depot had a mate in the Roads and Maritime Services, so he asked them to watch for the vehicle on the main highways by way of using those overhead fatigue cameras.
We found out later that day that there was also a break in into the railway yard at Hornsby on the same night. The local Inspector there stated that as a result of the break in, six clipping machines were deposited in the yard. But, his new runabout boat with a 60Hp outboard motor was stolen.
This is now sounding weird.
Photo 20 – Clipping machines used for track works
We at least had back the clipping machines back and arranged for their transportation back to the depot at Clyde Yard for the weekend possession. This made the staff very happy as they would have had to perform these clipping duties of clipping up the rail to the concrete sleepers with the rail clips manually if the machines were not located. We had no spare machines.
During the course of the next few days we also learnt that the truck had headed up to Newcastle along the F1 highway. But prior to entering the F1 had stopped off at a local garage to fill up with diesel plus fill two 200 litre drums with petrol as well. The truck had petrol cards in the glove box, so the thief used these cards to pay for the fuel.
As the card was only authorised for diesel fuel and the fact that 400 litres of petrol was purchased, the garage attendant rang the police to confirm if the truck was listed as being stolen. The response from the police was that no record was shown that truck was stolen so the attendant on the approval of his manager allowed the drums to be filled with petrol and debited the card. This was a few days after the police were advised by us the truck had been stolen!
So much for good police communications.
The depot staff who had the friend in the Roads and Maritime Authority, received a call from him to state from his investigations the truck was sighted heading up the F1 towards Newcastle some 100 kilometres away. It appeared the thief was wanting a fishing trip, so he had stolen the boat to enjoy his time up the Hawkesbury River or somewhere north of there and needed the truck to haul the boat. It was certainly a large truck to cart such a small boat.
A week or so went past and the truck was not in the forefront of my mind due to other daily issues that required to be addressed. My mobile phone rang early one morning and on the phone was the same Track Inspector, Bill, who had reported the loss of the truck.
Photo 21 – Tracklayer undertaking upgrading works
Bill excitedly stated, “You won’t believe what I am parked behind?”
I replied, “What are you parked behind?”
Bill then said, “Let me give you a registration number plate and you confirm if this is our truck”. He gave me the plate number and stated what the truck type was.
I confirmed it was the truck that was stolen. I asked him, “Where are you?”
Bill replied, “In a back street at Granville only some 5 kilometres from our works depot where the truck had been stolen from”. He stated he had already called the police.
Photo 22 – Tracklayer showing length of train
The police came, arrested the thief and we had our truck returned with only minimal damage to the steering column where the truck had been hot-wired.
It appeared that the thief was a plant operator who drove a front-end loader that we regularly hired through the local plant hire company.
He decided to drop in when his work load was low and go fishing!!
A couple of days later I wanted to reward Bill with something as he had assisted in finding the truck that was stolen. The only thing I had at the time was a Company railway tie so I decided to present him with one. I was not sure how it would go as he always wore a blue singlet when I saw him, whether it be summer or winter.
I called Bill into my office.
In my office I presented him with a new Company tie. He was stoked. He put it on straight away over his singlet and said he would not remove it for the rest of the day, which he did not. Even with the jibes from his peers he did not remove the tie as he was so proud of the recognition.
A couple of weeks later Bill came and saw me and said I have something to tell you.
He said, “The local radio station had a contest on for their listeners to ring in to tell of some event where they had been given something from their employer for services rendered as an award”.
He went on to say, “People were ringing up saying they had trips to Fiji for exceeding sales targets, large financial bonuses for exceeding new car sales targets and etc”. So, he decided to ring up. He told them of the story of the stolen truck and that his boss gave him a company tie.
After the laughter died down the DJ said, “Is that all you received for what you had done”.
Bill responded, “Listen mate, it is so hard to get anything for free from the Government so to receive a Company tie is indeed an honour”.
There was one proud man.
Who is buried here?
When I was the Regional Manager for the Illawarra line, one of my subordinates, Trevor, came in one day to see me. He was in a very disturbed and upset state of mind.
I asked him “What is the problem you look so upset?”
Trevor replied, “We had made the front page of the Local Thirroul newspaper”. He went on to say, “it involved the police and ambulance services and it had created some drama in the local community”.
This did not sound good.
Trevor then asked me “What we should do”.
I had not seen the newspaper nor had a clue what he was talking about.
I got him to take a deep breath and to start from the beginning. I said, “you need to start from the beginning and tell me the story, so I understood what the incident was all about”.
“Here it goes”, he said.
“Over the past 24 hours my field staff had received a number of calls regarding animals that had been struck by trains around the Thirroul area”. He went on to say, “it had involved two dogs and three deer that at different occasions had strayed across the running line and were hit by trains”.
The normal practice was to bury the animal bodies somewhere on the rail corridor.
Trevor went on to say, ”My local staff had chosen to place the dead animals behind the electrical sub-station at Thirroul in amongst the thick bushes whilst they obtained clearance from our Underground Services unit on advice that there were no cables or the like in the area chosen. They would then use a backhoe to dig a hole and bury all the carcasses together. They placed lime on the bodies in the interim to assist in their decomposition”.
