{"id":80,"date":"2012-09-14T17:16:13","date_gmt":"2012-09-14T07:16:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/janeroutley.com\/?page_id=80"},"modified":"2023-03-01T10:04:03","modified_gmt":"2023-02-28T23:04:03","slug":"station-stories-and-others","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/janeroutley.com\/?page_id=80","title":{"rendered":"Archives"},"content":{"rendered":"

Like many writers I have another (sadly more real) life working as a station host at a Melbourne railway station.\u00a0 I actually love this job and all the public transporty things that come with it.\u00a0 I get to see a microcosm of the world pass through my station every day and thousands\u00a0of little stories unfold for my delectation.\u00a0\u00a0I’ve started sharing\u00a0some of them and a few non-station stories that\u00a0take my fancy on Facebook.\u00a0 <\/em>Why not join me there on my facebook page<\/a>? Or subscribe to my news page to receive new station stories<\/em><\/p>\n

Acid in his pants<\/p>\n

Leaving the train, heard one youth saying to another youth.\u00a0 \u201cSo we poured acid down the front of his pants.\u201d Shudder! Can only hope its a computer game.<\/p>\n

A friend tells me that a blow up sex doll is currently floating in a drain near Lilydale lake, slowly making its way down into the lake (and hence out to sea?)<\/p>\n

Big Issue Birthday<\/p>\n

Sitting on the train yesterday, a sweet little white terrier wrapped its lead around my feet and I got into conversation with its owners.\u00a0 Hard not to, because one of them G\u2014a Big Issue vendor, was offering everyone in the carriage a bite of his KitKat or a swig from his coke.\u00a0 It seemed it was his 57th<\/sup> birthday and he asked everyone for 5 dollars but was good humoured about the refusals.\u00a0 His girlfriend (a similar vintage) told me all about how she had rescued the little white terrier from the puppy farm and how G\u2014wasn\u2019t right in the head since he\u2019d been bashed up during a mugging.\u00a0 She even showed me his bitten off ear.\u00a0 Thus the time passed happily until I reached my stop.<\/p>\n

A scattering of seeds<\/p>\n

This morning even scattering of seeds covered the entire length of\u00a0 Platform 2 as if someone had set out to plant a lawn on the asphalt.\u00a0 I would have loved to know the cause.\u00a0 Artwork? Insanity?\u00a0 The greening of Metro? It was too evenly scattered to be the wind.<\/p>\n

Later in the waiting room a girl with long dread locks was playing a pink ukulele.<\/p>\n

Not a station story<\/p>\n

While I was playing with my niece and nephew in the garden, the cat decided to relive itself in the nearby garden bed.\u00a0 My niece crouched down in fascination hoping to the see the turd exist the animal\u2019s behind.\u00a0 My still crawling nephew scooted over to check out what was going on.\u00a0 I managed to grab him and pull him back just before he lunged under the cats tail.\u00a0 I was the only one worried by the whole incident.<\/p>\n

A naked woman?
\nOne of my workmates tells me that as he was locking up his station at 2.00 am Sunday morning he saw a naked woman get off the last train from the city. She was with a group of friends and walked calmly down the platform and went out. I hope very much that he wasn\u2019t hallucinating. Ah me! Enquiring minds would love to know.<\/p>\n

A butterfly released<\/p>\n

As the 8.14 am pulled in this morning, one of the carriage doors opened and a pair of hands in blue business suit stuck out.\u00a0 The hands parted and a butterfly flew out and free up into the sun.<\/p>\n

On a different note, yesterday a woman came up around 9.00 am complaining that there was beer in the coin return slot.\u00a0 I checked and sure enough it was full of beer.\u00a0 Strange thing was it had probably been there since 6.30 am (and before) when I had tidied up the nights beer bottles \u2013 which meant that everyone that morning had collected their change out of a puddle of stale beer AND NOT COMPLAINED.\u00a0 Note to self \u2013 in future check coin return slots. Even the passing school kids who regularly check the coin return slot in hopes of forgotten change had said nothing.<\/p>\n

Christmas at a station<\/p>\n

So its Christmas time again and this year my work mate has encouraged me into a frenzy of Christmas activities.\u00a0 ( I told her it was great to have kids around at this time of year and even though she\u2019s only 21 she wasn\u2019t v appreciative of this.\u00a0 I wonder why not? J ) We have decorated the station with tinsel (up high so that it can\u2019t be stolen when we\u2019re not there. (oh the black hearts of some people. They WILL steal your tinsel if they can) and she is wearing a Santa hat of surpassing furriness.\u00a0 It falls to me to wear the reindeer ears (the senior partner gets the toughest job)\u00a0 I have three sets which I vary.\u00a0 The set with the bells is my favourite but its structurally unsuited to windy conditions so sometimes I have to wear a shorter pair.\u00a0 I have yet to wear all three at once.\u00a0 Should I?\u00a0 Xmas is a time for the big questions.<\/p>\n

The poster men<\/p>\n

The Holiday season seems pretty much over with the trains full of people who don\u2019t have children on school holidays. Today was as similar and as different as any day here. While my workmate and I were discussing the rights and wrongs of arresting whaling protestors and the Kardashians predilection for oil enemas (Gah!) the JD Ceaux Street furniture man showed up to change our poster. Then another showed up and another until there were four.\u00a0 We were worried that our offering them cups of tea may have lead to our having racy reputations among the JD Ceaux poster community but it turned out that three of them were there to change over a broken poster case for a newer and beauter one with extra back lighting.<\/p>\n

