Blast from the past
My Father worked as a railway guard for BHP at Whyalla for many years.
He was responsible for loading iron ore onto the train for transport to the shipping facilities at Whyalla
He travelled to and from Whyalla to Iron Knob and Iron Baron daily, and saw the transition from steam locos to diesel locos.
The guards van carried local mail, fresh bread, payroll and other stuff daily to these two towns.
When I was around 8 years old, I went to work with him one day during the school holidays.
The Guard van at the back of the train had seating for about 10 passengers in the rear compartment.
On this particular day, there was an American tourist, loaded with cameras. Dad invited him into our compartment, so he could point out items of interest.
At the Iron Baron flats, 15Km west of Whyalla were many roos, reds in those days.
On this particular day, a big red was propped back on his tail, quite close to the tracks, waiting for the train to pass.
Dad called the guy to the window and pointed to the roo as we approached. He spun the guy a yarn about roos being trained to pick up the mail, and stuff it into their pouch, and take it to a local sheep property.
Out came the cameras, and the guy started snapping away ... Dad pushed past, leaned out the window and screamed "NO MAIL TODAY!"
at which the startled roo turned and hopped away.
Somewhere in America is a series of photos, and a video of the 'kangaroo who met the train to pick up the mail.'