Trevor then went on and said, ”Apparently a group of local bush walkers had walked by over the weekend and saw the exposed bodies rotting in the bush and reported it to the police as a ‘mass murder’ site as the carcasses had, by this stage, badly decomposed with many bones displayed”.
He then went on and said, “Not only that but the animal carcasses had apparently and inadvertently, been placed outside the rail corridor and on the adjacent neighbour’s property. The police had rushed to the site and on confirming the bones were not human had left to find the owner”.
In an upset state he then went on and said, “The police contacted the neighbour who knew nothing about the dead animals on his property and he was directed to remove the remaining carcasses. The cost for removal was around $700 which the land owner had no option but to pay”.
I told Trevor, “The first thing we need to do is contact this neighbour, apologise for the incident and on presentation of his paid invoice we would reimburse him for the cost involved”.
I contacted our internal media section and explained the situation then asked them to contact the local paper to right the wrong as printed. This they did by contacting the Editor of the paper.
The following week, Trevor came and told me, “I just read the local newspaper again. There was a very nice article about how the railways had come forward to resolve the issue and recompensed the neighbour”.
Trevor was relieved about the incident and the bad press. We finally had some good news about the railways in the newspaper!
Wonders never cease.
Fire, Fire Everywhere
The corridor completion of the Bankstown line for the infrastructure upgrade with concrete sleepers, new heavier rails and upgrading of the overhead wire was scheduled to be completed over three successive years using a major three-week closedown over the January period. This time was chosen as at this time of the year passenger numbers had decreased with a number taking annual leave during the school holidays. So, hiring sufficient buses to transport the remaining travelling public was achievable.
In the second of this three-week closedown, work was proceeding to plan with several construction and maintenance teams working on a number of locations along the corridor. The tracklayer, which lays the concrete sleepers, was working in the Campsie to Lakemba section with new rail laid behind and welded up into continuous lengths. It was a very hot January day with temperatures nearing 38 degrees.
Photo 23 – View of Tracklayer in action
In the second of this three-week closedown, work was proceeding to plan with several construction and maintenance teams working on a number of locations along the corridor. The tracklayer, which lays the concrete sleepers, was working in the Campsie to Lakemba section with new rail laid behind and welded up into continuous lengths. It was a very hot January day with temperatures nearing 38 degrees.
The Chief Executive of the Railways wanted to see first-hand the progress of the works. He also wanted to understand what the works involved and was happy to tour the worksites and see what was occurring during the closedown. He travelled to the site and with myself as his guide, commenced the inspection the works currently being undertaken by the staff and contractors.
Because of the high temperatures, the day was declared to be a period of high fire danger, but a total fire ban was not put into place. If there was a total fire ban, then certain “hot works” like rail welding and rail grinding could not be carried out.
The staff who were welding up the rail, took additional precautions though by having a water cart available, knapsacks on site and fire blankets. Shovels were kept on site as well. This was because the works undertaken produced numerous sparks which could cause spot fires if not properly managed.
The welding gang was working in a narrow and steep cutting on the Sydney side of Campsie station preparing the rail ready for welding up the rail. I was at Wiley Park station showing the Chief Executive some of the track which was being reconditioned when I received a call from the site where these guys were working. It was from the welding crew. Joe, who was in charge stated in a very concerned way, “A fire had started from our welding sparks and it had got away and was burning up the cutting”. He went on the say, “We noticed the sparks after some time but we could not put out the fire that had started”.
Photo 24 – Campsie Railway Station
I informed the Chief Executive and said, “We need to attend the site as soon as possible to understand the ramifications of the fire which was still blazing and now out of control”.
What a situation. I had the top boss of the Railways on site to show him not only the works we were undertaking but also how well it was being performed and this happens!
We immediately went back to the car which was parked at the station and drove as quick as possible to Campsie station. On arrival near the worksite we walked along th
e platform to be greeted by the Supervisor, Manuel.
Manuel stated, “A spark had ignited the grass about 2 metres up the side of the cutting and whilst the staff tried to douse the flames with their water knapsack it had taken hold and continued to move up the cutting. It was fuelled by the very dry grass and also the winds moving through the cutting.”
At the top of the cutting was the station commuter car park which was full of commuter motor vehicles. Manuel also went on to say, “The fire took hold of the thick tall grass at the top of the cutting and proceeded into the car park where six of the motor vehicles caught alight and all six are now burnt out”.
The fire brigade was on site dousing out the fire as he was speaking. We had a community liaison person, Marianne, who was on site managing community liaison as we worked. I told her, “Contact the police and arrange for them to find out who owned those vehicles, so they could be informed at their place of work of the damage to their cars”.
I also arranged instant approval to hire vehicles for those car owners that were affected, if they required, could use those cars whilst insurance matters were attended to. This was to hopefully mitigate the backlash from these owners.
Photo 25 – Tracklayer working across Woodville Road
The fire brigade having put out the fire found vials of “unknown chemicals” in the burnt-out grass at the top of the cutting near the rail boundary. They then called in Hazmat.
Oh no I thought, these people will turn up in their full protective white gear to retrieve the unknown chemical vials and place them into specially marked drums for analysis. They would cordon off the whole area, close streets and the Media would then be turning up to make it a big news story.