Retired Jazz Baker<\/p>\n

The retired jazz pianist showed up and brought us chocolate cake.\u00a0 He likes to cook but lacks sufficient cake eaters at home and we like to be public spirited here. Another lady brought us delicious peaches from her garden. The smiling lady told us she was off for a medical procedure.\u00a0 The walking frame lady was off for her doctor\u2019s appointment. A very elegant lady got of the train and told us that a man reading aloud from Koran with a big bag clasped in his arms had give her the hebbe gebbes.<\/p>\n

The lawyer’s new wife<\/p>\n

We checked out the tall lawyer\u2019s new wife.\u00a0 Late last year he and the kiosk man were having one of those annoying conversations men have. You know the kind –<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m getting married next week.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou poor bastard.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lucky bastard you mean!\u00a0\u00a0 She was A TOTAL DISH! and seemed very sweet.<\/p>\n

You have to be tough to work on the railways<\/p>\n

The local mental health issue came round scrounging. I never buy him anything, but the Sudanese cleaner often buys him a coke.\u00a0 The LMHI is my one man campaign against smoking.\u00a0 You can\u2019t light up anywhere around the station without him asking you for a smoke.\u00a0 His size and the tattoes on his face make him look scary and he tends to leer at the nice looking women customers but if you get aggressive at him, he backs down. I\u2019ve known him for almost five years now and he\u2019s never done anything bad, unless you count the leering and the dancing and loudly singing along with his walkman. He\u2019s like a big chaotic dog.\u00a0 Everyone knows him.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know you love me,\u201d he says today.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot after yesterday,\u201d I tell him.<\/p>\n

Yesterday he was leering too loudly at the female passengers and I told him to stop bugging them as I often do. So he mooned me.\u00a0 A low moment and before my sustaining plate of breakfast porridge too. You have to tough to work on the railways<\/p>\n

\u201cCome on,\u201d he says.\u00a0 \u201cMy girlfriend says I\u2019ve got the best arse around.\u201d\u00a0 And he swishes off to platform two where he continues to tell me that I love him. Guess that\u2019s me outed.<\/p>\n

Funny thing is he has a girlfriend, a new one every other month.<\/p>\n

Station Story<\/p>\n

Getting off at my own station a young man is hanging around asking for 2 dollars.\u00a0 He\u2019s the same guy I saw the day before staggering off a train with a plastic bag full of paint leaving behind a carriage full of paint fumes and middle class shock.\u00a0 Chroming is not illegal, but it can\u2019t be good for you.\u00a0 Nor can it be a great high.\u00a0 I suspect its mostly a testimony to the Chromers poverty. Chromers aren\u2019t dangerous, but once I was standing on my work station and the train couldn\u2019t go because the customers were holding the doors and refusing to travel any further with the chromer in the carriage with them.\u00a0 The smell of paint was eyestinging and they wanted me to throw the chromer off. The testy train driver came and did the job for me in the end.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust let her go on the next train,\u201d said my Station Master when I called to ask what to do about her.\u00a0 So I did.\u00a0 She was well known at our junction station and if she got too difficult, the police would come and drive her home.\u00a0 I say was because she\u2019s passed away now.<\/p>\n

Station Story<\/p>\n

Either it\u2019s boringly quiet at a station or everything happens at once.\u00a0 Yesterday just after the Station Master arrived for his daily check-on-the-staff visit, the next train was cancelled without warning and we had to run the gauntlet of disgruntled customers.\u00a0 Added to this the Local Mental Health Issue started yelling from Platfrom 2 that we were missing out because he was dedicating himself to his current girl friend, a man wanted a glass of water to take some medication and in the middle of all that the Crystal Lady came up and asked if we had any nail polish because it was her first day in sandals for the summer and her toes nails looked ratty.\u00a0 I guess my dark red nail polish prompted this request which on the whole is a pretty typical one for the Crystal Lady.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s very sweet older woman who deals in New Age things and who goes down the line most days to take her arthritic elderly dog for coffee at the local dog friendly caf\u00e9 Of course I hadn\u2019t bought nail polish to work, but just last week some one left of those clear plastic make up bags on he platform and since no one had turned up looking for it we\u2019d figured we\u2019d throw it out sometime soon. So we figured theCrystallady might as well have any nail polish that was in the bag and after the next train finally cleared the platform, we took a look to see.\u00a0 We didn\u2019t find any nail polish but what we did find hidden in a plastic bag was a tiny little miniature Johnny Walker bottle which had been beautifully turned into a bong.\u00a0 A lovely delicate piece of street work.\u00a0 Shame about its use and the fact that it stank of nicotine.<\/p>\n

Station Stories<\/p>\n

A busy day \u2013 first a lost purse, then when the 8.52 came in, a group of passengers beckoned me over to their door and thrust what looked like a white stuffed toy at me.\u00a0 It turned out to be an unspeakably cute and woolly little terrier who had got on the train by himself a few stations earlier.\u00a0 Dogs do this and then when they get off they\u2019re too far from home to find their way back.\u00a0 I had a feeling I\u2019d seen this one before.\u00a0 He was very friendly and jumpy. I searched for something to tie him up. Since I\u2019ve lately been working with people who will insist on throwing everything out, all I could come up with was Christmas wrapping ribbon which is however extremely strong.\u00a0 I rang the council ranger, gave the doggy some water and left him tied up at the station entrance under the eye of the kiosk men where he proceeded to charm everyone.\u00a0 I went inside to eat some breakfast and when I came out 15 minutes later he was gone, wrapping ribbon and all.\u00a0 Even the kiosk men have no idea what happened. But when I rang the ranger I learned he\u2019d been safely collected.<\/p>\n

