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Monday, 31 July 2006
1st Class Living - on the Railways

I wouldn't say I have a love affair with railways as such, it's more like a deep-rooted interest in things rail. I'm pretty certain this interest was originally piqued by listening to the Saturday morning kids radio shows which often featured the popular tail of "Sparky and the Train".

Mum (or was it Dad) would tune into whatever station broadcast the program and my siblings and I would sit quietly by the wireless engrossed in the same old story we'd heard countless times before just as if it was the first time we'd listened to it. The story went something along the lines of...

Sparky the kid lives near a railway line and loves to watch his favourite steam train roar by each day, the Train begins to talk to him each day as it passes, but Sparky's parents laugh when he tells them this. Then one awful day a wheel starts to break loose and the desperate Train tells Sparky "left front wheel Sparky, left front wheel" as it speeds by on the brink of disaster. Sparky finally convinces a responsible adult that the wheel is loose and they signal the driver to stop the train and the day is saved

It was a gripping tale with an outcome that always thrilled us.

Growing up I had numerous model railways of various levels of sophistication but as a teen I shunned the pursuit as juvenile and extremely un cool. As a fare paying adult however I kinda rekindled my Iron-horse interest and have enjoyed some great railway journeys in NZ and abroad in Europe, Asia and Africa.

Over the last few years I've begun day dreaming of actually living in a railway carriage.

The idea being to find a dis-used passenger wagon (one from the recently and tragically scrapped North Island service perhaps), have it delivered to a quiet industrial siding in Frankton, kit it out in the fashion of a spacious and robust caravan, move in and proceed to be shunted from one NZ town to another as employment opportunities, season, or whim sees fit.

Think about it now, how great would it be? No rates, no circulars, no mormons and no nosy neighbours. You'd be able to throw the wildest parties coz you'd always be living in industrial areas so there'd be noone to annoy. If you ran out of room you could just buy another carriage. Hell, if your friends bought them too you could hook all your carriages together and move towns together. Bloody brilliant !!!

Kym knows nothing about this yet, and don't tell her, but once I've sorted out the wagon I'll quietly move our leftover household contents into storage one day and have her collected from work in a limousine, taken down to Frankton junction, and we'll be on our way.

I'm sure she'll be very excited. Very Excited !!!


10:02:28 PM  

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Todays Reading...
o Steam motorcycle
o UFO Area: Our Special Reports
o SOA Facts
o xkcd - A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language - By Randall Munroe
o Helen Clarks marijuana speech 1994 Waikato University


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