Any given Saturday 1987. Fishing at the Grandchester Railway Station dam off the wagon ramps. 7am the time would be known and we would meet at the other Boris' Breakfast Club with packed lunches of soggy baked bean sandwiches and squashed bananas in the bottom of the bag. Myself. Kerry. Kris. Damien. Mark. Danny. Ben. Bodie, Graham. Tony. Bobby and Bill. Hours would pass, fish would be caught, fish would be thrown back. Snakes would be spotted along the waterline. Browns. Red-Bellied Blacks. Eel, Catfish, Perch. Yabbies would be caught with bread tied to string. They too were thrown back. Nothing biting then it's a good time for a swim. Skin of our necks and skin of the arms would be cooked, a pain not felt and regretted until next day. Fingers would get hook wounds. Bare feet would tread on sharp rusty shit around the sheds. Stone-bruises galore. Trains would fly on past. Railmotors. Big heavy freight trains. A raft was built using four empty oil drums, plyboard and rope scavenged from around the sheds. And inside one of the workers sheds was a wall. The railway workers had pin-up girl magazine centrefolds plastered all over that wall, all having had their shirts and blouses blown off by a strong wind apparently. A calendar for 1987 with a long-haired blonde playing a saxophone...lo-behold, her shirt had been blown off too. Hooters, hooters, hooters. Al Bundy would have loved it. And when it all got too hot, off to the pub across the road to buy Coke and chips. Home...just before sundown when Monkey Magic and the Goodies came on.
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Unfortunately now the entire site is fence off, Station and platform access included. The sheds are gone along with the ramps and it looks overgrown with vines from a distance. No more Station Master standing out on the platform to collect those rubber loop things the guard on the Railmotor would pass down as the wagon pulled in from Rosewood or Laidley. No guard leaning out the door blowing his whistle that it was A-OK to go. No more passenger trains period. A historical site apparently being the oldest Railway Station in Queensland. One would think being such a Smart State we would have passenger trains connecting two neighbouring cities ie; Ipswich-Rosewood-Grandchester-Laidley-Gatton-Toowoomba. Not since 1993. Mustn't have enough money left in the budget after blowing that mountain of money in endless unwinnable wars that are none of our business and only end up making piles of money for the same power-hungry crooks that tell us there's not enough money in the budget to put on passenger trains.
This scene from just beyond the Station platform facing westwards down the line towards Laidley as a Railmotor is passing the crossing.