Station Story<\/p>\n

Today the Crystal lady was in great distress (although not willing to miss her train) because she had dropped a container of freshly made organic peanut butter on the train tracks.\u00a0 I leapt in to help like the hero station host I\u00a0 am.\u00a0 Although these days railway employees are forbidden to enter the Pit (this is the evocative name we rail types use for the area of train track between the platforms) I do have a Scoopy Thing.\u00a0 This thing, which is a plastic milk bottle cut in half and attached to a pole, created by some great hero station officer of times past, enables me to fish all kinds of things mostly mobile phones safely out of the Pit.The ST performed admirably but to be honest, I\u2019m not sure the Crystal Lady will want the peanut butter as the jar has a big germ emitting crack in it.\u00a0 Still that\u2019s her decision for tomorrow.<\/p>\n

Station Story<\/p>\n

Last July someone scattered seeds over platform two.\u00a0 My workmate Mel swept some of the seeds into the pit (the railway track between the platforms.) and the spring winds did the rest.\u00a0 Over the past mild rainy year a field of grass has grown up between the tracks, a sward of tender green that waves elegantly in the wake of the passing trains.\u00a0 So we are very happy to announce that this year someone or something has sprinkled seed on Platform 2 again.\u00a0 Thank you whoever you are.<\/p>\n

Station Story<\/p>\n

Last week I admired the picture of Bender from Futurama on a customer\u2019s tee-shirt.\u00a0 She grinned at her partner and said, \u201cYes and he\u2019s on our wedding cake too!\u201d<\/p>\n

Not a station story<\/p>\n

During a routine X-ray I got chatting to the nurse.\u00a0 We started talking about a recently deceased old family friend of hers.\u00a0 \u201cHe was a lovely man and so funny.\u00a0 He used to love our toilet.\u00a0 I had ballet dancing statues on the cistern and he used to always complain that he wasn\u2019t used to urinating in from of ballet dancers.\u00a0 Oh dear!\u00a0 Every time I clean the toilet now I think of him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Station Story<\/p>\n

In October 2012 I was redeployed to a new station near Melbourne Zoo.\u00a0 Its a much more tourist focused kind of job.\u00a0 On the one hand I really miss all my old friends at my previous station especially Haci the kioskman and my lovely partner, Mel.\u00a0Over 6 years I’ve got to know a lot about the people in my area and now\u00a0I’ll never\u00a0find out whether the Malyasian lady had a boy or a girl.\u00a0 On the other hand there are consolations in working to the sound of monkeys hooting and lions huffing and the hours are much better.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Station stories<\/p>\n

I have to say it\u2019s not as exciting at my new station.\u00a0 This weeks highlight<\/p>\n

A kinder class coming home after a zoo trip.\u00a0 They always have one adult per two children and adults always sit them firmly down on the waiting room bench and stand over the sweet little kids as if they were prison guards at Guantanmo bay.\u00a0 They are clearly terrified (understandably) of losing a child. This week brought a particularly smart kinder teacher who kept her charges happy by playing a singing game with them.\u00a0“Willaby Wallaby Woo, An elephant sat one [add the name of the pupil whose name rhymes with the last word]” etc.\u00a0 Good work that teacher! Give her a raise.\u00a0 A big improvement on one I had later in the week, who after a day at the Zoo with a group of vigourous ten years olds, had clearly lost the will to live (not that I blame her) so that I had to be the one to prevent them from pressing the red button (more than three times) and making the myki software crash. Still it is a bit vanilla.\u00a0 Could it be that I miss the Local Mental Health Issue? Surely not!<\/p>\n

Station Story<\/p>\n

The male lion in the zoo has been expressing his dominance lately by roaring at midday – astonishing to think that a flesh and blood body little bigger in volume than a humans can produce such mighty huffs of sound.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Noisy Miner<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Out on the platform I have my own dominant wildlife.\u00a0 A couple of clans of noisy miners (a native bird of great aggression and personality) live in the trees above platform 2.\u00a0 They share this territory with some magpies. Recently the two sets of birds drove off an unfortunate crested pigeon which had the cheek to come into their territory with great determination and a lot of lost feathers.\u00a0 They are quite fearless – willing to come up to your very shoe in order to pick bits of jelly bean and potato chip off the platform.\u00a0 They can\u2019t manage big pieces with their little beaks so I crush any large chunks of chip or biscuit with my feet so they can eat them up.\u00a0 This doesn\u2019t mean the ungrateful little sods recognize my right to be there.\u00a0 They fly through the waiting room, little grey missiles with pointed yellow nose cones.\u00a0 I\u2019m not sure whether they are dive-bombing me or not, but sometimes they come so close their wings brush me so it\u2019s hard not to take it personally.<\/p>\n

Station story<\/p>\n

A very strange figure got off the train around 3pm on the opposite platform a couple of weeks ago. As it tottered down the station towards me it proved to be a woman in a long red evening dress, her dark hair covered with the hood that was part of the dress.\u00a0 Black high heels completed the ensemble.\u00a0 She stopped at a bin to throw out a bottle and to light a cigarette.\u00a0 I\u00a0\u00a0couldn’t help\u00a0staring so she waved and said hello.\u00a0 Assuming she\u2019d been out all night, I said \u201cDid you have a good evening?\u201d and she said something about the races and tips.\u00a0 Then as she came even with me I saw that she was wearing a false arm, which she held very realistically but you could see the arm and straps across her back under the sleeveless dress.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m 38 and about to become a grandmother,\u201d she yelled cheerily at me.\u00a0 My 20 year old is pregnant.”\u00a0 What more else could I yell back but \u201cCongratulations.\u201d Oh, if only I could know the backstory here.<\/p>\n

