Riding The Cooma Monaro Railway

No riding anymore, just looking at the way train travel used to be through Cooma, a town about an hour south of Canberra. Like a lot of small town train stations, once the rail line in Cooma stopped stopping, the station became a museum.

The railway station exterior. Built in 1889 in the classic, "Railway Gothic" style, it's known as a roadside station.

On the platform side, a cart full of luggage. "I'm not joking, come claim your bag or it's going in the rubbish bin." The stationmaster has a nice office. Map on the wall says where the trains go. Safe by the desk says where the money goes. Keep it all moving...

Leveraging the train movements from inside the signal box shed. Blue is for boy trains, red is for girl trains. Right?

Ugh, so much paperwork. Rules and regulations, engineman's daily report, your identity card, journals, when does it end? At least passengers get to clean up. Who knew little travel soap could be collectible?

The big station water supply tank up on a hill.

Dy-No-Mite! Way out on its own, a box car filled with explosive supplies. The Cooma station is near the big Snowy Mountain Hydro project, a giant engineering complex of dams, reservoirs, power plants. Lots of blowing up mountains and taming rivers.

No trains, no need for a big turntable to keep them organized. Back to weeds.

Dummies Stuck At The Cooma Gaol

You don't have to be stupid to end up at the Corrective Services NSW Museum in Cooma, otherwise known as a gaol (jail). You just need to be made of wax or plastic or rubber or some other creepy material and also be able to hold still forever. Be a dummy.

"Bed check!"

The prison staff is not shown in a heroic light. Gasping guard in too much lipstick and a riot officer, ready to swat. What's with the two fingers, some sort of undercover gang warning?

About to heave in steerage. The museum goes as far back as when England was shipping convicts out to New South Wales.

Fashion mannequin "Gangsta," with cry-baby tear. Sure to appear in a future Calvin Klein show. Haggard visitor.

"Hello Clarice." Having some fun with the solitary confinement, padded cell set. "Have you seen my other arm? Oh, that's right, I ate it."