The Argus Tuesday 27 March 1855 p. 6.
(From Punch.)
An Australian paper gives an account of the
start—and rather a " rum start" it was—of the
first railway in Australia. The line is called the
Hobson's Bay Line ; and from the account of the
proceedings we should say, that in the case of
Hobson's Bay Hobson's choice lina been realised.
The colony must be satisfied with the best it can
get, though the railway line seems to be something quite out of the line of the Australians, if
we may judge by the description contained in the
following paragraph, extracted from the Sydney
Empire of the 18th of September:
"Sir Charles and Lady Hotham, and a considerable number of the distinguished officials,
having taken their places in the train, which only
consisted of four carriages, the signal was given
to proceed. The steam was turned on, but the
iron-horse would not budge an inch. Great was
the dismay depicted on the face of the engineer
and engine-driver. The valve was opened to its
widest extent, and the pantings of the over laden
steam-horse were quite alarming.
The band of
the 40th struck up a merry tune to hide the confusion, but still the train would not move. Accordingly a whole host of railway porters and
policemen set to work, and pushed it along the
line by main force for a hundred yards, when it
again carne to a dead stop. More police then
came on, and a stout gentleman in a dress-coat,
ready for the banquet, came behind and applied
his shoulder vigorously to the buffer of the last
caring, and at last, by slow degrees, the train
moved, amid shouts of laughter from the assembled thousands in Flinders-street."
This is not exactly the way to go a-head in an
infant colony, and, though the police may be con-
sidercd to embody the great principle implied
in the words " move on !" we do net think " the
force" should be used in applying that principle
to an obstinate railway train. Even the police
however, could not make the Hobson's Bay locomotive "move on !"and it was only when "a
stout gentleman in a dress-coat" applied his
shoulder to "the buffer," and it became a question
of " buffer against buffer," that the train moved
in earnest, and the old buffer triumphed over
the new one.
As it is probable that the stout
party in the dress coat will not be always at
hand to put his shoulder to the wheel of a refractory railway carriage, it is to bo hoped that the Australians will get up their steam a little better
than they did on the inauguration of their first
railway. Later advices are, however, net very
encouraging, for a more recent extract informs
us that.
" As the six o'clock train was leaving Sandridge, a slight derangement occurred, which prevented its progress, so that the passengers had to
alight and walk up to town. The stoppage was
understood to arise from some of the fire-bars
having fallen out, so that the fire could not be
sustained."
What with an engine that won't strike out, and
a fire that won't keep in, we fear that the railway
system must be considered in a state of infancy
or even babyhood, in Australia.
—[We wonder
which of our fellow-colonists was the "stout gentleman" in the dress coat, whom Punch has thus
immortalised.—En. A.]
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