Station Story<\/p>\n

The Zoo is very busy at the moment and hence the station is also busy.\u00a0 One family \u2013 granny, mother and daughter stood out for me, because it was Granny who was covered in tatts.\u00a0 As she got on the train I saw that they were all the faces of cats.\u00a0 Were they memorials to all the cats she\u2019d owned in her life, I wonder?<\/p>\n

Station Stories<\/p>\n

The Royal Melbourne Hospitals\u2019 mobility unit is just nearby and so one of the \u201cfeatures\u201d of my new station is people with missing limbs.\u00a0 I have made friends with a young one legged Palestinian man who pushes round a wheelchair so that he can rest while he gets used to his new leg.\u00a0 Yesterday he showed me a list of new names he is making.\u00a0 Apparently the people he sees daily can\u2019t manage his real name so he trying to work out what to change it too.\u00a0\u00a0Since his\u00a0real name is the same as a well known Australia river I\u2019m not sure what their problem is. I told him they should learn and he said they hadn\u2019t in the year he\u2019d known them so they were unlikely to start now.<\/p>\n

Station Stories<\/p>\n

Yesterday as I walked across the crossing to work, a car screamed up and a woman leapt out and rushed into the station.\u00a0 The driver, who turned out to be a parking inspector, told me that when she\u2019d got out of the train at the previous stop, her 8 year old daughter hadn\u2019t made it in time and had been left on the train.\u00a0 He\u2019d driven her down to our station where a family had taken the missing child under their wing. Mother and daughter had been tearfully reunited by the time I reached the waiting room.<\/p>\n

As I was preparing to leave work, a man with two huge sticks got out of the train. They turned out not to be wizards staffs but fire sticks and he was looking for a nice big piece of parkland to practice his fire stick spinning in.\u00a0 Thinking he\u2019d terrify the golfers I directed him to a nearby oval. Such a useful Jane.<\/p>\n

Station Stories Feb 2013<\/p>\n

Plastic Dog Sausage Lust.<\/p>\n

Last Friday picked up a shopping bag containing one zoo T Shirt, one dog toy consisting of a string of grinning toy sausages and one Incredible Hunk mobile phone cover.\u00a0 Put it in lost property where it will probably go in the brotherhood bin if unclaimed.\u00a0 But I was seriously tempted to make off with the dog toy which was cute. [Later I took a closer look at the T Shirt which proved to bear the immortal legend “A blow job is better than no job” Call me middle-aged, but who would wear this?!!<\/p>\n

Station Stories<\/p>\n

The man who whizzed unwisely<\/p>\n

My station in middle of the Royal Melbourne Golf Course and the golf course maintenance men whizz around the place in their ride on mowers.\u00a0 Unfortunately one of them whizzed unwisely over the railway crossing and one of the mower wheels fell off.\u00a0 First thing I knew about it, three maintenance men were struggling to push\/pull it off the tracks.\u00a0 I stood there gawping for a time until I realized that my duty in this instance was to call Central and warn the oncoming trains.\u00a0 Hard to take a ride-on-mower seriously as a vehicle but it could probably stop a train.\u00a0 Fortunately by then someone had bought up the Gold Courses Bobcat and the mower was quickly dragged off.\u00a0 The mower was scooting around happily the following day so no real harm done. They have better toys then me, the golf course maintenance men. I\u2019m just happy to have a brush and shovel with a long handle.<\/p>\n

Giant tortoises ate my bush<\/p>\n

Now here\u2019s an appropriate Story for a Zoo Station. Yesterday two Zoo Keepers showed up on Platform 2 and started chopping branches off the mirror bush. When I asked them what they were up to they told me that they regularly harvest this bush because apparently the Giant Tortoises just Luuuuv mirror bush leaves – their favourite treat.\u00a0 The Keepers are happy when people ring them up to ask them to take the bushes out of their garden too.\u00a0 I should perhaps mention that mirror bush is something of a weed in Melbourne.<\/p>\n

Station Stories<\/p>\n

An ordinary day<\/p>\n

Well the lady who told me all about how the CIA were tracking her via her MYKI travelcard and bombarding her with infrared rays was<\/em> unusual (though not as unusual as you might think.)\u00a0 I wish there was someone you could inform about such people so that they\u00a0could be\u00a0brought in to have their medication reassessed before they got into trouble.<\/p>\n

Anyway after she left I had a chat with some Canadian tourists about Vancouverand some people from Cairnswho thought Melbournians were wimps about humidity.\u00a0 The nice Mediterranean lady with the husky voice came by and gave me a chocolate Easter bunny for my niece and nephew.\u00a0 This lady travels 3 hours on the train five days a week to look after her very sick sister.\u00a0 And they say no one cares about family anymore (mind you they\u2019ve been saying it in every generation since the ancient Greeks.)<\/p>\n

Later a train was cancelled (more unusual than you might expect) But the atmosphere in the waiting room remained good because of the small toddler wearing pink fairy wings who tottered around cutely offering everyone her water bottle and eliciting gooshy smiles from onlookers including yours truly.\u00a0 (I should keep a good humoured toddler in stock for just such moments or maybe I could organize get some sent over from the Zoo. They always seem to have an enormous number there.)<\/p>\n

Beer for Dummies<\/p>\n

I made a new \u201cfriend\u201d today. A young guy in his 30\u2019s who was clearly under the influence of alcohol and carrying a large water bottle containing a liquid that looked and smelt like white wine, saw my uniform and came over and shook my hand.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019ve just moved into the area,\u201d he said. He was on his way to Narcotic Anonymous and showed me the track marks on his arm. We got on the train together. He was a pleasant guy but of course no inhibitions, so he admired the redhaired girl on the next seat very loudly.\u00a0 Then he noticed the cute baby opposite.\u00a0 \u201cThat\u2019s a cute baby,\u201d he said.\u00a0 \u201cAnd well-behaved too.\u00a0 When I was his age my father put beer on my dummy (pacifier) to keep me quiet.\u00a0 Probably not the best idea\u201d<\/p>\n

Exploding preconceptions<\/p>\n

One of the things I like about train travel is the way that exposure to the public explodes your preconceptions.<\/p>\n

Like the other day when the Chinese-looking family I was sitting next to, started speaking to each other in fluent german, completely disproving my assumptions about their country of origin. They were three adults and two little children and the youngest in her pram was wailing with that tired whine of the exhausted toddler.\u00a0 A Skippy guy standing over by the door, who with his long beard, tatts and Harley Davidson hoodie was clearly identifiable as a bikie, surprised me, when as the mother turned pram around to face him, started making those wide eyed goo-goo faces that helpful adults make to distract crying children.\u00a0 Somehow he hadn\u2019t struck me as the type to care for either Asians or babies.<\/p>\n

Punk rockers 30 years later.<\/p>\n

Well Johnny Rotten does butter commercials now.\u00a0 But yesterday I was harangued on the station\u2019s failure to provide toilets (apparently it\u2019s a plot to encourage people to pee in the park so the cops can fine them) by a fifty + year old man with jelled up hair in a sex pistols t-shirt complete with tears and safety pins.\u00a0 Maintain your rage people.\u00a0 But don\u2019t then smoke a pipe and chat to your family while waiting for the train.\u00a0 Somehow it doesn\u2019t fit the image.<\/p>\n

The mix<\/p>\n

This weekend they have track works near North Melbourne station which means yours truly has been working persuading sleeping drunks off trains (funny how often drunks tell you they love you) and directing people to replacement buses.\u00a0 The buses a bit to the left are the buses for the costumed folk going to the Supernova SF media convention.\u00a0 The buses further to the left are for the conservatively dressed people going to the races.\u00a0 Have been giggling to myself about how delicious it might be if the two groups got mixed up.<\/p>\n

Early morning station stories<\/p>\n

Its hard to get up early for a 5 am start, but the pre-dawn sky is beautiful and speckled with stars and beyond the wall the docks are alive with lights as small vehicles rush up and down and cranes slide into place with stately precision.<\/p>\n

The station is beautifully quiet and calm until around 6am, when we hear a strange slurred voice shouting \u201clet me out let me out.\u201dDown on the empty platform a man in a red t-shirt is standing screaming up at the sky to be let out and released from all these black people and women.\u00a0 We collect on the concourse and peer down at him, one woman, some three Indians, one Indian woman.\u00a0 He\u2019s not trapped in the station, he could easily leave but whether from substances or psychosis he\u2019s in a reality of his own. This is clearly a situation beyond station staff and one of us calls the police. But even we call a train comes in. An unfortunate young African man gets out of the train right into the face of red t-shirt.\u00a0 Red tshirt stands over him abusing him until the train bell sounds.\u00a0 Red tshirt then forces the door and jumps on and is whisked away to an outer suburb where hopefully the police will pick him up. We wait at the top of the stairs sighing with relief, grateful that no violence occurred and as the unfortunate young African comes up, I apologize to him.\u00a0 I could have killed him if I wanted says the boy stiffly.\u00a0 You did the right thing I tell him and he seems mollified, pride soothed.<\/p>\n

Station Story for Autumn May\u00a02013<\/p>\n

Small parrots have gathered round the station to harvest the autumn grass seeds and their green and yellow plumages stands out against the grey autumn sky like streaks of colorization in a black and white film.\u00a0 A group of Spanish ladies with little English take such interest in my work boots – are the soles hard, are the toes steel caped – that I suspect them of being Occupational Health and Safety consultants on holiday.<\/p>\n

Local Characters<\/p>\n

Last week I filled in for the man who goes out every day to checks the unmanned stations for faults and cleanliness.\u00a0 Several times I came across one of the local \u201ccharacters\u201d Sometimes this huge square man in boxing shorts stands round chatting to people but when he\u2019s got no one to talk to he squirts spray paint into a shopping bag, inhales the fumes and after he\u2019s done that he talks to no one.<\/p>\n

\u201cBro bro, we should start a boxing gym,\u201d he says. Having this huge guy standing next to you swaying and talking to space is not the most comfortable experience.<\/p>\n

If the stations seem grotty it\u2019s not because they\u2019re neglected.\u00a0 They\u2019re all cleaned twice a day.\u00a0 \u201cDo you know that big guy who chromes,\u201d I ask the grey-haired Macedonian guy who cleans our line.\u00a0 \u201cSure.\u00a0 I call him Buffalo,\u201d he says and starts laughing.\u00a0 \u201cHe\u2019s harmless.\u00a0 I tease him sometimes.\u00a0 Did you go pee pee in this corner? I say. He gets so embarrassed and apologizes even though he didn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

It seems that Buffalo like most weird people on the train is not as dangerous as he seems but I don\u2019t think I\u2019ll put that one to the test- just in case.<\/p>\n

\n
Station story
\nA young man with an English accent and a guitar gets off the train and asks me the way to the walking path towards Jewel station. We get talking and he tells me he\u2019s meeting a woman in the park halfway between the stations. They\u2019ve met on Facebook and decided to get together and play their guitars. The weather changes and he\u2019s back a couple of hours later. \u201cDid you find her?\u201d I ask. \u201cYes,\u201d he says. \u201cWe had a couple of hours good playing songs up there. We should be able to get a performance together.\u201d<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\n

Station Story August 2013<\/p>\n

I\u2019m back from the warmth of far North Queenslandto a week of working with chill winds nipping at my ankles and people fibbing to me about why they failed to validate their tickets.\u00a0 (yes I do feel slightly bitter) The cleaner had to pour water into one of the wheelie bins to stop a cigarette butt fire.\u00a0 The following morning he was pottering round the station, changing the garbage bags and rolling the watery wheelie bin to the edge of the pit and pouring the water onto the tracks.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook at him,\u201d sneered a 14 year old schoolboy standing near me.\u00a0 \u201cHis parents must be really proud of him.\u201d\u00a0 I was so shocked at this snobbery I glared at the boy and he saw me. I\u2019m glad he did. It probably said more than all the witty ripostes I later thought of. Because, really, a more decent bloke than our cleaner you couldn\u2019t hope to find. How could his parents not be proud?<\/p>\n

Rainy day customers<\/p>\n

Yesterday was rainy but the customers were good. An elderly man who told terrific jokes, a lady who showed me pictures of the banana pancakes she made for her pets and a man in a wheelchair. “I’ve just walked for the first time in 6 years,” he cried bubbling over with joy. We talked of the pleasures of being 6 foot tall and able to look people in the face again.<\/p>\n

Umbrellas<\/p>\n

We always pick up a lot of lost umbrellas at the station and its kind of practice to hand them on to other people during rain. On a day of pouring rain a man in a suit came to the station door and asked the way to a nearby conference centre. Its ten minutes walk away I say. Would you like one of our lost umbrellas. We happen to be a bit light on that day but he’s happy to take what he’s offered and goes off into the rain a man in a suit carrying a little clear plastic bell umbrella covered in clear flowers.<\/p>\n

The singer<\/p>\n

Heard singing from the waitingroom and tentatively stuck my head in fearing drunkenness or mental health issues. Surprised a young man in black, ipod buds in ears standing legs spread, hand on stomach and imaginary microphone pressed to his lips off in his own world concert.<\/p>\n

The problems with little dogs<\/p>\n

My friend in the wheelchair was back again this week, thrilled about the fact that his Chihuahua has had pups. He showed me pictures of these tiny little dogs and said it was a bit of a worry having seven very small dogs, most of them pups, racing round in front of his wheel chair \u2013 so he keeps a kitchen spatula handy so that he can nudge them out of the way when he moves.<\/p>\n

Police.<\/p>\n

A very distressed-looking middle-aged man was sitting in the platform 2 waiting-room while three policemen stood over him with the nonchalant grace of the young, strong and fit.\u00a0 Their Greek god beauty took my breath away, but their intentions were entirely benign.\u00a0 They\u2019d found him drunk and asleep on the train and since he had nowhere to go, they were waiting for an ambulance, which I guess would transport him back (hopefully) into the social safety net.\u00a0 In the meantime they listened patiently to him rave and at one point took him round the back of the waiting room and help him upright while he had a pee.(Were they humiliated or unfazed by this small necessary service, I wonder? )\u00a0\u00a0 I\u2019ve often seen police caring for life\u2019s casualties, buying food for junkies etc and its oddly confronting to my left-wing preconceptions. Another homeless man who got off the train didn\u2019t see this scene as benign.\u00a0 Galvanized into memoir, he sat down on his shopping trolley and started writing in a notebook in big red letters.\u00a0 When I peeped over his shoulder, he was writing about being bashed and in between that describing the other people on the platform.\u00a0 A less structured version of what I\u2019m doing now.\u00a0 After everyone had gone, I went over to Platform 2 to tidy away the drunk\u2019s bottle and was startled to discover he\u2019d been drinking our favourite medium priced Cab Sav.<\/p>\n

Into the pit<\/p>\n

Arrived at my supervising station to find a battered looking visually impaired man sitting in the staff room.\u00a0 He\u2019d fallen into the pit (on to the tracks) Though he was badly bruised, he was fairly fatalistic about the fall, but this station is extremely busy and the chances of his being run over high, so if anything the station staff were more shaken then he was.\u00a0 They\u2019d rushed around at top speed, stopping the trains and pulling him out before an unlucky accident became a tragedy.<\/p>\n

Locomotives<\/p>\n

Got chatting with a man on the platform who told me he\u2019d been working for a rail freight company that had recently closed down.\u00a0 \u201cGive you an example of why,\u201d he said.\u00a0 When one of their locamotives broke down they payed me overtime to drive a car toNewcastleand stay overnight to pick up the part.\u00a0 Said trains were too unreliable.<\/p>\n

Station Story<\/p>\n

In which Jane\u2019s dignity is sorely compromised<\/em><\/p>\n

How?\u00a0 By being locked in the toilets, is how.\u00a0 Someone shut the bolt outside the door and it took 10 minutes of rattling the door and yelling \u201chelp let me out!\u201d before a rather bemused looking backpacker opened the bolt and did so.\u00a0 Who was the culprit? Were they malicious or just being tidy? Or one of the number of children on the station at the time? It was a reminder to me to carry my mobile phone in my pocket so at least I could call someone from the central station to take the train down and let me out. Strange thing is it turns out everyone\u2019s been locked in a toilet sometime.<\/p>\n

Sunflowers<\/p>\n

A couple of weeks ago, I noticed that the piece of waste land where people were living in tents had undergone a change. The number of tents has dwindled to one and a half.\u00a0 An artist has come along and sown it with sunflowers. And they are now coming into bloom.\u00a0 So if you are travelling between FlemingtonBridgeand Macaulay keep an eye out to the left.\u00a0 I asked the artist how the guys in the tents felt about the art work and he said they were basically cool with it but felt a bit exposed when the initial work was done.\u00a0 The artists name is Ben Morieson. The work is called Fieldwork and here is his diary of the project http:\/\/ben900.wix.com\/fieldwork<\/a><\/p>\n

The little old man<\/p>\n

A little old man regularly takes the train two stations down the line to check the past use-by sale bins at the local supermarket.\u00a0 His wizened face is the colour and texture of a dried fig, he always has a rollie sticking out of his mouth, and his dusty black baseball cap is on backwards.\u00a0 Over the year, he\u2019s given me a number out-of-date yoghurts and mars bars.\u00a0 Alas his heavy Greek accent is almost incomprehensible to me.\u00a0 I know the conversation always starts with the weather but then??? After a few minutes of him talking and me nodding and smiling, he pulls a wry face as if he\u2019s told me the punch line of a joke (maybe he has) and darts quickly off as if avoiding a scolding. He sometimes leaves little piles of bread and noodles for the birds.\u00a0 What I don\u2019t understand is why he doesn\u2019t take the noodles out of the packets.<\/p>\n

The lost child<\/p>\n

Occasionally it happens.\u00a0 A mother struggles out onto the platform with a pram or a child, the second child is a bit slow in following, the train may be late, the visibility is poor, the door slams shut and the train takes off with the unaccompanied child inside.<\/p>\n

In an American crime drama, something sinister would ensue, but in the real world there is still a lot of Benign about.<\/p>\n

In the 2 mins it took for the train to reach my station, a kindly couple had taken the screaming child under their wing, red buttons had been pushed and everyone was on top of the situation.\u00a0 An anxious train driver rushed down the train and oversaw the couple handing the lost little girl over to me.<\/p>\n

She was a dear little thing in a pink dress who told me that she was four years old.\u00a0 Once I\u2019d reassured her that mummy would be coming on the next train and given her what presents my station contained \u2013 a bottle of water and an old children\u2019s book \u2013 and promised her that I wouldn\u2019t go away, she settled down quietly to play with the ticket machine.\u00a0 Few little kids can resist that touch screen.\u00a0 Ten minutes later a very relieved mother arrived and took her away – on the tram.<\/p>\n

A poem!
\nToday the staff at my supervising station received a big box of chocs and a poem thanking them for their help in all weathers and wishing them a Happy Year of the Horse. Someone does love us, railway folk after all! (And no the chocs weren’t poisoned, just in case you were going to say that)<\/p>\n

\n
\n
Teleconferencing
\nAlso at the supervising station, a lady\u00a0seemed to be\u00a0teleconferencing with mobile phone and lap top on the bench outside the kiosk for an hour between 7 and 8 until the noise of rush hour got too loud. Then she moved to the corridor outside the insalubrious toilets and teleconferenced
\non the floor there for another half hour. ??????<\/div>\n
An itinerant travel writer talking to her publisher perhaps?<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Diamante Hearts<\/div>\n
\n

A number of street people frequent my station.\u00a0 I think there\u2019s a counselling service nearby.\u00a0 I\u2019ve been very worried about one of my regulars, J. I like J because he is such a gentleman.\u00a0 He always says, \u201cHi how was your day?\u201d in a polite pleasant manner, even when he\u2019s so stoned his eyes don\u2019t focus properly.\u00a0 He\u2019s been chroming (paint sniffing) a lot lately, forever sitting around the station with a plastic bag full of paint shoved over his face.\u00a0 He even got so stoned he fell over in front of a group of primary school children from the outer suburbs and lay there till I went round and helped him up.\u00a0 He cuts himself on the arms and wanders round with blood all over his sleeves.\u00a0 Apparently this is all down to the fact that he\u2019s argued with his girlfriend and she\u2019s \u201cgone away to the farm\u201d without him.\u00a0 But this week he was back, a little stoned, it\u2019s true, but not a plastic bag in sight.\u00a0 \u201cDid you enjoy your Easter?\u201d he asks and he tells me he had pizza and Easter eggs at the pub with his girlfriend so all must be well again. He\u2019s wearing a pair of dark glasses with a diamante heart picked out at the bottom of the right hand lens.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

A number of street people frequent my station.\u00a0 I think there\u2019s a counselling service nearby.\u00a0 I\u2019ve been very worried about one of my regulars, J. I like J because he is such a gentleman.\u00a0 He always says, \u201cHi how was your day?\u201d in a polite pleasant manner, even when he\u2019s so stoned his eyes don\u2019t focus properly.\u00a0 He\u2019s been chroming (paint sniffing) a lot lately, forever sitting around the station with a plastic bag full of paint shoved over his face.\u00a0 He even got so stoned he fell over in front of a group of primary school children from the outer suburbs and lay there till I went round and helped him up.\u00a0 He cuts himself on the arms and wanders round with blood all over his sleeves.\u00a0 Apparently this is all down to the fact that he\u2019s argued with his girlfriend and she\u2019s \u201cgone away to the farm\u201d without him.\u00a0 But this week he was back, a little stoned, it\u2019s true, but not a plastic bag in sight.\u00a0 \u201cDid you enjoy your Easter?\u201d he asks and he tells me he had pizza and Easter eggs at the pub with his girlfriend so all must be well again. He\u2019s wearing a pair of dark glasses with a diamante heart picked out at the bottom of the right hand lens.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Missing partner<\/p>\n

On Friday C, one half of a homeless couple who frequent the station and make a living begging at the local shops, had mislaid her partner M. She came through the station a couple of times all the time worrying, worrying, about M.\u00a0 First she went to the case worker and then to her partner\u2019s step father as he is the contact if the police or hospitals pick up M when he\u2019s drunk or has had an epileptic fit. She wasn\u2019t willing to ring the police directly.\u00a0 She clearly didn\u2019t trust them.<\/p>\n

C and M doss down in an old shed somewhere near the park which they say is nice and dry, thought I was relieved to hear that they have moved in with a friend for the winter.\u00a0 Once when she was a bit drunk, C told me all about her life which seemed to involve abusive by ex-prisoner partners, estranged children and struggles with the State Trustees. She\u2019s short and round and very non-descript looking but on the rare occasions she takes off her beanie, she has beautiful auburn hair. She and M seem very happy together \u2013 a world of their own contained in the small backpack they carry round.\u00a0 I was very glad to see M safe on yesterday when he waved out of the train at me as they were going by.<\/p>\n

Hungover<\/p>\n

A man got off the train and collapsed onto a seat with his face in his hands.\u00a0 When I went over to see if he was alright, he said, \u201cI\u2019m just sooo hungover. I had to get off the train.\u201d\u00a0 Poor thing, he didn\u2019t think he could even keep a glass of water down.\u00a0 Unfortunately he\u2019d chosen the wrong station for a quiet sit down. About 5 mins later 100 cheery school children came over from the Zoo and spread out down the platform<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Like many writers I have another (sadly more real) life working as a station host at a Melbourne railway station.\u00a0 I actually love this job and all the public transporty things that come with it.\u00a0 I get to see a microcosm of the world pass through my station every day and thousands\u00a0of little stories unfold …<\/p>\n

Archives<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":35,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center 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follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/janeroutley.com\/?page_id=80\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Archives — Jane Routley\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Like many writers I have another (sadly more real) life working as a station host at a Melbourne railway station.\u00a0 I actually love this job and all the public transporty things that come with it.\u00a0 I get to see a microcosm of the world pass through my station every day and thousands\u00a0of little stories unfold … Archives Read More »\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/janeroutley.com\/?page_id=80\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jane Routley\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-02-28T23:04:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" 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was born in Melbourne, Australia, went to Preshil, Strathcona, and Monash University where I studied history, and RMIT where I became a Librarian. I've had a variety of careers, including Fruit Picker and Occult Librarian and I lived in Germany and Denmark for a decade. Now I'm back in my beloved Melbourne and working on the railways. I've published 3 books as me including the Aurealis Award winners \\\"Mage Heart\\\" and \\\"Fire Angels\\\" as well as \\\"Aramaya\\\", and one book as Rebecca Locksley - \\\"The Three Sisters\\\". My short stories have been widely anthologized, appeared in Meanjin, and have been read on the ABC. My favourite writers are Jane Austen, Angela Carter, Sara Douglass, and Janet Evanovich. My current life ambition is to see an erupting volcano.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/janeroutley.com\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Archives — Jane Routley","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/janeroutley.com\/?page_id=80","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Archives — Jane Routley","og_description":"Like many writers I have another (sadly more real) life working as a station host at a Melbourne railway station.\u00a0 I actually love this job and all the public transporty things that come with it.\u00a0 I get to see a microcosm of the world pass through my station every day and thousands\u00a0of little stories unfold … Archives Read More »","og_url":"https:\/\/janeroutley.com\/?page_id=80","og_site_name":"Jane Routley","article_modified_time":"2023-02-28T23:04:03+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/janeroutley.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/noisymn_758_big-1024x927.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"38 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/janeroutley.com\/?page_id=80","url":"https:\/\/janeroutley.com\/?page_id=80","name":"Archives — Jane Routley","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/janeroutley.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/janeroutley.com\/?page_id=80#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/janeroutley.com\/?page_id=80#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/janeroutley.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/noisymn_758_big-1024x927.jpg","datePublished":"2012-09-14T07:16:13+00:00","dateModified":"2023-02-28T23:04:03+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/janeroutley.com\/?page_id=80#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/janeroutley.com\/?page_id=80"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/janeroutley.com\/?page_id=80#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/janeroutley.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/noisymn_758_big.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/janeroutley.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/noisymn_758_big.jpg","width":"2007","height":"1818","caption":"Noisy Minah"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/janeroutley.com\/?page_id=80#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/janeroutley.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Archives"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/janeroutley.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/janeroutley.com\/","name":"Jane Routley","description":"Official site for the award winning author.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/janeroutley.com\/#\/schema\/person\/52bbf97934d227f91587b63f31c917c6"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/janeroutley.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":["Person","Organization"],"@id":"https:\/\/janeroutley.com\/#\/schema\/person\/52bbf97934d227f91587b63f31c917c6","name":"JaneRoutley","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9b44c0428b3b57851ae7a9b2d92406e86c70d2b29b2ef9e46b55c1890900fac6?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9b44c0428b3b57851ae7a9b2d92406e86c70d2b29b2ef9e46b55c1890900fac6?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9b44c0428b3b57851ae7a9b2d92406e86c70d2b29b2ef9e46b55c1890900fac6?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"JaneRoutley"},"logo":{"@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9b44c0428b3b57851ae7a9b2d92406e86c70d2b29b2ef9e46b55c1890900fac6?s=96&d=mm&r=g"},"description":"I was born in Melbourne, Australia, went to Preshil, Strathcona, and Monash University where I studied history, and RMIT where I became a Librarian. I've had a variety of careers, including Fruit Picker and Occult Librarian and I lived in Germany and Denmark for a decade. Now I'm back in my beloved Melbourne and working on the railways. I've published 3 books as me including the Aurealis Award winners \"Mage Heart\" and \"Fire Angels\" as well as \"Aramaya\", and one book as Rebecca Locksley - \"The Three Sisters\". My short stories have been widely anthologized, appeared in Meanjin, and have been read on the ABC. My favourite writers are Jane Austen, Angela Carter, Sara Douglass, and Janet Evanovich. 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